A Juno Beach council member resigned last week after a debate with a fellow council member about free speech imploded into a public confrontation over personal memories about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, raising accusations of antisemitism.
The town of about 3,800 residents between North Palm Beach and Jupiter is known for its idyllic beaches, artsy festivals and occasional speed traps. But it has been shaken this year by disputes over development, a bitter mayoral election and the recently appointed town manager’s resignation.
Officials have become further polarized by the critical barbs penned by Concerned Citizens of Juno Beach, an anonymous group behind a widely shared email newsletter.
But it was a dispute between Council Members Marianne Hosta and Jacob Rosengarten over her personal online newsletter that prompted remarks about family connections to one of the darkest periods in history.
Rosengarten had taken a strong stance in favor of the public’s right to criticize the council but drew the line at council members lashing out at the public. He singled out Hosta’s newsletter, which she sends to residents via email.
She’s not alone. All of the council members except Rosengarten issue a newsletter. But Hosta takes swipes at council members and residents in her newsletter. She was also successfully prosecuted this year for physically attacking the former mayor’s wife.
Rosengarten pointed out that residents don’t distinguish between Hosta’s personal views and her views as a council member. He called for a council code of conduct with consequences for violations.
“There’s something to be gained sometimes by actually agreeing to limit your freedoms, if you will, because if we don’t do that it could affect the reputation of our organization,” he said Oct. 23. “Why would citizens think it’s OK for members of council to have weaker standards of behavior than would be tolerated or allowed in the companies they work for?”
Hosta pushed back by recalling the lessons she learned (2-hour, 27-minute mark) as a child growing up in post-World War II Germany.
“The word enforcement just brings back terrible memories,” she said at the Nov. 13 meeting, referring to her birth in Czechoslovakia’s German-occupied Sudetenland in 1945 at the “end of the Nazi regime.”
“I would like to have the freedom of speech for everybody, including me,” she said, turning to Rosengarten. “And to find that restricted by other people. I don’t think they know what they’re talking about. They should have gone through the experiences I went through then they would probably feel different.”
She was interrupted by Rosengarten’s wife, Nancy Wolf, exclaiming from the audience that “you’re talking to a child of Holocaust survivors.” Wolf left the room, telling Hosta on her way out “You’re garbage!”
Rosengarten's response
Rosengarten said nothing until a week later when he raised the issue at a special council meeting (4:30-minute mark) on Nov. 20. He asked for the floor before the meeting began and read deliberately from a prepared statement.
“Since she (Hosta) was facing me as she spoke, I can say that her words are revolting, beyond offensive and demeaning,” he told the council Wednesday. “In fact, I do know what I’m talking about. I am a son of a Holocaust survivor. My father somehow survived Hitler’s death camps until finally freed by the American Third Army. His entire family was murdered in the Holocaust. …
“And so for Marianne to try to correlate the monstrosity of the Holocaust — and what that somehow meant for her childhood years in post-war Germany to the words I suggested about why some light-touch enforcement language in a code of conduct is necessary — is beyond any standard of decency.
“By Marianne’s way of thinking, if I could only understand her special experiences as a youngster growing up in post-war Germany, then I might feel differently about the ongoing right she believes she has to insult residents in her blog without any consequences. …
“Marianne has made it clear that she intends to continue writing future blogs. … I refuse to be part of such an outcome and refuse to be associated with her on council or in any capacity.”
With that, Rosengarten resigned the seat he had held since January, when the council appointed him to fill the unexpired term of Peggy Wheeler, who resigned to run successfully for mayor.
Rosengarten left and Wheeler returned to the meeting’s agenda without entertaining comments.
Both shaped by the war
Rosengarten, 69, a retired accountant and risk manager for financial institutions, has lived in Juno Beach for nine years. His father, Matys, who turned 20 the year Germany invaded Poland, survived five Nazi concentration camps.
Matys shared his memories with the Shoah Foundation in 1996. Rosengarten’s mother, Ruth, was part of the kindertransport of German Jews flown to adopted homes in England before the war.
Hosta, 79, a retired math teacher, has lived in Juno for 10 years. She began blogging about Juno Beach council meetings after attending meetings five years ago and finding few people knew what was going on. She won election to her seat in 2023.
Hosta’s clash at a January campaign event with Bianca Giancoli Cooke, the wife of mayoral candidate Alex Cooke, led to criminal charges. Giancoli Cooke said Hosta injured her finger when she grabbed her cell phone to stop her from videotaping.
Hosta refused settlement offers and went before a jury, which found her guilty Sept. 17 of misdemeanor battery. A county judge required her to take an eight-hour anger management course, perform 30 hours of community service and have no contact with the victim. In exchange, the conviction would not appear on her record.
Hosta described her childhood years as comfortable after her family returned to Germany as part of the mass expulsion of more than 2 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia.
She said it was simply luck that the home for her family fell in the more liberal West Germany. That’s where she said elementary school students were taught the horrors of the Nazi regime through exposure to films and documentaries.
“They always reinforced (that), when you see something that is not right, you must speak up,” she wrote in her newsletter. “It affected me deeply. This mantra is my second nature.”
That’s why, she said, she objected to the enforcement mechanism proposed by Rosengarten.
“I have become a person who doesn’t mince words. I just say it when I see it,” she said in an interview. “When I explained I don’t like the words enforcement because they remind me of terrible things I have seen before, it has been twisted around.”
She added in her newsletter, published hours before Rosengarten’s resignation:
“I am wondering: Are we living in a police state? Is the STASI coming to Juno Beach? Did I immigrate to the USA in 1968 and gain citizenship in 1976, where the terms of ‘freedom and democracy’ are used constantly, only to find leaders of our charming seaside community suddenly rule that I should be quashed when I state facts and reveal my honest opinions?”
Antisemitism?
Her critics at Concerned Citizens for Juno Beach labeled her comments antisemitic.
“This was not a one-time slip; Hosta has repeatedly invoked Nazi rhetoric both in public meetings and private conversations to further her agenda. Her behavior is abhorrent, and her comparison of governance to the atrocities of the Holocaust is not only irrelevant but deeply disturbing and offensive,” Concerned Citizens wrote in its Nov. 22 newsletter.
“We deserve leadership that reflects the values of inclusivity, respect and integrity. Unfortunately, what we are witnessing is nothing short of a dumpster fire fueled by antisemitism and a blatant disregard for residents’ voices.”
They urged residents to contact the Anti-Defamation League, which fights antisemitism.
Hosta took offense at the accusation.
“The worst thing someone can do to me is call me an antisemite,” she said. “That goes so deep to my heart. … It actually physically hurts me.”
Council Member DD Halpern found Hosta’s remarks insensitive and inappropriate.
“She didn’t need to start talking about Nazi Germany. Either you are for a code of conduct or you’re not. … And who was she to tell him how to feel?”
She mourned the loss of Rosengarten.
“We lost the kind of person every council needs. His intellect and moral fabric were important to this council,” she said.
‘An appropriate decision’
Rosengarten also lashed out in his comments at Mayor Wheeler, saying she allowed a flawed culture to flourish.
Wheeler’s insistence on civility at meetings prompted the council’s monthslong examination of decorum. However, her initial approach called for limiting public speakers to eliminate “attacks” on council members, resulting in complaints that she was illegally limiting the public’s right to raise issues in a public forum.
In a statement to Stet, she said that Rosengarten made the right decision.
“We should all be respectful and appreciative of anyone who serves the town of Juno Beach in any capacity, but based on several incidents and the circumstances I believe this was an appropriate decision for Jacob Rosengarten, council member, and his wife Nancy Wolf to resign from her (audit) committee position.
“I also believe it was wrong to take a council member’s statements out of context, turn them 180 degrees to imply a hate speech in a town that has never before had such issues and has always prided itself on being welcoming and open to all.”
Wheeler said the Town Council would discuss steps to appoint Rosengarten’s successor on Dec. 6.
The debate over decorum began after Hosta’s jury verdict.
Resident Andy Spilos, a former Hosta supporter, submitted written comments to the council citing the court’s findings and demanding Hosta resign her seat. After his comments were censored, he returned at the next meeting to read the comments into the record only to be interrupted by Wheeler and leave in frustration.
The result, Rosengarten suggested in an interview, is damaging to the town’s democratic principles. It helps explain the willingness of critics to seek anonymity to raise issues, he said.
“We have to learn how to disagree with each other,” Rosengarten said. “If you insult people they stop coming and they stay hidden. They still have the same feelings but you’re just creating these pressure valves.
“Here we had a jury verdict,” he said, lamenting that the mayor blocked residents from discussing Hosta’s legal troubles during public comment.
“Did that make for more cordiality in our town or less?” he asked. “Less,” he said, answering his own question.
“People went underground. That’s why the First Amendment is so important to create some type of equilibrium in communities. It’s not pleasant but I think it makes us better.”
Read a transcript of Rosengarten’s remarks to the council here.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
