More than 70 State Department officials sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken about “an openly antisemitic department employee” and calling for him to be removed.
“Not only is his propagation of antisemitic ideas highly disturbing and offensive to Jewish and non-Jewish employees alike, but as Jewish employees, we feel his presence at the Department is threatening,” states the letter, which was organized by the Jewish Americans and Friends in Foreign Affairs employee group.
At issue is the continued employment of Fritz Berggren, a U.S. foreign service officer who maintains a website that calls for the formation of Christian nation-states while writing and publishing videos critical of Jews and the LGBTQ community.
The group says the website, bloodandfaith.com, has been online since 2017 and should disqualify Berggren from continued employment.
“Fritz Berggren’s continued employment is an affront to all of us and the values we share. While there may be HR processes underway, they do not appear to be having an impact and are apparently proceeding very slowly as Berggren has been posting this content since at least 2017,” the letter, which was sent to Blinken on July 28, reads.
