Hitler remark roils Taunton

A Taunton School Committee member with a history of berating colleagues and the district superintendent at meetings has sparked an outcry by calling a Jewish board member Hitler and allegedly giving him the Nazi salute.

Alfred Baptista , who has been on the board for 22 years, stood up and said "Yes, heil Hitler. Sieg heil" to committee member Barry Cooperstein , who had admonished him for interrupting and yelling at district superintendent Arthur W. Stellar.

The remark and the alleged gesture, made at a meeting Wednesday night, has drawn intense criticism and has led to calls for Baptista to apologize publicly or resign. School and city officials said they received dozens of complaints about the exchange, which the Anti-Defamation League called "deeply offensive."

"The use of Holocaust imagery during a public meeting in this context demeans the memory of the six million Jews and others who died at the hands of the Nazis," James L. Rudolph , chairman of the league's regional board, and Andrew H. Tarsy , regional director, wrote in a letter to Baptista calling for him to apologize. "Comments like this are indicative of a misunderstanding of the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime and are deeply offensive."

"Sieg heil," which means "Hail victory," was a common Nazi chant.

The Taunton Daily Gazette, which first reported the encounter last week, has called for Baptista's resignation and Mayor Charles Crowley has demanded a public apology. The City Council plans to vote on a resolution condemning the remarks and apologizing to Cooperstein and Jewish residents at a meeting tomorrow.

In a phone interview yesterday, Baptista said he deeply regretted the remarks and had not meant any harm.

"It was a very unfortunate choice of words, and I feel terrible about it," he said. "I'm not a racist, I'm not an anti-Semite. "

He said he did not make a Nazi salute, but was gesticulating. Baptista said he was angry at the way Cooperstein was running the meeting.

"I probably should have said, 'Stop being a dictator,' " he said.

Baptista said he believes some people have misconstrued his remarks and that he does not intend to resign. He said he has received a number of calls of support from people who said they understood he misspoke.

Cooperstein, who is Jewish, said he has frequently clashed with Baptista.

"He had interrupted the superintendent and was yelling at him in a loud bullying voice," he said. "I asked him to stop, and he turned his anger on me. It's typical behavior toward anyone he disagrees with. This has a long history."

Cooperstein declined to comment on whether the remark was meant as an anti-Semitic slur but said that Baptista has a history of "humiliating people in public."

Cooperstein said Baptista was arguing with Stellar over how many nurses the district needed to hire for the upcoming school year. The committee did not discuss the exchange at the meeting.

City Councilor David Pottier said he believed the remark was racially biased because Cooperstein is an observant Jew.

Pottier said he was shocked that members of the School Committee had not denounced the remarks more firmly. Some members have said that Baptista's comments were not meant to be anti-Semitic but were made in anger over being told to wait his turn to speak.

But board member Cathal O'Brien said the remark was offensive regardless of intent. O'Brien said he hopes the board discusses the episode at its meeting Wednesday since it did not react at the time.

"It was kind of surreal, and as it sinks in you get more upset," he said. "What bothers me is that we didn't address it at the time. Looking back, I feel guilty about that."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.