Azi for Skokie?

Before sharing my story, I want to be clear that deciding to do so publicly was complicated and is something I've struggled with for many months for a number of reasons:

• As a Jewish woman I am well aware of widespread antisemitism and have been incredibly concerned how sharing my story could contribute to it. With that all I can say is that I know and am related to many Jewish men, and the story I am about to tell is entirely atypical of my experiences with anyone in my 50 years, including any other Jewish man.

• Our Skokie community is divided and it has weighed heavilly on me that telling my story may deepen the divide for some while our community needs healing. However, I feel strongly that Azi will not be able to heal our community, specifically because of my first encounter with him. I believe I would be doing a disservice to the community by keeping my first encounter with Azi to myself.

• I get no joy out of humiliating someone, and cannot help but also think about Azi's family, who are not responsible for his actions. That said, I feel it is irresponsible not to share my story with the community because Azi is running to lead our community. I truly harbor no ill will towards Azi but do feel—strongly—that he is unfit to serve as our mayor. I am also not responsible for Azi's actions.

• And finally, my family and I have been concerned about retribution due to very real past experiences involving people Azi is closely associated with. That being said, there has already been outreach that has felt harassing and threatening even before sharing my story publicly. Additionally, I have almost entirely stopped attending board meetings because they do not feel like a safe space for me. In short, this experience has already resulted in me having to make changes in what I do. To address any potential retribution at my home, I've hired a surveillance firm to install professional cameras to cover our entire property.

  
  

Despite my reservations, I feel very strongly that my story is too important not to share. If you read to the end of this account, you will learn that I am not the only person to have had such an encounter with Azi, in fact, a similar incident happened with another woman that same night. These problematic interactions illustrate why I feel so strongly that Azi is simply unfit to serve as our mayor in Skokie.

My name is Kimberly. I am a fifty year old woman who spent nearly every weekend of my childhood in Skokie with my grandmother, lived in Skokie (with my grandmother) in the 90s and moved back to Skokie in 2010. I "met" Azi Lifsics for the first time 18 months ago, in September 2023, outside of Village Hall at a Skokie Village Board meeting.

The encounter began when I was on my way inside of village hall. I held the door for many people who were leaving the meeting after an item on the agenda, intending to return to the meeting myself. When community members were done filing out, as I was making my way back inside, another community member was goading me in a way that was frankly high-schoolish and irrelevant to the story because she isn’t running for mayor. I only mention it for context since I refer to being “fired up” in the attached video. I am not proud that with the incessant goading, I ultimately succumbed, turned around from inside of the lobby, and pushed the door open to go back outside to her, at which time Azi appeared in my face yelling at me that I'd just hit him with the door. He was incredibly aggressive. I hastily said it was an accident and tried to navigate around him, focused on the person who was repeatedly calling out to me, who was now down the stairs. Azi then put his hands on me - both of them - one on each shoulder and was physically preventing me from going down the stairs as he was in my face repeatedly yelling that I hit him with the door, pushing me back up the stairs. I repeated countless times that it was an accident and said that I was sorry, admittedly just trying to get by. He would not let it go. He kept his hands on me and kept yelling in my face that I needed to apologize (though I had - several times). Things were feeling quite chaotic - I’m certain Azi could not hear a thing I was saying and I was only interested in getting away from him. He was enraged. Someone then grabbed him by the shoulder to allow me to get down the stairs. Azi then made his way back to me, again in my face, “demanding an apology.” Someone had apparently gotten the attention of the police and things calmed down once an officer came out. At that time the officer specifically asked me if Azi had put his hands on me - I said no. I was hoping the situation would be diffused. It seemed to work and Azi left, walking across the parking lot toward the library. But he came back several minutes later at which point, since things were calm, I approached him calmly and repeated that it was an accident and said I was truly sorry…his respsonse was brushing past me and going back into village hall to talk to the police. Still in hopes of the situation being diffused, I stayed outside while Azi and a friend of his were inside talking to the police officers. After several minutes, it became increasingly frustrating to me that a man who put his hands on me to preventing me from getting away from him and who had pushed me - which is assault - was accusing me of something, so I went inside to try to put an end to it all. It was then that I heard Azi telling the police that I "assaulted him with the door" (an interesting way of describing being bumped with a door). I want to be clear about something here. I did not see Azi, I did not intentionally bump or hit him with the door. Had Azi seemed injured I would have been mortified and all of my focus would have been on making sure he was ok. Azi did not appear to be injured - he was immediately angry and aggressive and got physical with me causing me to be focused on getting away from him, something he continued to physically prevent until someone pulled him away from me.

I’m attaching a snip of a video that the person who recorded it asked me to do as a screen-grab to remove metadata because the person is afraid of Azi based on what they saw that night. In the video, when I say to then Chief Baker that Azi put his hands on me and was pushing me up the stairs Azi's response was, “That’s because I was demanding an apology.” Pushing someone because you are "demanding an apology" is an assault and is unacceptable behavior.

Because the video can be hard to hear and is chaotic with the cross-talk, I've transcribed as best I could. It's important to keep in mind that Azi came back and went to the police. And I allowed a couple of minutes before going back inside to address the situation. When I went inside I did not immediately say anything and listened to Azi repeatedly accuse me of assaulting him with the door, before I interrupted, directing my comments to Chief Baker. My goal was still only to diffuse the situation.

Me: I’m going to…can I just say something because I am the abuser here. And I’m just going to say this---

Azi: You all heard that. I’m happy that you heard that.

< inaudible>

Community Member 1: She was being sarcastic.

Azi: No she’s not.

Me: So the reality is, is that someone said something to me that got me all bent out of shape as soon as I came in the door. I turned around and pushed the door open. I did not see him. Was I fired up because this woman is barking things at me as I'm walking in the door? You've seen me - do I get fired up? Yeah, I'm fired up.

<inaudible>

Me: So I pushed the door. I didn't see him. Now you want to talk some real <inaudible> there's cameras <inaudible> His answer was pushing me- and if there are cameras, it will show that  - and would not let me down the stairs—

Azi: Because I was demanding an apology.

Me: Screaming in my face. But you don’t get to push somebody because you’re demanding an apology.

Community member 2 (to Azi): That’s an assault.

Azi (speaking to Community Member 2, while pointing at me): That’s an assault.

Me: So I'm saying I'm willing to drop it.

Community member 2: That was an accident.

Azi: Pushing into my – you cannot say

At this point Azi is pointing at Community member 2 and steps towards her when the second police officer intervenes, moving Azi away from the conversation

Chief Baker: Step back

Me: I didn't mean to push the door—I did not see him.

With that this video ends (the original).

September 5, 2023. Video taken without my knowledge, by someone who feared for my safety and safety of others. The person started recording after Azi left, returning some time later to go back to the police, which still puzzles me - was he trying to get me arrested for accidentally bumping him with a door (which he was convinced was on purpose even though I'd never noticed him before in my life)? And despite the fact that he, in fact, put his hands on me, would not let me get past him and was pushing me back up the stairs, in his words "demanding an apology"?

The person who recorded the video no longer attends board meetings and I've already said I've all but stopped attending them myself. I did attend the meeting immediately following on September 18, 2023 . Azi was there again, sitting against the wall, pointing his phone in my direction for a majority of that meeting, something that certainly felt like an attempt to intimidate me. I don't even think I need one hand to count how many meetings I've been to since September 2023 - prior to that I didn't need one hand to count the meetings I didn't attend.

Bullying and inciting fear in community members should be disqualifying - Azi is unfit to be mayor.

Captioning the video (the audio can be hard to hear) and keeping my word to make sure there was no metadata was incredibly time consuming. I am also limited on the amount of space I can use with this free site -- but there is another video and both total nearly eight minutes, I believe. I would like to share more footage if I find the time and have the space to do so. Such as Azi excusing his lunging at another woman twice that evening, and being pulled back by a police officer “as a reaction” when the officer pointed out "I had to push you away from her twice”. There's also a point where the police officer suggests in the future Azi relax and let the police figure things out, Azi responds, “Am I not relaxed at this point?” to which the officer responds, “Now you are, but it took a long time to get here, right?"  The officer further explained that when he went outside, all he saw was Azi in (another) woman's face with his finger pointed at her (which is why I assume the officer asked me if Azi had touched me when he was outside. Again, I was not the only woman to be the target of Azi's aggression that night, a fact I find very concerning. Despite Azi's friend knocking on the door to get the police, when the officer came outside it was clear Azi was the aggressor - with another woman - after I'd made my way off of the stairs).  The officer also points out to Azi that he saw him leave and go “all of the way over to the library” when the officer was going back inside and then ”You came all of the way back here to start again.”  

I imagine some may make this about me. I am not a delicate flower. I can be a bit — much — for some. I say what’s on my mind and have some strong opinions. Some people appreciate that and some don’t. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my delivery can be off-putting. I've been that way my entire life. That said, I've never put my hands on someone and still believe I am unfit to serve as Skokie's mayor...I am not running. I'd never interacted or even noticed Azi before that night in September 2023. Bumping him with the door was 100% an accident and nothing excuses any person putting their hands on another in a threatening way. Before September 2023 I’d never had an experience like I did that evening. Azi was wrong to put his hands on me. Full stop. For some reason he absolutely could not believe I hit him with the door on accident at the time (though he says he believes that now in hindsight) but even that doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on me. This was the very first time I’d ever encountered him—I don’t get physically violent with people and I certainly wouldn’t hit a stranger with a door on purpose for absolutely no reason. And I am certain he would not have reacted the same physical, threatening way, if instead of a 4’11” woman, a man had hit him with the door — accident or not. 

As I explained at the beginning of this post, I’ve struggled with how to handle this situation for months, ever since Azi called me back in August to tell me he was thinking of running. Yes, he called me. We’ve even sat for coffee. I don’t dislike him and I truly prefer to avoid humiliating him or anyone. But I feel my experience is important to share to explain why I strongly believe that the Azi I met back in September of 2023 should not be Skokie's next mayor. Respect should be non-negotiable in our elected officials. We need a mayor with an even temper and compassion who will bring Skokie together...not literally, or figuratively, push them away.