As the only Jewish candidate in the race, Anthony Weiner is making an aggressive play for votes in the Jewish community, with an intense focus on the ultra-Orthodox community, the NY Times writes, in an extensive profile, Monday morning.
“I don’t feel [the scandal] is going to affect his being mayor,” Mr. Benenfeld, a clothing store manager in Midwood, told the Times. “He got over it. He got therapy. His wife forgave him. We’ve moved on, just as we did with President Bill Clinton. I don’t judge a person by his personal life.”
While many of the candidates – such as William C. Thompson Jr. and Bill de Blasio – rely on their long history working with the community, Mr. Weiner, who’s seeking to get a chunk of that votes, appears to be making progress, according to the Times. He is often welcomed warmly in Jewish settings. And he recently met with the grand rabbi of Munkacs, Moshe Leib Rabinovich, who bestowed legitimacy if not quite an imprimatur by stating, according to a Hasid who was there, that Mr. Weiner had a record of helping the community. (Mr. Weiner once aided the Munkacs sect by getting the State Department to help secure Jewish grave sites in the town of Munkacz, Ukraine.)
“The fact that the Munkacser Rebbe was willing to sit down with him meant he was being treated as a serious candidate,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, told the Times. Mr. Hikind, who has not endorsed a mayoral candidate, said many Orthodox Jews admire Mr. Weiner as a fighter who was able to pick himself up and “get out of the mud” when his political career seemed unsalvageable.
“To underestimate Weiner is to make a huge mistake,” Mr. Hikind said.
“When he was involved in the neighborhood, he was very good,” said Ephraim Nierenberg, 50, a real estate manager. “He helped every constituent out.”
But still, in Borough Park, residents seemed divided over what to make of Mr. Weiner.
“He committed something pretty horrendous, for a person who is supposed to be a role model,” said Dolly Rabinovich, an Orthodox Jew, though not Hasidic.
“The scandal made him someone I cannot trust,” said Rabbi Yaakov Klein, 50, a teacher at Yeshiva Ohr Yitzchok in Midwood, as he shopped at Pomegranate, a kosher specialty foods emporium. “His integrity is lacking. If you’re trusting him with public matters, you want his personal life to be beyond reproach.”
Yaakov Kornreich, a journalist for Jewish publications who is associated with the Midwood-based “yeshivish” or “black hat” community, said it will be hard for many Orthodox Jewish voters to forgive Mr. Weiner for marrying a non-Jew. Mr. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime personal aide to Hillary Clinton, is Muslim, though Mr. Kornreich said that her particular belief is not as much an issue as the fact that she is not Jewish.
“There’s a feeling that he betrayed the Orthodox community, its values and standards, by marrying out of the faith,” he said. “He literally crossed a red line that is enforced in this community.”
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
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14 Responses
I agree, we don’t have another choice.
Quinn is not an option (the way she treated the Haredim, it sounds like she never expected to get the orthodox vote)
Thompson is a topical corrupted politician, who in his previous run stood idle by on a radio program when a caller made anti semantic remarks and didn’t say a word.
With all the problems Weiner carries, do we have another option? We live in NY, and this is what NY has to offer
“Admirable” candidate. Hashem yerachem! It would be better that Jews not for anyone if the only choices are immoral ones or Jews who married goyim, and Weiner has both of these “qualifications” Hashem yerachem!
While we all like Dov I believe if he does endorse Weiner it will lead to his ouster as our assemblyman. His famous speech about the definition of marriage will look very hypocritical when he then supports someone who has such an embarrassing scandal and intermarried.
Jack Hidary is a Jewish candidate.
The Governer said it best: shame on us.Would we permit him to teach in any school? Not only for his acts but he lied initialy in response. He is not halachicaly Jewish, something Mr. Hikind should know. His positions were also oppossed to those of his constituents,.He favored according terrorists constititional rights, trying them in civilian courts ,and trying the 9/11 trrorosts in downtown manhattan. There never was a tax hike that he ever oppossed. He was the poster boy for Obama care but ask him if he is prepared to change his congressional insurance for Obama care.Shame on us.
I can’t believe Jews could be so stupid. The man is a disaster from the word go. How about voting for (gasp) the REPUBLICAN! Who says it has to be a democrat? This guy Catsamitidis (or whatever) sounds like a mentsh, has no skeletons in his closet (that we know of) and is independently wealthy. Why do you folks think you need a dem?
I know what Anthony Weiner did is bad but most Elected officials probably do what he did or worse but he was caught & they aren’t. Also Weiner has the best chance according to the polls of all the Candidates of Beating Christine Quinn. Remember Christine Quinn is openly Toeiva & supports it & is also against Metziza Bpeh & despite the bad things Weiner has done it is not as bad as what Quinn does. Therefore our number one is goal is to defeat Quinn & if Weiner has the best chance of defeating her.
The ONLY candidate that a Ben Torah can vote for is Erick Salgado. There is nothing to discuss.
Weiner’s mother was Italian, not Jewish. Hench the name Anthony. There’s nothing wrong with a non-Jew marrying a non Jew.
Moderators Note: Use search box to find an exclusive YWN video interview with Weiners mother where she says she is Jewish and her parents were Jewush, where they are buried, and where Weiners Bar Mitzvah was held.
Well, maybe his (non-Jewish) wife can make him behaive in ways that won’t be so embarassing (wink – this is YWN).
Over 30% of the German Jews voted for hitler too he doesn’t mean us it’s only talk. Sorry his lack of good judgement should eliminate him at once. Even if this good Jewish boy married a Moslem.
Lets all make excuses for his lack of morality and poor decision making
“I can’t believe Jews could be so stupid. The man is a disaster from the word go. How about voting for (gasp) the REPUBLICAN!”
If Weiner is the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York I plan to vote for the Republican.
(All gasp in unison now….)
Dov: sometimes keeping quiet is the best option!
#12 – and what’s wrong with a party that favors good government instead of handing out favors based on what you are without regard to integrity or merit.