Five frum New York leaders made City & State’s coveted Power 100 list of influential leaders out of the 2.5 million residents of Brooklyn, New York.

Leading the list is former Council Member and current Met Council CEO David G. Greenfield. David was a major behind-the-scenes player in the successful, non-partisan Get Out The Jewish Vote initiative that he led with noted askan Lou Scheiner in the recent New York City elections. That effort led to record turnout from the frum community this year. At # 14, he’s the highest ranking frum Jew in New York.

Per City and State, “When the coronavirus pandemic struck, David Greenfield never closed the doors of the Met Council and led a $100 million campaign providing emergency funding for New York’s food pantries. Since then, the Met Council has aided hundreds of food pantries and has also given out more than 19 million pounds of food to 305,000 New Yorkers.”

Senator Simcha Felder is up next at # 19. As described by City & State, “A few years ago, state Sen. Simcha Felder was a pivotal player, wooed by both Republicans and Democrats when the chamber was narrowly divided. When Democrats seized a majority, he was initially sidelined – but he has since made headlines for tackling other issues, such as bike and scooter safety and coronavirus restrictions in the Orthodox Jewish communities he represents.”

Coming in at # 28 is Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein, who “first took office in 2019, joined other lawmakers in pushing backing against the state’s COVID-19 shutdowns in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jewish community last year.”

In his debut on the list at # 31 New York City Council Member Kalman Yeger was lauded for running “unopposed in the primary and will appear on all three party lines in November, but that hasn’t stopped him from hauling in $195,035 from 378 contributors.”

Rabbi David Niederman slipped in the ranking this year at # 64 after his support for Andrew Yang over Eric Adams. Here’s City & State describing Niederman as “one of the few political leaders in Brooklyn who can reliably deliver thousands of votes and often backs establishment candidates. So it was surprising to see him endorse candidates Andrew Yang first and Eric Adams second in the Democratic mayoral primary (perhaps Adams’ opposition to the Broadway Triangle project had something to do with it).”

Other Jewish leaders who were featured on the list include Senator Charles Schumer at # 3, Councilman (and likely future comptroller) Brad Lander at # 11, billionaire developer Jed Walnetas at # 15, Assembly Ways & Means Chair Helene Weinstein at # 28 and Maimonides CEO Ken Gibbs at # 40.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)