I am extremely troubled and disappointed by Satmar’s endorsement of incumbent NY Governor Kathy Hochul, particularly at this time, when we are struggling to maintain even a minimal semblance of morality in our state and in our country.
We are amidst the most dangerous times in which violent crimes are commonplace and out of control. To be able to walk safely on our streets is not a given anymore. These issues are more important than money. It was appalling to me when I read the ad from both Satmar communities’ leaders endorsing a gubernatorial candidate that supports all the “woke” and immoral behaviors that have a terribly negative influence on our entire communities including our most prized and important possessions – our children. Immoral behaviors that their gubernatorial candidate supports are deemed an abomination by our holy Torah. It seems both leaders are willing to trade money in exchange for the spiritual and physical destruction of their communities.
How will we tell the Department of Education to let us run our Yeshivas the way we want when we are beholden to them because we grovel for their funding?
We are teaching our children that money trumps even Torah values and that the ends justify the means – no matter the cost.
It is tragic that these two leaders are in the midst of a bitter machlokes and yet tell us to be mevater on every value we hold near and dear. Everyone knows that the best way to motivate our children is by practicing what we preach and setting a positive example. How can leaders tell us to do as they say but not as they do? It is appalling and unacceptable.
It is especially interesting that they can agree when it comes to accepting money. Why are they unable to realize that there is no such thing as a free lunch? Everything comes with a price; in this instance, the price is our neshamos.
Quote From Rav Avigdor Miller: “All the frum jews should be up in arms for law and order – not to vote for politicians who will gives us money for programs, for orthodox organizations, or for yeshivas. We do not want them. We want politicians who will vote the way we want for our safety and who will fight for law and order.”
Sincerely,
Saul Kessler, Far Rockaway
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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28 Responses
Thank you for Speaking out. You are 100% correct. Thank you
Azoy, Reb Kessler is outraged that the Satmar are supporting politicians who are most likely to WIN in November and will control the allocation of substantial funds to their Mosdos. KJ is among the most welfare-dependent community in the State. One of the only things the Satmar agree upon is “show me the money” and don’t confuse me with “principles”.
Which candidate in the Democratic primary should Satmar have endorsed?
Letter writer is incorrect and not following the standard daas Torah. We cannot change the behavior of the nations via elections since we simply don’t have enough votes. Voting for someone closer to our ideals (but still not matching them regarding many matters) would simply waste our vote. Everyone understands that a vote in NY is not an idealogical stamp of approval. We vote to get the best we can for our community since we can’t affect the immortal trajectory anyway. There were people who disagreed with that but the letter writer and anyone else that make the argument knows it’s an old machlokos and Satmar is following the majority here. The letter writer is welcome to waste his vote if he so wishes, but that would be unfortunate according to most… He certainly should not make believe he is taking some kind of moral high ground. Wasting our votes or trying to convince others to at the expense of Torah institutions is not a moral high ground.
Letter writer is incorrect and not following the standard daas Torah. We cannot change the behavior of the nations via elections since we simply don’t have enough votes. Voting for someone closer to our ideals (but still not matching them regarding many matters) would simply waste our vote. Everyone understands that a vote in NY is not an idealogical stamp of approval. We vote to get the best we can for our community since we can’t affect the immoral trajectory anyway. There were people who disagreed with that but the letter writer and anyone else that make the argument knows it’s an old machlokos and Satmar is following the majority here. The letter writer is welcome to waste his vote if he so wishes, but that would be unfortunate according to most… He certainly should not make believe he is taking some kind of moral high ground. Wasting our votes or trying to convince others to, at the expense of Torah institutions, is not a moral high ground.
ברוך שלא עשני סטמר
They endorsed her for governor not just for primary.
It was endorsements like that which tipped hillary over the edge to become senator. And started the mess of a string of terrible things for the Republic.
The entire America is sinking and sinking in reference to crime, murder and immorality.
It is like using a broken elevator and you are going downward at speeds of 80 mph and you can not possibly stop this elevator.
These activists are shameless. They met with communist de Blasio who destroyed nyc, voted for a conman as mayor and are now supporting hochul. I don’t want to hear any complaints the next time a member of the community is assaulted. Pay attention to what Rabbi Avigdor Miller had to say about supporting liberals.
Rav Avigdor Miller on
Voting for Liberals
Q:
Who should we vote for for President?
A:
We should vote for the one who appears to us to be the
most conservative. Now, I can’t tell you who that is. But
there’s no question that the conservatives of today are
extremely more liberal than the liberals of thirty years
ago. We have already advanced so far beyond the borders
of liberalism, that today we can afford to retreat many
miles behind these boundries and still remain in the
forefront of liberalism. And therefore, today there’s no
such thing as too much conservatism. You have to vote for
conservative candidates on every level – on national, state
and city levels.
And so, it’s up to us to speak up and write letters; we must
write to congressmen and protest constantly. And not to
vote for liberals! Don’t vote for a liberal!
Forget about being a
Democrat, forget about your party affiliation, forget about
the private deals. Some institutions make private deals
with the politicians and they sell their vote or the votes of
the Jews; don’t listen to them! Make it your business
I was also shocked but somehow I shouldn’t have been surprised since it seems chasidim in particular act like sycophants when it comes to politics. The question is whether this considered flattery in order to get favor and whether that is permitted.
And yet TYW has no problem running this antisemite’s adds for governor!
@Bshtei_Einayim you are totally wrong. There is a large segment of NY that is not liberal minded (especially today), yet votes liberal since they think as you do. If people would stop thinking that way and vote genuinely, then maybe NY politics would change (albeit slowly).
That being said, there may be issurim involved in voting with politicians who support abortion. I am not a posek, but halacha clearly assurs abortion more strictly by a nachri then by a yehudi and according to many, there is a chiyuv to keep them away from committing such an issue. As such, it may be completely assur to vote for someone who supports such issues and would be in a position to effectuate change in that direction (something which is definitely on the agendas this day and age).
1000% Correct.
This is a Chilul Hashem of the highest order, to show how the Jew sells his values for the $$$.
I am also horrified, although not shocked given that our community has been voting money over values for many years. Satmar is not the only organization to endorse Governor Hochul. The Crown Heights community is also supporting her and today there was a news article on YWN about the excitement and support showered on Governor Hochul when she visited Boro Park. And all of this support is happening at the same time that we are crying out to save our yeshivas and wondering why the Governor has not responded after 220,835 comments were submitted in opposition of the state’s control of our yeshiva (see sidebar). We the “little” people understand that an existential battle is being waged against Torah values and that it is of utmost importance to fight the battle by proudly standing for our values. But instead of being a light unto the nations our institutions and establishment contribute to the moral turpitude and decadence of our society by openly supporting candidates who undermine those values. So while they beseech us all to write letters in defense of our children’s Jewish education, they simultaneously support the Governor whose “signature” issue is promoting abortion rights (see her ads) and other morally bereft issues. The contradictions can make your head spin! And if you want to still hold out about how we have to support whomever will ultimately be the winner, a little humility is in order-we do not know what the results will be (remember how close NJ Governor Murphy came to losing to Jack Ciaterelli)-we are responsible to proclaim our values very clearly, especially today when society is awash in complete sheker and deviance and HKBH will decide the results.
BIG Thank you to Saul Kessler for saying publicly what many are afraid to say publicly. I was also utterly disgusted at Satmar the ultra frumist to endorse such a lowlife party as hochul. I understand money talks and satmar can’t afford to lose all the programs and money they feel kimt zich zei. But still, endorsing sedom like governor and helenistic ideas into our education is totally wrong and should be foremost our top priority. I’m also nauseated by the warm welcome hochul got in bp in eichlers the other day with all the sick jews like penny ringel and his ilk. She is not here for us and neither is penny ringel here for his Jewish brothers.. but I shouldn’t be surprised at getz for taking them in, the same like the mesira in covid. What a bunch of skunks…
We should be sticking with the Republicans all the way.
Though I may personally agree with many or all of the sentiments and opinions of you moralists (notice no quotations) that so often decry decisions of certain community leaders, I know that I for one am not Daas Torah and refrain from opining. However one common thread between all of you is the constant quoting of one and only one person, namely R’ Avigdor Miller Z”L.
Is it possible that he was a Daas Yochid???
If so, you have the right to follow him etc. but shut up and don’t tell the Daas Rabim what’s right or wrong.
Just wait till Hochul finds out that Satmar doesn’t give their kids a decent English education
And yeah, they’re really dependent as a community on as many handouts as they can get. They always vote democrat for that reason because the dems are all about freebies and redistribution
But welcome to 2022
Candidates with morals are hard to find
Most of them wouldn’t dare speak up against abortion or pride etc if they want a shot at getting elected
Sadly it’s across the aisle now as well
It’s become vogue to support pride and aborton
you are living in America…..live with it….move to Israel as you should and for this one tweet I can honestly say, you all make me sick….we struggle in Israel to keep our lives normal and your life safe by combating evil anti semites and more, while you in America swing into malls, sorry, I could care less about your issues or my children who as well aren’t in Israel….too bad we have more problems in Israel…big babies
Bshtei_Einayim – You are mistaken.
The Governor and all the politicians spend a lot of time and money reaching out to the frum community. If they didn’t need our vote, or if our vote did not matter, why would they spend so much time and effort to earn our support?
Did you ever hear of Klal Vote? Why are these askanim so busy pushing us to vote? They want the politicians to know we support them. Why? Because our support makes a difference.
Besides the vote, a lot of money from our communities support these candidate’s campaigns in a very significant way.
These chasidishe communities don’t care about the rest of the Country. They view themselves as living in their own secure bubble. It doesn’t matter to them if the rest of the Country is becoming full of Toeiva and immorality. They don’t care if people kill their babies and commit halcahic retzicha. Their insular communities are safe. (That’s what they think at least.) All they care about is having money to keep their communities going.
We support and are mechanef these toeiva candidates against the Daas Torah of our previous Gedolim. It’s not only the Chasidim. The litvishe political organizations do it to. Then the Ribono Shel Oilam pays us back and makes these politicians destroy our Mosdos HaChinuch. We don’t get the message. Instead of organizing yemei Tefilah, they are mechanef these toeiva people even more. They push us even more to vote for them.
As Reb Brevda zt”l once said: If our askonim lived during the times of Purim, they would have focused on being mechanef Haman and Achashveirosh. (Which is what many people at the time thought was the right thing to do, hence seudas Achashveirosh. Reb Brevda said, the difference is then the leaders were Mordechai and Esther who understood it is more important to stand for our values. If we stick to our values, and strengthen our Avodas Hashem, the money will come and we will stay pure.
Don’t Satmar realize it is the Ribono Shel Oilam who writes the checks?!? Don’t they realize how much harm these Democrats have done to our Kedusha?!?
It’s a Democrat primary. All the candidates are Democrats. Which one of doesn’t endorse immorality?
I’m not sure all the uproar….
This is the oldest debate…
Everyone knows Rav Mille Zatza”l’ss view…
Many Gedolei Yisroel held otherwise…
The fact is that all the goyim have nothing in common with yidden, and their whole lifestyle is contrary to rotzen hashem, Democrat or Republican, so is there any inyan of siding with one as if to say some of what you do we agree with??
The BMG Roshei Yeshiva Shlit”a all said to vote for Murphy cuz it made sense…
To Kinsler:
How come Peninah was punished extremely severely, when the Gemara says very clearly that she meant everything 100% LeShem Shamaim? All her actions and words were LeShem Shamaim, but she still got punished. Why?
To Ish Hashalom: The challenges of the last few years have made it crystal clear that goyim and yidden have much in common; we are all human beings with an innate quest to unite in connection to HKBH and our own humanity. The seven Noachide laws apply to everyone and all societies must abide by fundamental morality and justice. The mabul destroyed a corrupted world before any yidden existed. Parents of all stripes are recognizing battle lines and waging war against the corruption of their children’s minds and souls by a society that seeks to impose immoral values, deviance and decadence. The Jews should be in the forefront of standing shoulder to shoulder with them by voicing Torah values. Ben Shapiro recently lamented why he is a lone commentator on what Jewish values are with regard to the moral and ethical issues of the moment. He asks where are the Rabbis? Apparently for the most part the rabbis are too busy pursuing their self perpetuation as political kingmakers to bother themselves with openly and staunchly leading society toward Torah values. And if there are no candidates who are moral then we should steer clear of endorsing or supporting anyone. If we have nothing enlightening to say then we should remain silent.
To Avraham: R’ Chaim Shmulevitz raises your question in his Sichos.
I don’t know what that’s got to do with the price of rice in China.
” If we have nothing enlightening to say then we should remain silent…”
Surely, you are limiting your admonition to endorsements of candidates in an electoral context rather than making a broad statement that would extend to posting comments on social media where adherence to such an extremist mandate would deprive the publishers of YWN and other sites of a parnassah.
If we expected goyish politicians to be moral, we would be forced to abstain from voting. Historically the leaders of the goyim have often been bloodthirsty perverts with a strong orientation towards theft, betrayal and dishonesty. Some would say that is a requirement for the job. Pirke Avos (a leading hareidi sefer) says not to trust them, ever. Satmar is acting within the mainstream of Jewish tradition in looking for what politicians will do for us, in exchange of what we can offer (our votes). Those who expect the goyish politicians to act in a moral matter are introducing a “hiddush”.
But when it came to Trump, Americans were willing to look away from his misogynistic comments that leaked viral. remember that?