Mayor Bloomberg spoke at a conference in a neighborhood plagued by high asthma rates to argue for his plan to reduce the city’s air pollution. The proposal includes a surcharge for vehicles entering congested sections of Manhattan.
Mr. Bloomberg said that he “was committed to removing “disease-causing soot” from the city’s air and noted again that in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem, children are hospitalized for asthma, which is aggravated by dirty air, at nearly four times the national average.”
The men and women in the audience gasped at the statistic and shook their heads.
“In my faith, the Jewish faith,” Mr. Bloomberg continued, “there is a religious obligation called tikkun olam, or to make the world whole, or to correct error and end injustice. And that responsibility is found among people of good will in every faith.”
(Daily News Blog)
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4 Responses
Thank you Mr. Mayor for picking and chosing what parts of the religion you want to follow. I could think of better ways for you to remove the “disease-causing soot” from the city’s air noteably that in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem.
Is this the REAL reason, or to curb traffic congestion or to reline the coffeers! Nice to hear a Jewish politician speak any words of faith.
Look who is sounding so pious! He should talk with all his making the lives of the frummer miserable during his tenure! Such arrogance!
Let me get this straight: Mayor Bloomberg is being bashed because he used a jewish concept (one that actually puts us in a good light rather than portraying us as wacky fanatics) in his speech?! So what if he’s not frum! He’s still Jewish and we should be happy that he is proud enough of his religion to speak about it in public.