Carl P. Paladino’s introduction to the world of conservative Jewish politics began with an unsolicited early-morning phone call three weeks ago to his campaign manager, Michael R. Caputo.
The caller, a self-described right-wing Brooklyn rabbi named Yehuda Levin, had heard that other Jewish leaders were accusing Mr. Paladino of being an anti-Semite because of disparaging comments he had made about Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker. After Mr. Caputo explained Mr. Paladino’s side of the story, Rabbi Levin, a fierce critic of Mr. Silver’s, invited the Republican candidate for governor to address his congregation.
“I told him, ‘I have the credibility that when I go in front of the media and I am representing the Paladino camp, and that if he is coming to my synagogue, right before the holiday of Sukkot, it will mean something,’ ” Mr. Levin said in an interview on Monday.
The visit had strategic appeal for both sides: Mr. Paladino, an anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage Catholic businessman from Buffalo, hoped to find like-minded voters among the politically and socially conservative Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn. And Mr. Levin, who has dreamed for years of creating “an Orthodox Tea Party,” as he put it, was eager to help, in part by lining up appearances for Mr. Paladino at synagogues and yeshivas.
Mr. Paladino’s remarks on Sunday made headlines, after he criticized Andrew M. Cuomo for taking his daughters to a gay pride parade and said that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality was acceptable. The comments drew a round of condemnation from gay rights leaders, and fellow Republicans quickly distanced themselves from them.
But the statements also underscored the intricate agendas and surprising alliances in a corner of the political world where even veteran politicians need a guide.
“These are neighborhoods with a preference for insularity,” said David M. Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, a nonprofit group. “In the Hasidic world, it is very hard to tell the players without a scorecard. And politicians are always reliant on the person who hands it to them.”
Mr. Paladino relied on Mr. Levin. Like Mr. Paladino, Mr. Levin, 56, plays on the margins of traditional power structures. His synagogue, the Kehilas Mevakshai Hashem, has roughly two dozen members, far fewer than the thousands of adherents commanded by the large Hasidic sects that dominate Orthodox politics in Brooklyn, each under the dominion of a grand rebbe, or rabbi. He is based in Midwood, rather than the Hasidic strongholds of Williamsburg and Borough Park.
In fact, Mr. Levin is not, strictly speaking, a Hasid, though he wears the familiar black hat and coat of those who are. “I’m the next closest thing to Hasidic,” Mr. Levin explained, “an amalgam of right-wing yeshivish and Hasidic.”
What Mr. Levin did have was a pure devotion to conservative politics unmatched by more prominent Orthodox rabbis, many of whom preach traditional values in shul but are highly pragmatic when it comes to picking politicians to endorse, backing winners and those most likely to deliver resources to their communities.
Mr. Cuomo had already been cultivating larger sects like the Satmars and won the blessing of several prominent rabbis. But Mr. Paladino’s campaign believed Orthodox voters would buck their leadership if they heard his conservative message for themselves.
“It’s our belief that Andrew Cuomo thinks the entire Orthodox community is behind him, Mr. Caputo said on Monday. “We’ve discovered that on two of their top issues – gay marriage and abortion – he’s the polar opposite of their congregations. The Orthodox community has expressed quite a bit of independence from the rebbes, and as long as we are talking to the grass roots of that community, we are in pretty good shape.”
Mr. Paladino first came to Mr. Levin’s synagogue in September. Mr. Levin then helped arrange his visits to a Williamsburg synagogue and a Borough Park yeshiva – both affiliated with relatively minor sects – on Sunday.
Some in the Orthodox community said they suspected Mr. Paladino of seeking to surround himself with rabbis – any rabbis – to rebut the accusations of anti-Semitism. The involvement of Mr. Levin, who is respected by some for his commitment to conservative values and dismissed by others as an opportunist eager to bolster his own name, reinforced that view.
“These rabbis have become the Santa Claus of politics,” said one Orthodox political operative, who asked for anonymity so as to avoid antagonizing religious leaders. “You bring the person running, you have a photo op. And as long as he has a black hat and jacket, it’s great. It looks like an endorsement.”
Mr. Levin, who is spokesman for the Rabbinical Alliance of America, an association of socially conservative rabbis, shares with Mr. Paladino a proclivity for inflammatory public statements, particularly about homosexuality. He spoke out against a gay pride festival in Jerusalem several years ago, saying it would amount to “the spiritual rape of the Holy City” and proclaimed “This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land.”
On Monday, Mr. Paladino said that the two speeches he had made in Brooklyn on Sunday were prepared by someone else, and that he had stricken out some ideas with which he did not agree. In the interview, Mr. Levin said he had written one of the speeches and contributed to the second, in which Mr. Paladino warned against brainwashing children into accepting homosexuality.
“I did not write the second speech,” Mr. Levin said. “However, I did have some input into it-and I stand ready to defend the content of it.”
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(Source: NY Times)
17 Responses
NY Times and Heikind are eating their heart out. The ‘Orthodox Jew’ is not a given any more…
Paladino is clueless if he thinks any kind of majority of chasidim will ignore their respective leaders and follow him.
HaRav Yehuda Levin shlita is a true ish emes and Tzadik. We need more of his caliber!
Many Rabbonim in BP and Flatbush have endorsed Paladino.
The comments from the first article in the NY Times about this event show what a huge chilul HaShem Mr. Levin has caused. It might be the right content, but it’s certainly the wrong vehicle. “Its ways are pleasant ways, and all its paths are peace.” The picture of this “amalgam” with Paladino is now the banner headline on the Times website.
Time not only the Orthodox Jews but the secular and reform, reconstructionist and conservative give the democarte party a good good swift kick. The cater to al sharton, farrekan and every anti-semitie and that call Paladino an anti-semitie. Look what obamanation has done and is doing to Eretz Hakodesh. There is a big difference between AMerica and Europe; in Europe you know your neighbor is an anti-semities because he shows it; in America people like obama pat you on your back and the only reason is to fine a place to stick the knife
Now lets see YWN lets this pass or they are hiding from the truth
#3 please give us the names of the many rabbonim who endorsed paladino?
#6- You are being sarcastic because you are a Cuomo supporter obviously….
Ive followed your writings on this site for a long time, and have concluded that you are the classic example of a hard right winged Jewish republican, and very pro Israel.
Yet you have your priorities very wrong, and sing both songs at the same time from two sides of your mouth.
Typical Agudah-type person who kisses up to the liberal ferds to suck their money, and when wars break out scream to the republicans for help.
Respect for Rabbanim:
While the New York Times (a group of reform “Jews” or worse), the source of this news story, inappropriately repeatedly refers to HaRav Levin as “Mr.”, in publishing it here, YWN should only use his proper title: “HaRav” or “Rabbi”.
Loony levin. What a sad fool. I hope he has a refuah hanefesh.
Make sure you give children attention when they are small, or else they will embarrass your community one day to get it.
Avraham
A beard doesnt make one a Rabbi.
shikur, all of that deduction from a simple question? Wrong but still impressive. When you have finished diagnosing me you will find that the truth and nothing but the truth ranks at the highest of my priorities and so after all of your conjecture the question still stands, names of the many Rabbonim who endorse Paladino please?
WIY – your comment gave me my first good laugh of the day. Thanks. Watching this entire debacle through various orthodox websites has made me very happy to be a Canadian.
Can someone please explain why Rabbi Levin is always a one man show. If he truly represented numerous rabbonim, why don’t they ever appear with him?
WIY/10: Semicha from one of the gedolim and being a community Rov of a Shul does.
lISTEN-UP FELLAS:
IN AN INTERVIEW WITH TOP DEMOCRATIC PARTY STRATEGIST HAND SHEINKOPF, CHANNEL 2, ALBANY, SAID THAT SHEINKOPF BELIEVES THAT PALADINO’S STRATEGY OF STANDING UP FOR MORAL VALUES AGAINST THE TOEVA RADICALS MAY WELL WORK, AND GET HIM ELECTED.
I remember Rabbonim yelling about Rav Avigdor Miller’s so called ‘chilul Hashem’ the same way some today refer to Rabbi Levin. He might be a little rough, but he’s doing the right thing and no one els is doing it…
#16 doing the right thing?
This clown gets up in front of goyim with the sole purpose of bashing yidden. He treats an old letter from R’ Miller as a blanket heter for speaking loshon hora.
Anyone who thinks this equals tzidkus needs to get their head examined.