By now, we know who won and lost 99% of the races in New York yesterday. However, behind the scenes during each election year there is another race – for power, privilege and bragging rights by Jewish politicians and community leaders who do their best to move votes in their respective communities for their favored candidates. While the rest of the world believes in the mythical Jewish bloc vote, we at Jewish Politics know better. There is no one Jewish constituency but rather many competing factions. The list below examines for the first time ever the winners and losers of this very inside game. Winners Village of Kiryas Joel Even former President Bill Clinton called the village to solicit their support for his preferred Congressional candidate. It didn’t help. The sophisticated village decided to endorse Republican Candidate for Congress Nan Hayworth, Democratic Candidate for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Senator Bill Larkin. All of their candidates won big victories inside and outside of KJ.  Bottom Line: Trifecta of victories keeps KJ as top Chasidic power player.   Brooklyn’s Sephardic Community Proving that they are one of the few remaining bloc votes in Brooklyn, the Sephardic community won an astounding 80% for Dan Donovan in their precincts. Insiders say that the Sephardim chose this race to demonstrate that they can move votes. They succeeded: 80/20 is a higher margin than any other Jewish group managed to secure for their endorsed candidate in New York City. Bottom Line: Donovan may have lost but the Sephardim won big.   Senator Eric Schneiderman With the diminishment of Shelly Silver, Schneiderman is now the big Jew on the Albany campus. As Spitzer and Cuomo both proved, the job of Attorney General means that the world is now Schneiderman’s oyster (he doesn’t keep kosher, so we felt the analogy apt). What he will run for next is anyone’s guess. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if he challenges fellow Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand for US Senate in 2012. Bottom Line: Schneiderman is the rising liberal star of New York’s Democratic Party.   Boro Park’s Chasidic Community It took some time, but the Chasidic community of Boro Park finally came together to agree on one-thing: Dan Donovan for District Attorney. Even though Donovan lost the state-wide race, he swept Boro Park 70/30, proving that if they stick together (an admittedly tough task) the disparate Chasidic communities of Boro Park can do anything. Bottom Line: Chasidim still have juice in Boro Park.   Yoseph Hayon This first time candidate got outspent 100-1 and managed to win 43% of the vote against ten-year incumbent Steven Cymbrowitz. Count that as a victory in our book. Mr. Hayon has now earned the right to the Jewish community’s support in another challenge to Steve Cymbrowitz in two years. Bottom Line: Next time, with a little more money, experience and institutional support Hayon will likely beat Cymbrowitz.   Losers: Anthony Weiner: This mayor wannabe, may want to shore up the votes in his own district. It’s tough to convince millions of New Yorkers to vote for you when you can’t win big in your own ‘hood. Weiner had to pull out all the stops to win this race but despite having a former President and millions of dollars on his side, he failed to

If you thought the race between Assemblyman Dov Hikind and Councilman David Greenfield was over, you haven’t seen anything yet. In their first public break since they made amends after Greenfield’s landslide victory over the Hikind-backed/funded/inspired Joe Lazar, Assemblyman Dov Hikind has decided to endorse a Republican challenger to defeat centrist Democratic Congressman Mike McMahon. Why does this even matter? Because the Hikind/Greenfield split over this race evidences a fundamental difference in philosophies between the two Jewish powerbrokers.   According to Hikind’s detractors, he has no loyalties to any political candidates and routinely makes his endorsement decision at the very last minute depending on whichever way the political wind blows. Hikind’s endorsement of Mike Grimm seems to follow that model. After all, just a few weeks ago Congressman McMahon was an invited guest on the “Dov Hikind Radio Show” where Hikind spent much of the show praising McMahon for his outstanding support of Israel.   So what happened? Polling happened. Recent polls show that Congressman McMahon is more vulnerable than previously thought. As a result, Hikind may have switched his support from Democratic McMahon to Republican Grimm to take credit for the possible victory of the Republican challenger. This seems to fit a well-established pattern by Hikind. Even as far back as 1994, Hikind seemed to evidence this “endorsement by polling results” strategy. At the very last minute, Hikind abandoned his close political ally Governor Mario Cuomo to endorse new-comer George Pataki in the hotly contested race for New York Governor. Coincidentally, polling showed that Pataki was on the cusp of defeating Cuomo. Ironically, Hikind could not possibly have imagined at the time that Mario’s son, Andrew Cuomo, would come back 16 years later as the Governor of New York. Sources say that Andrew has neither forgotten nor forgiven Hikind for turning on his father at the very last minute for seeming political expediency.   This brings us back to the current contest between Mike McMahon and Mike Grimm. Truth be told, the fate of the US Congress does not rest on this singular seat. By all accounts, the margin which will decide control of Congress will be a large one. So why did Greenfield decide to back McMahon? Those familiar with his thinking believe that there are two things driving him: 1. Greenfield has a soft spot for moderate Democrats – McMahon fits that mold to a tee. He voted in favor of middle-income tax cuts but stood up to Nancy Pelosi to vote against Obama’s controversial health care reform. 2. Greenfield follows the AIPAC model on supporters of Israel. The unofficial rule of AIPAC is that they always support incumbents who are pro-Israel. The reason is simple: if you don’t support incumbents who support Israel, those incumbents have little incentive to continue supporting Israel. In that regard, McMahon also fits the mold – he has an outstanding record of consistently supporting Israel. In Jewish terminology this falls under the category of “hakoras hatov” or gratitude for McMahon’s unwavering support of Israel.   More importantly, the real question is: do either one of these endorsements actually translate into anything? Lately, it seems like Hikind’s endorsements have lost their weight. Even before Greenfield beat Hikind’s candidate earlier this year, Hikind’s other candidates have done poorly in the Jewish community. A

Carl Paladino’s visit to Boro Park should be mandatory teaching in graduate schools across New York of how to guarantee that your candidate loses the Orthodox Jewish vote. It went so poorly that Paladino’s campaign manager even offered to resign. To prevent this from happening to another naïve political operative, we at Jewish Politics proudly introduce you to: “5 Things Politicians Should Never Do In Boro Park.” 1- Don’t take a fringe Rabbi with you. When you go to Boro Park you have two options: you can either bring one of a handful of mainstream Rabbis with you (mainstream means that the Rabbi has at least 1,000 followers; not like the Rabbi who Paladino brought who on a good day has a minyan of ten followers). Alternatively, you can bring one of only two influential elected officials in the community: Assemblyman Dov Hikind or Councilman David Greenfield. They’re pros who would have never allowed the visit to spiral out of control. By showing up with a fringe right-wing Rabbi, Paladino essentially guaranteed that Boro Parkers would not take him seriously and turned his visit into a side-freak show. 2- Don’t bash gays. This is the major mistake that many politicians outside of Boro Park make. They think that Boro Parkers care about social issues. They’re wrong. Boro Parkers care about social-service issues not social issues. As far as they are concerned, violating shabbos, eating pork and gay marriage are in the same category – transgressions of Jewish law. But Boro Parkers aren’t trying to convert the world, they’re only trying to improve theirs. 3- Don’t insult their Rabbis. Paladino read from a prepared statement where he insulted two prominent rabbis in two ways: 1. He did not refer to them as “rabbis,” he simply referred to them by their name. This is a cardinal sin in a place where even the elderly are referred to by venerated titles. 2. He accused them of selling out for supporting a candidate who doesn’t oppose gay marriage. He should have read rule # 2. Or even rule # 1. An insider would have explained that the Rabbis supported John Heyer for City Council instead of Brad Lander to prove that they control votes – NOT to win the race. In fact, the Rabbis were offended by Brad Lander’s overall liberal political views primarily because of his extreme left-wing views on Israel (Lander is of the Soros/J-Street/Peace Now persuasion). They weren’t trying to win a race, they were trying to send another local politician (Assemblyman Dov Hikind who had endorsed Brad Lander) a message. The Rabbis sent their message: Heyer won 85% of the votes in Boro Park. 4- Boro Parkers are NOT amish. Everything you say WILL be recorded. There are more cell phones, digital recorders and flip video recorders in Boro Park per capita than any other place in the world. This is because there is no religious prohibition on these items, but there are on other items like televisions. As a result, Boro Parkers compensate on banned items by having more of the permitted gadgets than anywhere you will ever visit. 5- NEVER campaign in a synagogue. Boro Parkers treat synagogues as the holiest of holiest places. Any kind of conversation, other than prayer or studying torah, is strictly prohibited. That