Agudath Israel of America, like all New Yorkers of good will, is outraged at current mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa’s recently publicized rant against Hassidic Jews. Our outrage is accompanied by great surprise, considering how Mr. Sliwa and the Guardian Angels group he founded have shown great concern for the safety of Jews.
In his 2018 address to a Hudson Valley meeting for the Reform Party, Mr. Sliwa berated Hassidim, hurling age-old misrepresentations and distortions that those who hate Jews have used for centuries at contemporary Jewish residents of Hudson Valley counties, several of which have seen influxes of identifiable Orthodox Jews over recent years.
Among much other ugliness, he expressed disdain for Jews who donate to political candidates. And derided “able-bodied men who study Torah and Talmud all day while “all they do is make babies like there’s no tomorrow.”
Such Jews, he said, don’t vote like “normal Americans,” and have the audacity to access educational funding for their schools to which they are entitled.
Aside from the misleading nature of Mr. Sliwa’s accusations, with violent attacks on Jews, like those in Monsey, Pittsburgh and Jersey City, still in recent memory, words like his only add fuel to the fire of Jew-hatred.
Mr. Sliwa might find it helpful to speak to representatives of some of the Jews he so dislikes. Some education about Judaism’s priorities and how a true democracy functions would benefit him as he aims to lead a city known and celebrated for its ethnic and religious diversity. A repudiation of the offensive and fallacious words, and an apology – a sincere one – are in order.
At the end of his diatribe, the then-talk show host touted his Jewish connections, as if that in some way justified his bigoted words, and, in an attempt to head off criticism of his hateful words, asserted that “The moment you bring this to somebody’s attention, you’re called an antisemite.”
Mr. Sliwa, however, should know that when one parrots the traditional canards used by antisemites one is reasonably suspected of being among them.
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22 Responses
He is a complete nut and crazy person that was married over 5 times. He seeks attention and I dodnt think we should even give him the attention he is seeking. He should just be ignored .
I’m just wondering is agudah going to call out the governor for picking on us during the pandemic or is this “outrage” only towards republicans
Eric Adams is very proud of YWN.
Curtis Sliwa has done more for the frum community then all of the Democrat candidates combined. No, I’m not going to answer for Sliwa’s comments. He’s a big boy and can do that himself. But personally I’m not ready to toss hakoras hatov overboard to comport with the latest social media viral clip.
Anti-Antisemitism is correctly defined as disliking Jews more than normal. Yes, like all ethnic groups, we have our problems. Curtis Sliwa brought order from chaos in NYC nearly fifty years ago via his Guardian Angels. NYC should only be so fortunate to have this man in a position of leadership.
Curtis Sliwa is, first and foremost, colossally stupid and uneducated. Anyone who thinks he can help with anything, whether it is crime on the subways, or in the streets, clearly does not understand him. He wants to be the center of attention, just like someone Sliwa despises (to Sliwa’s credit) who until recently held a high federal office.
Part of the baloney that is Sliwa’s story is that he grew up on the mean streets of New York City. I believe that his father was a high official of the US Merchant Marine Academy, well educated, who provided Curtis with good educational and other opportunities, but Curtis was too lazy or indifferent to understand the privilege he was born into or the value of the things his family offered him. Instead, he chose to become a space cadet of the underground.
There is no way this Shaigetz can explain this away.
And to think, all these years I thought he was a true friend to Frumme Yidden!
The most unfortunate part of this is that this really just slams the door on having a Republican mayor
this time around (when we really could have used one).
Such blatant ant-Semitism and sheer ignorance. Doesn’t Sliwa realize that the fact that we educate our own we save the taxpayers the City’s schools cost of over $28,000 per student and we pay the same taxes as those who use the schools? Certainly the yeshivas get no where near $28,000 per student from the City.
An apology won’t do. No frum person can vote for Sliwa.
Can anyone find the above video as a Youtube clip?
Don’t we all exactly what he is talking about?!!!
Don’t act like tottal chazerim and then cry antisemitism!
Actually sliwa the sleezeball also went on a rant on air a few years ago when he had the 5oclock show on abc until it was cancelled, regarding Jewish/chassidic institutions in Monroe and in general “taking advantage of the system” and when confronted about it he used the excuse that he’s a friend of the Jews. And even on the rant he kept saying you can label me as an anti semite but Idc I will expose them and say what’s on my mind!
What a good for nothing two face. So friendly with the Jewish communities but when he goes on his rants all the truth comes out with no remorse. It’s good that he showed his true colors. We don’t need friends like him. In fact this should wake all the Jewish communities who rely on all these 2 facers such as deblasio and Cuomo who seemed friendly in order to get voted in and then, well we saw what happened with the covid libels.
Adams was also friendly with Jewish communities but again, nothing means anything unless they remember you when in office. That’s where it counts.
In the video he insulted flyover America too. And, I wonder…..would he say anything about catholic schools if those were still a big thing today?
This is nothing new. Sliwa has been bashing frum Yidden on all of his different radio shows over the years. A real lowlife backstabbing jealous goy loser.
I voted for Fernando Mateo in the Republican primary, even before this video surfaced, as I knew the loser Curtis is an open anti Semite. This bum can’t stay married to a woman for more than 5 minutes, and he’s tried it so many times. If this loser can’t get his own miserable life in order, how can he possibly run an entire city of 8.3 million+ citizens??? Thank God this bum will never Mayor of anything.
Sliwa is an opportunist who says whatever he thinks his current audience wants to hear, in order to ingratiate himself toward them and advance his personal agenda. There’s a word for that. It’s “politician”.
do not lower yourself to the level of the ADL!
we all know who the real antisemites are – they are all democrats!
we all know who commits violent crimes against the jew and we know who comes to defend them!
Why is it shocking to hear that someone is an anitsemite? Let’s remember who we are and that we live in temporary, mostly very accommodating accommodations .
He’s not wrong. This is not anti-Semitic.
Not only is Mr. Silwa’s singling out of Jews to criticize disgusting, someone should also inform him that there are huge numbers of Orthodox Jews who help finance public school education in America through their tax dollars despite not benefiting from the public school system at all. At least that is the situation here in California, where thousands of Jewish families pay high private school tuition costs and at the same time help subsidize public schools, without any ability to say where our tax dollars are spent.
Agudah supports all the homo’s and DemocRAT Derelicts and perverts. I’ll support someone who supported our community over and over, Curtis Sliwa. Where’s the Hakoras Hatov? It’s understandable that Agudah looks out for its payroll but Sliwa has always been there for us.
What is he saying that is NOT true? No one owes us to subsidize our yeshivas.
I didn’t hear anything antisemitic in what he said. He expressed a perfectly reasonable point of view. It happens not to be the point of view that the law takes, and we are certainly not mechuyav to comply with his wishes, but that he takes that view doesn’t make him an antisemite, it makes him a normal person. The fact remains, though, that the law is on our side, and we have no reason to change our ways, and he will just have to live with it.
Leaving aside our feeling . How about let us debate if his words are TRUE or not.
He’s a “disgratzi”