The Brooklyn Paper reports: Kings County may be Barack-lyn now, but the President-elect’s unorthodox candidacy turned many Democratic south Williamsburg voters into McCainiacs.
While Barack Obama won the vast majority of Brooklyn votes in the Nov. 4 election, McCain drew more than four times as many voters than Obama in the largely Chasidic neighborhood between Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one in the area.
In the three adjoining election districts, McCain got 792 votes to Obama’s 146 — an 84-percent-to-16-percent thrashing. Those numbers stand in stark contrast to the overall Brooklyn vote, which went 79–20 in Obama’s favor.
Then again, south Williamsburg is unique. Census data show that more than half of the population is not in the labor force and 75 percent of residents speak Yiddish in the home.
And it’s not as if the McCain supporters flaunted their love of the Arizona senator. McCain buttons and “Country first” signs are rare — and flashy “Republican red” is never the color of the day in a Satmar Chasidic neighborhood dominated by black hats, coats and side-curls.
Obama won 77 percent of Jewish votes nationally, according to exit polls, but Williamsburgers didn’t like the first-term senator’s temperament. That’s ironic, given that Obama was derided as the candidate who would undermine Israel — something Satmars believe must happen if the Messiah is ever to return.
But on the streets, “Israel wasn’t a big issue,” said McCain supporter Shlomo Friedman, 50, the owner of Meyr Auto Center on Flushing Avenue. “It’s more people here are not going to go with someone [Obama] who’s not so stable.”
Even younger voters were looking for a steady hand. Saul, a 28-year old restaurant manager and self-described liberal, voted Republican because he was “more comfortable with McCain running the economy.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) visited the neighborhood before the election to stump for Obama, but Satmar leaders made no endorsement, according to Chasidic activist Isaac Abraham.
Still, several residents said that Rabbi David Niederman, the director of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, made his influence felt.
“Chasidic people don’t care who the president [of the United States] is, they just ask somebody who knows something — like people at UJO,” claimed a bearded fishmonger, who refused to share his name, as a co-worker with long side curls nodded.
There could be a simpler reason for McCain’s overwhelming support — his age.
“My wife and I were for McCain,” said Shlomo, a 25-year-old teacher. “The Jewish religion says we have to give respect to the elderly and listen to what they have to say.”
(Source: The Brooklyn Paper)
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16 Responses
Who are those 146 kofrim anyways?
We must ferret them out…
I wonder why only Williamsburg. What are the stats for Boro Park and Jewish Flatbush?
Articles such as these warm my heart.
This article puts to rest all the senseless motzei shem rah about acheinu bnei yisrael that live in Williamsburg.
hey joseph,
i see your comments all the time & you remind me alot of jb who learned in cb & nm.
is that you?
#1 Joseph
Excellent idea. Let’s ask for the individual voting records to be open to the public, and arrange for some mass stonings after Mincha.
Good question joseph but what bothers me more is who are those 77 percent jews that went obama?
notpashut/#4, was in Chaim Berlin, nm?
justajew/$5, Exactly my thoughts! I have some friends in the NYC Board of Elections…
The title of this article should be “Williamsburg WAS McCain Country”!
Too late now…
joseph,
if you don’t know nm i guess you didn’t learn there.
but you sound like a nice guy anyway, a staunch conservative – kol hakavod
Re # 1 – “Who are those 146 kofrim anyways? We must ferret them out…”
Hey Yosi, Do you want to turn me and bacci40 into the RWCSP (Right Wing Chareidishe Secret Police)- or maybe just call in the Vaad Mishmeres HaTznius? (oops – sorry for the redundancy)
Yonason the Kofer 🙂
bacci40:
Actually it was by and large the usual secular liberal Jews who unfortunately always vote Democrat, as that is their only religion.
Like this story here indicates, as well as other polls, Orthodox Jews voted VERY strongly Republican for President.
Good try WB but too many others in Brooklyn and elsewhere just came rushing out to vote their color. To the 77% of other Jews that voted for Obama I hope we all don’t have to pay for your Liberalism.. I would like to be proven wrong because if my vote for McCain was the right way to go the price for being wrong on their part will be severe a price for us all to pay!!!
notpashut:
Join the Coffee Room!:
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/
Yonasaon,
The Vast Right Wing Chareidishe Secret Police Conspirators should do the trick!
bacci40,
You sound again very uneducated and obsessed with race when you insist all those who rejected Obama did so because of race.
I agree with Joseph. Oh, by the way bacci40, I am not allowed to comment because you hold I am not a woman or a bubby? Then the wigs I own were bought by my spouse to cover up my bald spots. You sir have many, namely on your Jewish soul. You sadly have never meritted to a true Jewish education so therefore you hate yourself because you are a Jew. But, let me quote from the late, great A.M. Rosenthal, Op-Ed editor for the New York Times,”Sweetheart, to you you are Fifth Ave., to your wife you are Fifth Ave., to your friends you are Fifth Ave., but to an Anti-Semite, you are a Hasid!”
I pray that you will soon merit to see the error in your ways. And don’t forget of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of Obama. Everyone remembers who that is? That is the man who has called Judaism a “Gutter Religion”. And bacci40, if you don’t believe me, go to YouTube because the video is online! Thank-you!