Ezra Friedlander, head of the Friedlander group, has joined the Christine Quinn campaign for mayor as a key advisor on Jewish outreach, YWN has learned.
Recently, Mr. Friedlander took the role of being the first Orthodox Jew to publicly endorse Christine Quinn for mayor. In an Op-Ed on one of the leading news sites, Ezra explained the reason he decided to back Quinn for mayor and why the Orthodox Jewish community should follow suit.
“I couldn’t be more proud to welcome Ezra to the team,” Ms. Quinn said in a statement released. “He is a tireless advocate for the Jewish community and will bring an unparalleled wealth of knowledge to our campaign. His presence will be invaluable and a key component for our path to victory.”
Friedlander stated, “I am thrilled to be joining the Quinn team and look forward to getting Chris elected the next Mayor of the City of New York. I know that Chris will continue to have a positive impact on the future of our city and bring more great opportunities to the Jewish community. She is the right kind of candidate we need–she delivers results, has years of experience, is honest, dependable, and has shown me that she understands and can work with the Jewish Community. I am confident that she will continue to do so and look forward to serving as the bridge between the community and the campaign.”
Ms. Quinn, according to sources who have spoken to YWN, has been courting key figures within the Orthodox Jewish community, in Brooklyn, for quite a while. The most recent incident in which Hatzolah saved the day for Ms. Quinn and the lower than expected support for the ‘Two Bill’s’ (Thompson and de Blasio) at this point in the race may have attributed to Ms. Quinn’s decision to compete for the Jewish vote, in hope of rebounding to first place in a possible runoff.
In the most recent poll on the mayoral race, conducted by Siena Research, Christine Quinn is in the lead with 28% of the Jewish Vote, Anthony Weiner at a steady 20%, and the two Bills, who are considered more favorable among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, are tied for third place.
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
21 Responses
I guess everyone needs to make a living. It is a shame that frum people would support either Quinn or Weiner each of which stand for everything our community does not stand for.
Let’s work on the best Mayoral candidate to get elected ,
Jack D. Hidary .
Ezra, you bring shame to your family name! You remind me of the Chazir who puts his hoofs(Yarlmuka & rekel) foward but is completely treiff inside! I just looked in the dictionary under the word “Michaneff” and lo & behold, the name Ezra Friedlander came up! You are worse than Lapid!
Dear Ezra
This time you chose the wrong decision, Be sure you won’t be able to convince us the Jewish community to vote for her. (even with the so called PR about Hatzolah…)
Oh, she got an endorsement from her own adviser!! that’s fantastic.
The only problem is, that when he endorsed her, he didn’t disclose that he is her adviser.
He should be ashamed for himself. She is against everything and anything a frum Jew represents. She hates frum Jews, since they don’t accept her lifestyle, she spoke out publicly against Metzitzah B’peh, and bashed the candidates spoke more politely to the Orthodox voters, as pondering for the Orthodox vote.
Ezra Freidlander sold his Neshama for the Saten.
I wonder if he’s going to sit in for Krias HaTorah on Yom Kippur. Something about an abomination……
This is why Moshiach isn’t here yet, we sell ourselves out for the mighty dollar.
If he wasn’t being paid to work for her, his endorsement might mean something.
Must Friedlander always support the “shmutz” and only the “shmutz”??
Ms Quinn will follow through with Bloomys Metzizah she is married to a woman R”L & is a despicable person as Mayor of NYC
Ezra, it is a disgrace for you to join such a campaign!! Haven’t you learnt from the Weprin campaign who the Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn voted and will continue to vote for??
Any frum Jew can only offer 1 piece of advice to such a lowlife:- Get rid of your Lesbian wife, failing which no self respecting Jew can or will vote for you.
So the Torah says that Being gay is disgusting But Ezra Friedlander decided to not pay attention to it! absolutely disgusting! The torah chas vashalom means nothing anymore how far have we gone!
SHAME ON YOU – V’Hakesef Yaane Es Hakol
One Halachic definition of Chillul Hashem is when one hears or reads about an incident, one cringes in embarresment.
Congratulations, Ezra. You meet that definition
“the Torah says that Being gay is disgusting”
Actually it says nothing of the kind. It says that certain sex acts between men are disgusting. It says nothing at all about sex between women and in fact sex between two non-Jewish women is completely permissible according to the Torah as it isn’t a violation of the Noachide laws.
In any case, positions on homosexuality has been proven not to affect the frum vote in NYC mayoral elections; all the frum communities voted for Bloomberg — a Jewish candidate whose children are not Jewish — by landslide margins after he endorsed same sex marriage.
does this protastant-jew even have a good record on wining elections? he’s a complete sell-out.
does he even understands political philosophy or just knows how to suck up to power?
Makes sense. Mr. Friedlander shares a lot of qualities with Speaker Quinn — naked grasping for power, glib arrogance and complete lack of principled restraint. Mr. Friedlander has consistently lowered the esteem of Orthodox Jews in the eyes of the gentile world, at the same time that Ms. Quinn crusades to make Torah morality considered un-American.
Mr. Kornbluh, the author of this article, should know better that these polls numbers about the “Jewish” vote are meaningless, especially considering the fact that leading poskim and rabbonim like Rav Avrohom Yaakov Nelkenbaum of Mirrer Yeshiva, Rav Chaim Benoliel and Rav Yisroel Neuman of Lakewood along with many others, ruled that every Jew should support Erick Salgado. Mr. Salgado has a much higher chance of winning than the mainstream media report, as Spanish and Russian speaking households are far less likely to answer their poll questions.
Looking forward to seeing Ms. Quinn and Mr. Friedlander lose, big time!
If Quinn is so fond of Jews why didn’t she call Hatzalah when ems was slow to respond. Also she didn’t praise Hatzalah. Thompson at least demonstrated support for Jew many times . Why
Not back him or even hidary.
Its amazing that people are focusing on her being gay,as if being a democrat wasn’t problem enough.
He has $tooped lower than any other frum politically involved person has ever $tooped!
HOW wil he explain why he supported a female mayoral candidate who will live in Gracie Mansion with her wife (Christine is legally married to a woman), for all to see? This is a Chilul Hashem for all to see, how a frum person can support her!
Which Rebbe or Rov told him to do this, or is he above asking Rabonim?
I support Ezra’s decision. It’s based on realism.
We must consider the following:
1)It’s not mandated by our Torah to investigate or consider a (gentile) person’s private lifestyle before doing business with them.
It’s perfectly OK to hire a Gay Plumber or Lawyer or Dentist.
2)Our only concern is if we are assisting or encouraging that person with promoting their abominable practices.
In this case, unfortunately every candidate that really has a serious chance of being elected are ALL pro-gay anyway.
This is the sad realism.
Ms. Quinn has a serious shot of being elected. All the other candidates already have a Jewish liaison.
Ezra simply feels that Quinn is the best candidate available from the Nebich’dig selection we have available in this election.
3) It would not be good if Sof-Kol-Sof Quinn is elected and us Frum Yidden do not have a representative that has an open door to her office.
Aderabba, if push comes to shove, Ezra might be influential in persuading a possible “Mayor Quinn” in backing off the Metzitzah issue.
As for the Gay issue, she’s not much worse than Weiner (or Bloomberg) or the other viable candidates.
Bottom line: Ezra likely feels she is the “Lesser of the evils”.
And it’s important for us to be prepared to have an open door to her administration, if she’s elected.
I’ll bet that Ezra wouldn’t mind if some other Frum (and effective) Yid took his place.
Wise Guy is Ezra promoting himself
“latzonay hador omrim” (Currently comment # 20) is really Anthony Weiner trying to discredit Ezra and Ms. Quinn
See how easy it is to make up stuff and discredit people?
I do confess I know Ezra.
From what I gathered (over Shabbos) is:
a)He wasn’t hired or offered anything by Quinn when he originally endorsed her.
b)If we would set aside the “Gay” and “Metzitzah” issues, he believes she would actually be a very good mayor.
c) Because we really CANNOT set aside those 2 issues, Ezra consulted with his father who gave him the OK. considering that in this situation his participation could be considered “a necessary evil”.