Just a day before Election Day 2013, when New Yorkers will be voting on Proposition 1, thirty two prominent Roshei Yeshivos, Admorim, Dayanim, and Rabonim have come out with a Kol Koreh urging everyone to vote “no”.
As has been previously reported on YWN, the main Orthodox bloc-votes in New York started an intensive campaign to turn out tens of thousands of Orthodox voters to block plans for new casinos in the Catskill region and elsewhere in the state.
Following the publishing of our article, which stated that both satmar factions had ran articles and ads to vote “no”, Satmar of Kiryas Yoel came out swinging with statements and articles stating that they will be voting “yes”.
Feel free to read the previous article – all hyperlinked below:
Orthodox Jewry Organizes to Vote Down Gambling Referendum
Satmar (Kiryas Yoel) Approves Of Gambling In Sullivan County
Op-Ed: Casinos In Our Midst, And Rabbi Moshe Indig Of Satmar (Kiryas Yoel)
MAILBAG: In Defense Of Rabbi Moshe Indig & The Satmar Opinion On ‘Proposal 1’
(Chaim Shapiro – YWN)
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6 Responses
David Greenfield is in favor of the casinos, as he stated clearly this morning in an interview on JM in the AM
I am old enough to remember when New York state politicians first legalized a lottery. It was sold to the public as a form of painless taxation that would produce a windfall for the funding of education in New York. That was some time in the late 1960’s or early ’70’s. Now, 50 years later, we find our schools still underfunded, our tax rates painful, and we have an new form of addiction to contend with – the compulsive gambler. We also know that gambling operates as a regressive tax, falling more heavily on those least able to pay it.
I do not know why the lottery failed to produce the magic results that were promised 50 years ago, but I am smart enough – or simple enough – to recognize that Proposal 1 is the same crock of nonsense in a new container. Legalized casinos have no beneficial public impact beyond their walls. Whatever moneys the government can skim off somehow never seem to solve government fiscal problems, perhaps because money raised “painlessly” is treated as a windfall and squandered rather than spent wisely. As for the jobs created by casinos, they beg the question of whether they really improve the region, or change the character of the region adversely.
As for the economic revival of the Catskills, I do not consider higher levels of commercial activity an unmixed blessing. There is something to be said for letting bucolic, rural areas remain bucolic and undeveloped. For the people of the Catskills – full-time resident and seasonal visitors – casino development may be only a temporary solution to the absence of paychecks in the region. Rising real estate prices are good for current owners only if they want to discontinue living in the area, or if they want to live in a community that will change its character from bucolic to suburban or otherwise developed.
To nfgo3:
I agree with you on this one. Remember the OTB? The same broken promises & corruption!
I for one am in support of casinos, although I would never step foot in one. Allow people to make their own choices.
Shalom2010
I have not heard Jm/Am this Am. However, I am totally together with David Greenfield if he said hes in favor of the Casinos.
Just not in the Catskill Mountains where so many of us gather during the summer season. David Greenfield is one of the hardest working C/Man any district could dream for. Go Vote!
No. 3: Yes, I do remember OTB. Nothing blighted a neighborhood as reliably as an OTB joint. And OTB went broke. How could that happen? Obviously, corruption disguised as mismanagement.