Roughly 3 years after he got elected to the City Council, Councilman David Greenfield, who already has the endorsement of the Brooklyn Conservative party, is expected to face a challenge in September, sources tell YWN.

According to some reliable sources, Assemblyman Dov Hikind is pushing for a fight in the 44th council district, eager to challenge councilman Greenfield, who won decisively over Mr. Hikind’s candidate Joe Lazar in the 2010 special elections.

Mr. Hikind’s preferred choice, is Chaim Israel, A Chasid from Borough Park who wears a shtreimel on Shabbos. Mr. Israel is the director of the BP Housing And Neighborhood Development Group since 1977. He has also served as the president of the Boro Park Y for many years and is president of Agudath Israel of Boro Park West (9th Avenue).

If there’s any indication for his desire to seek public office, it is Mr. Israel’s notability as described recently in the Jewish Press that he “is seen in almost every picture of Borough Park activists at significant community events.” He was recently kicked off the Community Board No. 12. by Councilman Brad Lander. Hence, not only is Mr. Israel not viewed as a viable candidate, he would also fail to receive the backing of all the institutions Mr. Lazar got at the time, before losing badly.

We reached out to Assemblyman Dov Hikind’s office, but we have not received any response until this very moment.

“If Mr. Hikind is ready to go head-to-head in a fight he is expected to lose significantly, it proves how irrelevant he has become in the community and among his colleagues in Albany, one political operative, who requested to remain anonymous, said.

Back in 2010, on his Jan. 16 radio program, Hikind didn’t hide his spite against Greenfield, “There are people out there who run for office who take credit for everything in the world and I don’t respect people like that … some people just make these claims that are unbelievable. There’s one guy running who claims all these things he did in Albany – two years ago I never saw him there. Not once,” said Mr. Hikind.

The race has “unfortunately gotten rather nasty very early and I think the level of nastiness and negativity is bad for the community as a whole,” Michael Fragin, once an aide to Governor George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, said at the time.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)