Mamdani’s Judenrein Judiciary
Dear Editor:
When I was a lawyer at Gibson Dunn in D.C., we took our summer associates to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. A survivor spoke to us and said something that stuck with me:
Lawyers need to know that the Holocaust did not begin with camps. It began when Jews were removed from institutions, above all, legal institutions. Judges were stripped of their robes. Lawyers were disbarred. Then, when legal groups were Judenrein, they codified laws that made discrimination systematic and “legal.”
First, you remove the Jews from the institutions. Then, Jews can be discriminated against without representation.
On Monday, Mayor Mamdani announced his 18-member Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. The committee was promised to be “truly reflective of New York City.”
Not one of the 18 is Jewish.
Not one Jewish attorney, former judge, or law professor was selected in a city where one in eight residents is Jewish. Even Justice John Leventhal, recommended by the state’s chief judge, was rejected.
It is estimated that over 50% of the New York bar is Jewish. That means there is a 0.0004% chance of no Jews being selected for the committee.
Mamdani’s marginalization of Jews has been ongoing, and few voices on the Left have spoken up.
On day one, Mamdani revoked the IHRA antisemitism definition, a top priority. He changed the NYPD guidance protecting houses of worship, eliminated Jews from the city’s immigrant-heritage map, called for the arrest of the prime minister of the only Jewish state, and has now created a Judenrein judiciary committee.
My grandmother, Leah, survived Nazi Germany. Before the laws and before the violence, she told me how she was pushed out of her high school groups. Then, once she was excluded from all activities, she was bullied and marginalized.
We are already seeing Step 2 in NYC. Two weeks ago, on a Jewish holiday, two men were stabbed outside Upper West Side synagogues. One of them was wearing a kippah. Yesterday, Jewish students were attacked. Every 26 hours, there is a hate crime against Jews in NYC.
In NYC, there is a concerted effort to disappear Jews from public life and leadership.
No one on the Left is speaking out. If this discrimination were happening to any other group, the chorus would be deafening.
To be clear, Jews will find a way. Many are already taking their talents elsewhere. When white-shoe firms shut Jewish lawyers out, they built firms that now dominate. Cardozo, Louis Marshall, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all found a way despite discrimination.
But NYC will be worse off without us. A city government that is Judenrein, cleansed of Jews, does not just hurt the Jews; it hurts the city.
The tragedy is not just that Jews were left out of the institutions. It is that the institutions were left without the Jews.
If you see this and have not yet spoken out, I encourage you to do so.
Eli Albrecht
Help Us Confront Moshe Grunhaus’ Stabber in Court
Dear Editor:
Kol hakavod to the Queens Jewish Link for covering the strong responses to the stabbings of Moshe Grunhaus and Chok Sung by Raul Morales, who yelled “Allahu Akbar!” as he perpetrated his evil deeds.
Readers are urged to join our Jewish community’s judicial watch group as we confront Morales at his next court hearing on Tuesday, September 22, at 9:30 a.m. in the courtroom of tough Judge Althea Drysdale, New York State Supreme Criminal Court, 111 Centre Street, Part 61, Room 928.
We must let the judge, District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the perpetrator, and Mayor Mamdani know how deeply we care.
Glenn Richter
The Power of Achdus Outweighs Antisemitism
Dear Editor:
In ArtScroll’s Tehillim with the Teachings of the Talmud, Radak’s commentary on Tehillim 144 explains that no matter how many enemies Dovid HaMelech faced, he knew that Hashem was with him. It is said that Dovid HaMelech composed this kapittel while at war with the Pilishtim. The reality of the enemy he faced was far outweighed by his Ally, “He Who guides my hands in battle, my fingers in combat” (144:1).
With this in mind, why should we be afraid of our mortal enemies? As a New York City resident, people ask me, “Aren’t you afraid to live in New York with Mamdani as mayor?”
The reality of a politician who hates Jews, seeks to deny our right to exist, and excludes us from judicial decision-making is nothing compared to the reality that Hashem is our King. People thought they had nothing to worry about because Trump was on our team, or because they were so liberal that the socialist mayor would endear himself to them. The reality is that Hashem was, is, and forever will be.
No man can protect us or, conversely, harm us. Rav BenTzion Kokis, a mashgiach in Beis Medrash Govoha and the author of Earning Eretz Yisroel, shared with me the Gemara in Sanhedrin (97b), which says that we can either do teshuvah willingly or through a king whose decrees are as bad as Haman’s.
“Hashem is pushing us to teshuvah,” he said.
Let us approach Elul with love; we shouldn’t need reproach. Re’eh: See the good in yourself and others. In this way, we can truly earn Eretz Yisroel.
I am not afraid. I wear my yarmulke proudly. And I proudly serve my people as a lawyer, writer, counselor for children with special needs, and prince in the King’s palace.
Our enemies are fleeting like shadows, Dovid HaMelech explains. Ashrei ha’am shekachah lo.
Chaim Yehuda Meyer
Pleading the Fifth
Dear Editor:
Do you use your small brown garbage can? I plead the Fifth. Do you throw your coffee pods and peelings into the regular garbage? I plead the Fifth. Do you secretly read The New York Times in the library? I plead the Fifth. Do you yell at every customer service agent who thanks you for your patience? I plead the Fifth. Did you read all 45 kinos on Tish’ah B’Av morning? I plead the Fifth.
I’m not sure Dr. Fauci had a Jewish lawyer, but pleading the Fifth 111 times seems insane. He didn’t even answer the question about the color of his tie. If I had been Fauci, I would have hired a better Jewish lawyer. Also, at age 85, he could have said that he had forgotten everything he had said or written.
Imagine for a moment that, during Viduy on Yom Kippur, instead of admitting all of our sins, we simply invoked the Fifth in response to everything. That probably wouldn’t get us off the hook, and honestly, it’s cathartic to be able to admit to our shortcomings. Maybe Dr. Fauci can learn a lesson from the Jews and stop invoking the Fifth.
ebbie Horowitz
