Dear Editor:
I am writing concerning the upcoming election. It is very imperative for our community to vote and support those people who support and help our community.
Many people are rightly upset at the rising crime situation and the horrible bail law. Many people are also upset at the proposed congestion pricing plan that will harm our community.
Much of our community, upset at these issues, will be voting for Lee Zeldin and the Republicans, but we need to remember that we have friends and neighbors on the Democratic side, as well. Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal has been an independent Democrat. Endorsed by the PBA, he voted against the horrible bail law. He knows crime is the number one issue and is working with law enforcement. He is also opposed to congestion pricing.
When there is an anti-Semitic incident, Daniel is one of the first people there, and even willing to call out his own Democratic colleagues on it. A Democratic assemblywoman in Brooklyn tweeted a map of Israel being erased and marked as Palestine; Rosenthal tweeted out against his own colleague, calling her out on it, and she backed off.
On Tuesday, November 8, no matter who you are voting for governor, Assemblyman Rosenthal needs and deserves our support. We are lucky to have someone representing us who really has our backs. It is perfectly okay to vote Hochul-Rosenthal or more commonly in our neighborhood, Zeldin-Rosenthal. What’s important is that Dan returns to Albany.
Howard Schoenfeld
Dear Editor:
Election day is rapidly approaching, and New Yorkers have the opportunity of a lifetime. For the first time in 20 years, deep-blue New York has a chance to elect a Republican governor. In recent years, it has been impossible for a conservative to become governor in such a left-wing state. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the residents of New York – even Democrats – have reached their tipping point.
Crime is running rampant in our streets like never before, making it dangerous to go out at night or take the subway. Violence and vandalism have become an everyday occurrence. But even worse, with the full support of Kathy Hochul, dangerous criminals are quickly set free to hurt more innocent people, due to the disastrous bail reform, which Lee Zeldin has promised to repeal. Additionally, the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, said that he will only prosecute murderers and let all other criminals off the hook. Zeldin said that his first action in office will be to fire this district attorney. Aside from this, we as frum Jews have much greater reason to support Zeldin over Hochul. Here are a number of reasons why she does not deserve a single ounce of Jewish support:
She has allowed the Board of Regents to impose frightening regulations on our yeshivos; she wants our schools to teach our children to question their gender; she opposes tax credits for private schools; she made a law forbidding guns to be brought to protect houses of worship; and since she took office, anti-Semitic crime has risen by an astounding 325%!
On the other hand, Zeldin has promised to support our yeshivos and put a stop to these assaults on our way of life; he strongly opposes gender education; he supports tax credits for private schools; he wants to protect our shuls; and he will strongly fight anti-Semitic crime. When The New York Times published an article dripping with hatred for frum Jews, Zeldin went out publicly and denounced them, while Hochul did not say a word. It can’t be clearer who is a better choice for the frum community.
Luckily for us, in recent weeks the race has tightened greatly, and polls are now showing that enough Democrats and independents plan to vote for Zeldin to give him a solid chance. A poll released just a few days ago showed Zeldin ahead of Hochul by less than one percent. Two polls released shortly before had Zeldin behind by only 4% and 6%, and Real Clear Politics now rates this race as a tossup. This is in liberal New York, a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one. Republicans have not even come close in two decades, but now they have a chance. It is up to us.
We can make the difference! We need to come and make our voices heard. If you can’t come to the polls on Election Day, you can vote early; and if you can’t come at all, you can vote by mail. Please just take the time to vote. If Hochul remains in power, who knows what will be with your children’s chinuch? How many more innocent people will get murdered or beaten up on the streets of New York? Do you want your kids to be taught to question the way Hashem created them? Do you want to feel safe when you go outside or take the subway? Do you want dangerous criminals off the streets? Do you want lower taxes?
Please, go out and vote. The race may very well come down to a small few. If we head out to the polls in huge numbers, we will make the difference. Do it for the future of klal Yisrael, do it for your kids, do it for your family, and do it for your own safety. Please also encourage all your friends, neighbors, and relatives to vote. There is so much at stake! With Hashem’s help, we will turn New York’s future around.
Sincerely,
Yaakov Yosef Weiss
Dear Editor:
Since Moshe Hill asked readers why they would ever vote Democratic, I figured I would give my two cents as someone who mostly does.
I feel somewhat less strongly about the state government races, but I’m skeptical of any argument for Zeldin that just cites New York crime statistics without any context. Crime has been rising everywhere – in blue and red states, Democratic-led and Republican-led cities, urban and rural areas, cities with cash bail and those without. And New York isn’t an outlier or close to leading the pack. If Zeldin has a comprehensive plan to reverse these trends, that would be one thing, but he hasn’t offered one. Reinstating cash bail might slightly move the needle, although statistics don’t really support that, but that means you have to be comfortable with making jail dependent on how much one can pay. Personally, I feel that if you want to incarcerate people before conviction in the name of public safety, pass a (somehow constitutional) law; don’t repurpose something meant to ensure people show up for their court appearances.
As for national politics, what exactly is the Republicans’ plan? They seem largely unwilling to offer any specifics. The fact that they seem to be gearing up to threaten to provoke a debt ceiling crisis (which if carried through might be catastrophic to the economy), unless cuts are made to Social Security and Medicare it isn’t a selling point. Have they proposed a viable plan to fight inflation (a global issue)? Not that I’ve seen. Do I trust them at all to try to improve the economy if Biden might get the credit? Absolutely not – just see their behavior with Obama and the 2008 recession (and contrast that to how the Democrats acted with Trump and COVID).
Furthermore, there are issues that are important to me where the Republican record is dismal, and they show no signs of changing. Fighting climate change should be a top priority, but not only do they not have a plan, they actively work against any solutions. The healthcare industry is in desperate need of reform, but their attempts to repeal Obamacare shows that their ideas mostly revolve around making healthcare even worse and more expensive. And we all know the deal on guns, even though Republicans fashion themselves as being tough on crime. I don’t necessarily have a lot of faith in Democrats making significant headway on these issues, as the lawmaking process in this country is broken (see the now automatic filibuster), but at least I know that many in the party care about them.
And what do the Republicans stand for? You can’t say they’re the party of small government when their media-anointed standard-bearer Ron DeSantis uses his power in Florida as a cudgel against his opponents. And they can’t be called the party of fiscal responsibility when they explode the deficit any time that they’re in power, only for them to complain about spending when they’re not.
As far as I can see, there are three driving forces in the party. First, their North Star is the desire to cut taxes for the rich and corporations, and to make sure those groups are not burdened by any pesky laws or regulations. If this means they have to cut entitlements, so be it – that’s a feature, not a bug.
The second is to protect and support the delusions of former President Trump (as Zeldin did as a congressman). Mr. Hill seems to argue that this is irrelevant, but it’s hard to say that when you see the candidates parroting his election claims that are being put forth across the country, and witness the harassment of non-partisan election officials and poll workers.
The third is to label themselves as the party fighting “wokeness,” defined as whatever is needed at the moment. Now, there are some people with principled and nuanced views about certain trends in society, but those people don’t seem to be leading the Republicans, who mostly seem to be disingenuously using this as a wedge issue using misinformation and dangerous fearmongering.
Do I worry about the anti-religious and anti-Israel (which often bleeds into anti-Semitism) inclinations of some on the left? Absolutely. But that is at least balanced out by the growing racist white nationalism being embraced by the right. And while the extremists on the left are still mainly (for the time being) on the fringes (Bernie was easily beaten by Hillary and Biden, for one example), the inmates are increasingly starting to take over the Republican asylum.
We’re in galus, neither party is going to be our salvation. And in a two-party system, it would be odd if one party perfectly aligned with all of one’s interests. But I just don’t see the argument that the Republican Party as it is currently constituted deserves to be in power.
Regards,
Yaakov Ribner
Dear Editor:
This past week, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously to add COVID vaccines to the federal government’s list of routinely recommended vaccinations. This development was widely reported in the mainstream media.
What received considerably less attention, and was censored from Twitter, was a press release from Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo announcing new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine guidance, after finding an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among males 18-39 years old within 28 days following mRNA vaccination.
The timing of the CDC’s announcement regarding its COVID vaccine recommendation absurdly coincided with the announcement that the CDC’s own director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, tested positive for COVID less than one month after she publicly celebrated her booster shot.
The ill-timed announcement was reminiscent of President Biden’s celebration of the passing of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” last month, hours after a Consumer Price Index report revealed inflation was up 8.3% year over year, which triggered the Dow Jones to drop by more than 1,000 points.
With much conflicting vaccine information in the public sphere, it’s difficult for many people to make informed decisions regarding their medical care. The CDC’s well-documented, abysmal record on transparency of its vaccine data, including withholding information on the lack of efficacy of the COVID vaccine boosters, certainly does not help.
As a non-medical professional, with a social circle that includes maybe a few hundred people, I can offer anecdotally that while I am unaware of any young, healthy people dying from COVID, I unfortunately know of numerous, middle-aged people who have unexpectedly passed away since 2021. While I cannot conclusively say that their deaths were COVID-vaccine related, the uptick of deaths among young people since the introduction of the COVID vaccines (documented in the July 13, 2022, edition of the Queens Jewish Link by Gerald Harris) is extremely alarming.
The CDC has not put forth any compelling justification for providing boosters to young, healthy people. Who are we to trust? No less an authority than the well-respected infectious disease expert, Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt declared in the June 2, 2021, edition of the QJL that the COVID vaccine “absolutely prevents transmission of COVID,” calling opinions to the contrary “ridiculous.” While I suspect these opinions have since been updated (the QJL archives prevent memory holing!), they raise a larger point: If the vaccines, which were touted as “safe and effective” when rolled out, have proven to be largely ineffective in the prevention of infection or transmission of COVID, why should we trust the CDC’s largely evidence-free assertion that they are safe? Could it be that the obfuscation on the part of the CDC in fighting the release of their own vaccine efficacy data is intentional to obscure something more nefarious with respect to vaccine safety or lack thereof?
My intent in raising these issues in this forum is not to create machlokes or give credence to the anti-vaxxers. It is merely to publicize our community’s need for full transparency on the part of the medical establishment with respect to COVID vaccines and boosters.
Doniel Behar
Dear Editor:
Too little, too late! Stanford University has deemed it appropriate to apologize for excluding Jewish applicants from its hallowed halls. Unfortunately, their apology is 70+ years too late for all the Beverly Hills High School students who sought admission.
The Wall Street Journal, to its praise, had an editorial about the apology, whereas The New York Times buried the article in the first section. Although one may look askance at the apology, it’s better than Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivy League schools, which still refuse to admit that if your name is Cohen, and you’re from New York, your chances of being admitted to these schools are pretty poor, even if you have a 4.0 GPA and a 1600 on your SATs (although truth be told, I wouldn’t know, since I didn’t have anywhere near these scores).
Country clubs and certain fancy towns like Garden City, Long Island, displayed signs that read: “No dogs or Jews admitted.” Granted, much of this discrimination has changed, yet we now have the universities like CUNY, which flaunt their anti-Israel sentiments and make life miserable for their pro-Israel Jewish students and professors. Are we going to have to wait another 70+ years for a “mea culpa”?
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
Looking through the NYC Votes Voter Guide for the upcoming elections, I was dismayed to read that four ballot proposals that we are to vote on: The first statewide proposal is “The Clean Water, Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act of 2022” and the three citywide proposals are: “A Statement of Values to Guide Government”; “The Establishment of a Racial Equity Office”; “Measuring the True Cost of Living.”
A New York Post editorial entitled “New Yorkers who care about their city and state need to nix all four proposals on the ballot this November” was also dismayed by these proposals and urged us to vote no on all of them. This editorial should be read in full to fully appreciate the detriments of these ballot proposals, but just a few of its points are that the Racial Equity Office would essentially carry out race-based Redistribution Goals costing billions while increasing racism. Moreover, “Measuring the True Cost of Living” would ignore subsidies for housing, health care, food, transportation with the goal to force City Hall to calculate poverty in a way that lets more people qualify for even more taxpayer-funded handouts. Never mind that the city already leads most of the nation in redirecting funds to the needy, forcing it to saddle its most productive resident with sky high taxes.
Lastly, the editorial mentions that the statewide “Environmental Bond Act” proposal would let Albany borrow and spend a whopping $4.2 billion on green agenda items and use taxpayer money to repay the debt. Again, state and local spending in New York already tops that of nearly every other state, which is why its tax burden is also near the top. If Albany needs money to placate greenies, let it cut spending elsewhere; New York’s taxpayers are squeezed enough. So, please vote no on these four ballot proposals.
David Labovitz
Dear Editor:
I just read Moshe Hill’s October 20 piece in utter amazement.
He doesn’t understand why Democratic voters will be voting overwhelmingly to return Governor Kathy Hochul and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado on November 8. I cannot understand why all Republicans of conscience won’t join me (though many will).
I admit that I have a bias. I am a lifelong Democrat whose late brother was named after President Kennedy. I currently serve as a member of the Queens County Democratic Committee representing my neighbors in the 31st Assembly District, covering Southeast Queens and Far Rockaway.
But I am an American and a Jew. I have watched Lee Zeldin try to run away from his anti-choice votes and promises the last couple of weeks. He has stated that he will appoint an anti-choice Health Commissioner if elected. This will affect how women get healthcare, as many fellow anti-choice extremist Republicans are banning access to medication for women with rheumatoid arthritis because the drug that they need to regulate the pain can also potentially cause an abortion.
But Lee hasn’t just voted repeatedly to deny women the right to control their own bodies. He recently voted to deny all New Yorkers protection to access to contraception. And in the state legislature he voted against aid to Planned Parenthood, who provide many gynecologic services to women of New York.
But it isn’t just reproductive health that Lee endangers. He has repeatedly voted against access to affordable health care. He has voted against funding to prevent police layoffs. Lee opposed legislation to lower inflation. He opposed legislation to prevent oil companies from gouging consumers at the pump. Lee voted against lowering the price of insulin and other necessary medications. He voted against the Child Tax Credit and the $1,400 American Rescue checks that helped so many of our neighbors through the pandemic. Zeldin voted against healthcare aid to our brave veterans. Lee voted against protecting our kids and synagogues and making our streets safer by getting weapons of war and ghost guns off of our streets. Zeldin even voted against funds to alleviate the baby formula shortage.
The only question any reasonable New Yorker can have is: How much lower does Lee have to go?
And then there is the fact that Lee is joined at the hip to the twice impeached insurrectionist, Donald Trump. Zeldin accepted Trump’s endorsement in spite of Trump previously stating that there were fine people on both sides in a conflict between Nazis and those opposed to Nazis. Lee backed up Trump’s minions wearing Camp Auschwitz shirts who defiled our Capitol on January 6 by voting TWICE to disobey the will of the voters, and then refusing to hold Trump accountable for leading the insurrection during the second impeachment.
But if that wasn’t enough, Lee Zeldin has shown his cowardice by refusing to condemn Trump’s recent anti-Semitic threat to Jewish Americans who refuse to worship him as if he is the golden calf.
No, Moshe, Democrats, as well as Republicans and independents of conscience of in Queens – and this is the Queens Jewish Link – are fired up and will be flocking to the polls to vote Blue to protect our state from Lee Zeldin and his dangerous allies on November 8.
So, the better question to Moshe Hill and MAGA Republicans: What’s your excuse for not voting blue to protect your fellow New Yorkers?
David S. Pecoraro
Former Vice President
Rosedale Jewish Center
Dear Editor:
Early voting is about to begin in New York. So let’s just go through all the fabulous accomplishments of the Democrats during the last two years.
We have record-high inflation, courtesy of runway Democrat Congressional spending. We have had record-high gas prices, courtesy of an administration that is at war with our domestic energy production. Our heating bills are going to be astronomical this winter. Illegal aliens are coming into our country in droves, courtesy of a Democratic Party that somehow thinks illegal drugs pouring into the country is a good thing. Crime is out of control in every major city in the country, courtesy of George-Soros-backed DAs, who refuse to protect the law-abiding citizens. Governor Hochul has proven to be a terribly corrupt politician.
We need to stop this before it’s too late and we lose our state and our country. Unfortunately, it looks like this mayor is no better than his predecessor, so our once safe and thriving city is gone. There are no moderates. Every Democrat voted for inflation and for 87,000 new IRS agents. These are things to remember as we get closer to November 8.
Shalom Markowitz
Dear Editor:
The late New York State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz was a mainstream Republican. He served for 22 years from 1957 to 1979, earning the title “the people’s lawyer.”
The use by today’s State Attorney General, Letitia James, of his title “the people’s lawyer,” represents consumer fraud. Ms. James, with only two years in office, has yet to build a record worthy of this title. Her accomplishments don’t come anywhere close to Lefkowitz. Co-opting this title just serves as a cheap re-election television ad sound bite.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Great Neck, New York
