By Aryeh Levin, COLlive reporter
Representatives of the U.S. Census Bureau have apologized Thursday to the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn for failing to properly engage their participation in the once-a-decade population count.
Thursday’s meeting with community leaders mentioned the bad timing of the mailing of the Census forms right before Pesach, and the fact that most of the advertising was on TV – a ‘no no’ in Chassidic homes.
The statement comes after only 40% of the residents in Crown Heights, 39% in Williamsburg and 37% in Boro Park have answered the survey before the April 16 deadline to mail the completed form.
The meeting was called by the leader of Democratic Caucus in the New York State Senate, Senator John Sampson, and several of his colleagues including Senator Eric Adams (who represents Crown Heights).
They asked to meet with directors of the Jewish Community Councils of Crown Heights, Boro Park, Williamsburg and Flatbush, as well as representatives of the Met Council and the JCRC to talk about the relatively low response count of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn.
Meeting attendees included: Chanina Sperlin and Eli Cohen of the Crown Heights JCC; Yankel Wice, representing Senator Sampson; Reuven Lipkind, representing Senator Adams; and Eli Slavin, representing Congress Member Yvette Clarke.
“The more complete the count is in Crown Heights, the greater our power in Washington, Albany, and City Hall,” Cohen, Executive Director of the Crown Heights JCC, told COLlive.com.
“A better count will bring more funds to our schools for UPK Kindergartens, Head Start and other government assistance, as well as programs for the community, and services from the City, State and Federal Government.”
The mail-in phase of the Census is basically over, though those who still have forms can still send them in. The next phase of the campaign will be house-to house, for the months of May and June.
The Census will hire at least one crew from the community with Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian speakers, who will be visiting homes in the mostly densely Chassidic areas.
The Census will be sponsoring a local ad campaign in Brooklyn Jewish outlets encouraging residents to open their doors to the Census enumerators. The Jewish Community Councils will be working with the Met Council to coordinate the campaign.
I live in BP & have not received any census forms in the mail or otherwise.
The information to fill the cencus form is just your name ,birthday ,date of birth and names and birthdays of your children and spouse.In exchange for everyone on the form $3000 will be sent to your community federal money for housing ,education, transportation,school busing , etc
you should not believe the right wing media nonsense about ACORN and the census. It was not true. You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
To #6 et al
Doesn’t anyone remember that ACORN was moving intop the White House to supervise the census? Doesn’t anyone realize that the White House took over the census administration for the 1st time in history?
Well ACORN has been neutralized. The Wite House – well that is a different matter.
No thank you. Loy Miduvshach (grants) vloy meyuktzach (R”L).
I did not send my information on a short track to the White House.
they first need to seek a real job then learn to speak, read and then write. We will discuss it then (in about 15-20 years)
The census helps the state, by knowing how many ppl live in the state that’s how many representatives we have in the house!
All you have to do BY LAW is fill out the number of people who live in your house. So don’t be put off by all the other questions, which are invasive in my opinion.
I did that & so far, I haven’t been harassed by the census people for not filling it out ” properly” .
Along your line of thinking….. Change your name from Goldstein or Greenberg to Jhonson or Smith
Rabbi Pikus of COJO of Flatbush.
Rabbi Kaufman of Boro Park Jewish Community Council.
The fellow in the back, representing Rabbi David Neiderman of UJO Williamsburg.
looks like a bored meeting
Kudos to Senator Eric Adams office and his staff, including Reuven Lipkind, who spent hours in front of 770 making sure that our community signed up,
Eli slaven for president and Chanina for VP.
Who are the other FRUM people in the photos?
the censes form came long b4 passover