By COLlive reporter
Photos: Itzik Roytman
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio hosted the annual Jewish Heritage reception at Gracie Mansion on Tuesday, celebrating the Jewish community and their contribution to the city.
In attendance at the outdoor kosher barbecue event catered by Mendy’s Restaurant were some 800 guests, among them elected officials, community leaders and activists.
Attending from Crown Heights were Zaki Tamir and Chanina Sperlin of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, Tzach Director Rabbi Shmuel Butman, activist and NYPD Liaison Devorah Halberstam, and activists Eli Slavin and Yankel Goldstein.
Mayor De Blasio thanked the city’s Jewish residents for their contribution, remarking that he “brags wherever he goes” that he is the Mayor of “the largest Jewish community in any city, in any nation in the world.”
“This community does so much to make New York City great, people here contribute so much to this city and I want to say a heartfelt thank you,” De Blasio said.
Touching on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, De Blasio remarked, “it is impossible to imagine New York City without our Jewish community, and this is what we have to remind people at this moment in our history, if you love New York City, If you love America, then you need to love all the people in it.”
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Mayor De Blasio wished a “happy 70th birthday to the State of Israel,” which New Yorkers regard as our “sixth borough,” he said.
De Blasio, saying he is “a proud democratic and proud progressive,” was very vocal about his support for Israel, and spoke out in clear words against the boycotting Israel movement.
“I have a strong view I need to share, and that it’s clear why the BDS movement is wrong and why it must be confronted,” the Mayor said. “We should all oppose BDS because it undermines the very notion of respecting a place of refuge.”
“This nation was founded by people fleeing religious persecution, a country very much like the state of Israel… America ultimately welcomed and embraced the Jewish community, and by its actions, by its deeds, by its charity, and by its goodness, the Jewish community rewarded America and New York City a thousand times over.”
Mayor De Blasio honored comedian Modi Rosenfeld, a successful entertainer and New Yorker who has appeared on the Chabad Telethon and at many Chabad events, with a proclamation.
In his speech, Modi remarked that he is grateful to be a part of the Jewish community, “because whatever we do as a community we are not just doing it for the Jews, we are doing it for the entire community,” a lesson he says he learned from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Also in attendance were Consul General of Israel in New York Dani Dayan, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Denise Clark, Senior Liaison to Mayor De Blasio Pinny Ringel, Council Member Mathieu Eugene, Council Member Mark Levine, Council Member David Greenfield, Council Member Chaim Deutsch, Council Member Kalman Yeger, Michael Miller of the JCRC, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis, PBBS Chief Chaplain Rabbi Alvin Kass, Lt. Ira Jablonsky PBBS, and many other members of law enforcement.
Where was this and when? how come COLLIVE only gives the report for events that is done already?/??
BS”D R’ E. Slavin for Chief of Staff, R’ C. Sperlin, Sec’y of State, off to Washington