Weiner Addresses Orthodox Voters

Steve Lipman – The Jewish Week

Promising to be the kind of mayor who will speak out on issues other officials would rather sweep under the carpet, Anthony Weiner on Thursday depicted a former kosher meat king imprisoned for bank fraud as a victim of judicial anti-Semitism.

“When Gedalia comes to me about the Rubaskin case, the scandal-plagued ex-congressman said, referring to host Gedalia Weinberger, a Flatbush businessman and Weiner supporter, and jumping off every page of the legal documents are judges that are clearly anti-Semitic …a local jurisdiction of the IRS that was clearly … it just jumps off the page.”

Weiner spoke out about the case in 2010, when Rubashkin was sentenced to 27 years, saying he was “extremely troubled and concerned about the injustice going on,” but did not mention anti-Semitism at the time.

Weiner’s comments were in the context of arguing that he is not afraid of tackling difficult issues and that even though he is not Orthodox he understands the concerns of the influential community, a large portion of which he represented as a member of the House with a Brooklyn and Queens district.

Weiner also noted that after Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi urged her members not to hold Town Hall meetings on President Barack Obama’s health care initiatives because they had become too volatile, Weiner nevertheless held more than two dozen in his district, although only 55 percent of his constituents supported the president in 2008.

“What type of person do you want to be mayor?” Weiner asked the gathering. “I honor and respect my constituents enough that they can make their arguments and I can make mine and we can go back and forth and there’s no china broken.”

At a parlor meeting in the living room of a community activist in Flatbush, at a table around which sat about a dozen haredi businessmen, rabbis and reporters, Weiner bantered easily with the conservative Orthodox crowd. Referring to himself as “a liberal with a libertarian sense,” (evoking Ed Koch’s “liberal with sanity” mantra) Weiner threw out a succession of Yiddish and Hebrew expressions, discussing how he conducted himself as a member of Congress and how he would act in the mayor’s office.

But one man in attendance asked “What guarantees do we have that [your] questionable behavior will not continue?” He was referring to the extramarital relationships through social media and phone calls that have now twice led Weiner to be publicly disgraced. The first instance and unsuccessful coverup in 2011 forced him to resign from the House of Representatives.

“We have lots of things you can judge me on,” Weiner responded, citing his record in Congress, the list of nearly 200 “Keys to the city” governance suggestions he has proposed, and his performance on the campaign trail during which he has undergone daily quizzing by the press and his opponents in the Democratic Party primary.

“This is not an endorsement,” said George Weinberger, the community activist and longtime political supporter of Weiner who hosted the meeting. He called the event an example of “hakores hatov,” Hebrew for thankfulness or appreciation, a recognition of the candidate’s record on such issues as government controls over metzitzah b’peh (oral suction conducted at a circumcision) — Weiner is opposed to the Health Department’s parental consent form — and a call for a review of the conviction of Agriprocessors kosher meat king Sholom Rubashkin (jailed on federal fraud charges.) “[Weiner] has always been there for us.”
“Your track record was sterling,” another man at the table said.

The parlor meeting followed similar haredi gatherings with other mayoral candidates.

Video: VIN News