By Rabbi Yaacov Behrman
Crown Heights United proudly endorsed Assemblyman Brian Cunningham weeks ago, despite the fact that a member of Anash had already announced his intention to run against him.
Brian Cunningham has been far more than simply friendly to the Jewish community and our yeshivos. He has consistently stood with our community on virtually every major issue affecting us, and no frum person seriously involved in state politics disputes that. Ask the mosdos and askonim who regularly work in Albany. There is a reason all four Orthodox Jewish Assemblymembers endorsed him.
Just as importantly, Cunningham is going to win. Turning against a proven ally under those circumstances is not only unprincipled, but a form of askanus malpractice.
At the same time, the “Anash” candidate running against him, whom I’ll refer to here as “Mr. Newly Registered,” only registered as a Democrat a few months ago when he decided to run for office, and has not voted in a single Democratic primary since moving to Crown Heights. Yet today, he lectures others about political engagement.
He absolutely has the right to run for office, even without prior involvement. But he does not have the right to demand support after years of political noninvolvement, including not voting. People like Mr. Newly-Registered, who do not vote, are part of the reason New York looks the way it does.
It should also be noted that nearly every issue Mr. Newly-Registered campaigns on, including bike lanes, shelters, and development projects, involves broader neighborhood concerns, not specifically Jewish issues. By framing everything primarily through a Jewish lens, he undermines his own ability to build support and achieve results. Effective advocacy requires coalition building and an understanding that elected officials represent the entire district.
Ironically, the one uniquely Jewish issue in this campaign, the Kingsbrook synagogue, is something I am personally involved in trying to save. Cunningham has been helpful. Mr. Newly Registered has not been involved, yet continues attacking Cunningham over the issue. If it is truly so important to him, where has he been?
Mr. Newly Registered has also been attacking Cunningham over the East Flatbush development with a homeless shelter, despite the fact that the project predates Cunningham and was largely approved before he took office. In addition, a State Assemblymember has little authority over such projects, so neither Cunningham nor Mr. Newly Registered can stop it.
Up until now, this was mostly standard campaign behavior: exaggerations, political spin, and selective facts. But then the campaign crossed a line.
Mr. Newly Registered’s campaign suggested that Cunningham was “deliberately” placing bike lanes in the “Jewish” section of the district while refusing to place them where “Black” and “hipster” residents were supposedly “begging” for them.
Bike lanes are controlled by the New York City DOT, not by a State Assemblymember. More importantly, framing the issue this way is reckless, divisive, and false.
And this Friday, things crossed an even more disturbing line.
The campaign attacked Cunningham over an assisted living facility for young adults aging out of foster care, falsely describing it as a homeless shelter, writing: “It is extremely generous of Assemblyman Cunningham for offering to place violent, dangerous gang members that were just released early from Rikers Island due to liberal policies, in our daled amos and try to make them into a ‘success.’”
That is a cruel and disgraceful way to speak about vulnerable young people who have already suffered tremendously. Many of them are orphans. To casually portray foster children as criminals and gang members is shameful. How exactly does he know whether any of them even have criminal records?
Imagine if a neighborhood group opposed HASC or Ohel opening a facility in Crown Heights. We would all be disgusted. Not every shelter or assisted living facility is the same, and not every resident should automatically be treated as a threat.
While it is true that, in order to qualify for some programs, a person may need to be formally classified as homeless, that does not make their current government-funded apartment a homeless shelter. I personally know families in the community who initially stayed in a homeless shelter and only afterwords qualified for housing assistance.
And even among homeless shelters, there is a wide range. I live two blocks from the shelter on Rogers and Carroll, and there have been no issues. In fact, I know several Lubavitch families who were able to take shelter there. The fact that it is located within the community is one of the reasons those families felt safe going there.
People can disagree about where a specific facility should be located while still speaking with decency and humanity. The streets of Crown Heights do not belong to any one person or group.
The Rebbe taught a very different approach. As he famously told David Dinkins: “We are one community, in one city, under one administration, and under one G-d.”
The opinions expressed are his own, and he is writing in his personal capacity.
With all due respect to Mr Berman. The anash near eat Flatbush , Clarkson has enough supportive and homeless housing. Take a walk down from your high mountain on Carroll and looks what type of people roam the avenue. It’s has become dangerous to allow kids to walk the steeets. Don’t lecture us about being welcoming, We have our fair share of welcoming , these is over 400 homeless beds coming to Clarkson , in addition to the “low income residents “etc.
take it to your area or shut it down. We had enough.
Who is he to tell us who to vote for? It comes across like he’s trying to please politicians more than represent his own community. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but implying that support depends on voting a certain way feels wrong. That’s not leadership — that’s pressure.
Main point is the Jewish ideal candidate has no chanve at winning because unfortunately jewish voters do not have the majority votes so we may as well vote for the one who has a chance at winning and is an ally with the jewsih community .
Didn’t you have a whole campaign to get people to register and vote? Chjcc also told people if they want to see change they should get involved in politics which he is doing. So he did and is stepping up to the plate. Why can’t you help him out instead of doing photo ops?
The article is heavily one-sided and reads more like a political endorsement than an honest analysis. It prioritizes defending one candidate rather than fairly weighing both perspectives or engaging in balanced debate.
Brian Cunningham can win. The other candidate cannot. Use your head.
Instead of engaging the Anash challenger’s ideas, the article tries to disqualify him personally. Attention Mr. Berman That’s not argument—that’s gatekeeping dressed up as commentary.
Mr. Behrman’s article is a strongly one-sided defense of Assemblyman Brian Cunningham that relies more on endorsements and insider alignment than on fair comparison of the candidates. It dismisses the Anash candidate largely through questions of experience and political timing rather than engaging his positions, while inconsistently framing responsibility for local issues in whatever way best supports Cunningham. Overall, it reads less like neutral analysis and more like an effort to protect an existing political alignment from being challenged, rather than fairly evaluating both candidates on the merits.
Mr. Behrman’s article doesn’t read like an even-handed analysis of the race—it reads like a defense of a political camp he’s already aligned with. Instead of seriously weighing the Anash candidate’s positions, it leans on endorsements and establishment approval as if that settles the discussion. The challenger is brushed aside mainly because of his background and timing, not because of a fair engagement with his ideas. What’s missing is basic balance: a real comparison of what each candidate is proposing and how they would actually represent the community, rather than an attempt to frame one side as automatically legitimate and… Read more »
You say that Cunningham “has consistently stood with our community on virtually every major issue affecting us.”
Can you provide a few examples?
The lack of detail leaves me skeptical.
Hey, good to see your picture that keep you busy, just guessing ….but act MAASSE HU HAYIKAR you are NOT doing anything good down East Flastbush adding 3 or 4 locations in Crown Heights for homeless housing, its not going to happen so ACT RIGHT NOW!
As you know people families are very very upset very dangerous for our kid too!
With all due respect, who are you? Were you ever voted in by Anash? What right do you have to tell us that we are voting wrong?
Maybe you should stop focusing on taking pictures with politicians and start caring about what CHers actually want. We don’t want someone who was never elected by us telling elected officials that you represent us. And we don’t want you coming to us and demanding that we vote for someone just because he let you take a picture with him.
so the kingsbrook shul will reopen shortly?
You’ve been doing this for years and were treated the worst out of all frum communities, maybe some change is good!!
To dismiss and minimize legitimate community concerns, to equate opposing homeless shelters in your neighborhood to opposing HASC, to attack a member of your own community and call him racist for standing up for his community and trying to make a difference where you have achieved nothing, to concede to defeat and reward someone because its supposedly inevitable so we must get on his good side so he can continue to make a neighborhood worse. I encourage you to re-engage with your own supposed constituency and their concerns before daring to make a public comment again.
Its not about whom we vote for. To have a strong vote we need to vote as one.
If someone from the community decides he wants to run, he should have backing of the Rabbonim and Askanim otherwise he is simply trying to split the vote and that will hurt us more.
If you look at the statements issued by the Four Orthodox Jewish Assemblymen, one can notice they stop shy of using the term endorse.
Good guy and everything, yes – but no endorsement.
Only Pesach Osina, himself a candidate for state assembly, used the term endorse.
Mr. Author of this OPed, please represent the facts.
Have some respect and decency (that you are complaining about) and refer to him by his name. Not by a derogatory nickname.
He was a non voter and now realizes it’s time to step up and be involved so he is! Good for him for trying