Assemblyman Eichenstein Outraged at Derogatory Statement by Executive Director of Common Cause NY
By Yehudit Garmaise
Today Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein called out the inflammatory, anti-Semitic rhetoric of Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, an government advocacy group, who painted the entire and diverse Orthodox community as “an extremist bloc” of voters.
“How is it acceptable for the NY chapter Executive Director to refer to Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers as an ‘extremist bloc’???” Eichenstein tweeted. “You claim to be an organization that promotes “equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all.”
“We can disagree on policy, and we can have differences in politics, but to label an entire community as ‘extremist’ is a hurtful way to describe a large and diverse community,” Assemblyman Eichenstein told BoroPark24 today.
In the Gothamist article, Lerner explained how the new and complicated Rank-Choice voting system can diminish the influence of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Lerner said, “One of its goals is to build a consensus majority, and you don’t do that by taking extreme positions,” Lerner told Gothamist. “If you’re pandering to an extremist bloc, you’re perhaps not being strategic.”
“Common Cause prides itself on its mission of promoting equal rights and opportunity and representation for all, protecting the voices that are being silenced of those communities that are not heard,” Assemblyman Eichenstein explained. “[But yet, in the interview,] Lerner was basically saying that candidates need to be strategic and not to pander to ‘an extremist bloc.’ That is outrageous and divisive language."
Lerner is trying to paint a picture of a city that has on its fringes a group of “crazies,” Eichenstein said.
“Let’s be honest, had Lerner said that about any other ethnic group in New York City, there would have protests today calling for her resignation,” he said.
Assemblyman Eichenstein said that if Lerner cannot immediately apologize and clarify what she meant in her comments, she must be fired.
In an interview with a left-wing publication, could it be that Lerner expressed how she really feels about the Jewish community?
“If the truth came out,” Eichenstein said, “then shame on her: then let her admit it.”
https://twitter.com/SEichenstein/status/1363500011917574144?s=20