INSIDE SCOOP: Boro Park Voters Made all the Difference in Dan Goldman’s Primary Victory, Many Claim

by Yehudit Garmaise

Last night, when Dan Goldman led Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou (65th) by 1,000 many in the community wondered whether he had the Boro Park Yidden to thank for his wide lead.

While absentee ballots are coming in until Aug. 30, last night, a City University of NY map showed that a whopping 78% of voters in Boro Park voted for Goldman, who will serve as the Democratic party’s candidate in the Nov. 8 election to run for the seat to represent NY’s 10th District in the US House of Representatives.

“Goldman’s winning 78% of the vote in Boro Park is a crazy number,” said Ushi Teitlebaum, a public relations consultant. “Plus, Dan did it despite his having served as the lead prosecutor to impeach Trump, which many people in Boro Park were not thrilled about.”

More Boro Parkers, according to the voting map, voted for Goldman, than voters near his home in Tribeca, where the candidate is well-known, Teitlebaum said.

Greenwich Village, Manhattan’s Financial District, Brooklyn Heights, and downtown Brooklyn were other neighborhoods that primarily backed the former federal prosecutor.

Assemblymember Niuo’s main supporters voted in Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, the Lower East Side, and Chinatown.

How did Goldman so effectively capture the overwhelming support of Boro Park Democrats, who tend to be more conservative than other Democrats citywide?

When BoroPark24 researched how Goldman so captured the hearts of Boro Parkers, Teitlebaum described a good old-fashioned grassroots plan in which united fronts on local levels can instigate tidal waves of change at higher levels of government.

Facing 12 congressional candidates, many of whom were quite progressive, including Niou, who many times announced her support for anti-Israel movement Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS), which often aligns with other anti-Jewish sentiments, the Boro Park leadership liked what they saw in Goldman.

One Boro Park leader said that he liked Goldman, because he is a “young energetic man, who is not coming from all the red-tape of politics, but from private practice.

“A person like him, we felt we could talk to, that he could be influential, and represent us well in Congress.”

Besides for having a recognizable Jewish name, Goldman wore a kippa when campaigning in Boro Park, and often spoke about his modern Orthodox wife, who went to yeshiva, where he also sends his five children.

To introduce himself to the community, Goldman visited Boro Park on a handful of different trips in which the candidate shopped in local stores, such as Eichler’s books, and volunteered to serve food at Masbia. In other visits to Boro Park, Goldman met with mosdos and Jewish leaders, who provided key endorsements. Goldman also made himself readily available to local media outlets, and just greeted passersby.

Goldman also earned the support and endorsement of local politicians, such as Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, who campaigned with Goldman many times, and even greeted voters with him on 13th Avenue, on the Monday night before the election.

Although Goldman effectively cast himself as someone who understands the community, where he most excelled was by creating agreement among Boro Park voters.

In one meeting with Boro Park Administrators (BPA), one local administrator said that Goldman has two things that are critical to Orthodox Yidden: “warmth and understanding of our community.”

What did Goldman most understand?

“As Orthodox Jews, we don’t have many political demands,” the BPA leader said. “What we worry about the most is the interference of the state at any level to reach or touch the core of our Yiddishkeit, which means the world to us.

“Resistance against any government interference is from what we will not move.

“We need someone to represent us who understands that strongly.

“When we put out an endorsement signed by more than 24 administrators, that carries a lot of weight to the people in our neighborhood. The 60 BPA members represent 30,000 neighborhood children who mostly have two parents who vote.”

On Aug. 14, the day after Early Voting kicked off in New York, Boro Park Bobov community leaders urged residents to cast their votes for Goldman, and other Boro Park leaders and askanim in the days to follow similarly endorsed him.

What does such a decisive victory for a candidate that earned the united vote of Boro Park mean for future elections? Boro Park24 wondered.

“People see that we are united, that we deliver, and that we have a strong bloc vote,” Teitlebaum said. “Niou could have come in and swept this race, but Boro Park made a big difference.”