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Mayor de Blasio Expresses Respect For and Friendship with NYC Orthodox Jewish Community

Mayor de Blasio Expresses Respect For and Friendship with NYC Orthodox Jewish Community

By Yehudit Garmaise 

“What advice would Mayor Bill de Blasio give or has he given to Mayor-elect Eric Adams about how to best work with the Orthodox Jewish community?” BoroPark24 asked the mayor in his very last press conference and just before he was scheduled, in a formal “Walkout Ceremony,” to walk out of City Hall for the last time as mayor.

“Obviously the mayor-elect has a long, positive history with the Orthodox community, as I have had, and I don’t think he needs my advice because he has had that good history,” Mayor de Blasio said. “Part of loving the city is loving all the communities in it.”

Mayor de Blasio, who said he “knew literally almost nothing” about frum Jews before he first ran for City Council 20 years ago, described his experience of meeting the residents of Boro Park and Kensington, as “an incredibly powerful experience.” 

What turned out to be “kind of a revelation” to the outgoing mayor was that the people of Boro Park comprised “a very different community than my initial understanding.”

“The deeper I built my relationships [with Orthodox Jews, I realized] there were so many things we had in common, and there were so many things and so many causes [about we all cared.] Our [mutual] respect and friendships deepened.”

What was most surprising to Mayor de Blasio as he got to know the community?     

“The importance of charity I saw in the Orthodox Jewish community really moved, me,” he said. “The sense of people looking out for people and caring for each other.” 

As he got to know more and more Orthodox Jews, Mayor de Blasio said he “started to get upset when I started to hear negative stereotypes of the community,”  a reaction he said is similar to what happens as he deepens his relationships with other minority communities.

“I can go all around the city and say: to me it has been this voyage of deeper and deeper understanding as I’ve bonded with community after community,” the mayor said.

“I think Eric Adams is going to be sensitive and respectful to communities across the board, and I think he is going to have a great relationship with the Orthodox community.”

As for his own experiences with the community, Mayor de Blasio said, “I am appreciative for the friendship and the relationship. Everything has its ups and downs. And there are things I did better and things I did worse, but what never changed was the respect and friendship that I found throughout the community and that I feel deeply.”

Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.


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