OJPAC 2021 Appreciation Event Honors Leaders who Advocate for Orthodox Jewish Communities

By Yehudit Garmaise

    
     The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) hosted its annual Appreciation Event and Policy Conference last Thursday to provide extra recognition to “the heimishe Yidden who go above and beyond what is needed to use their platforms to advocate for Orthodox Jews in terms of pushing back against the lies and the hate.”

        Although Yossi Gestetner, an OJPAC co-founder and executive director of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC), honored nine leaders who often use their positions to speak up productively for the community, he told BoroPark24 that all Yidden can be askanim: when they use their platforms in their different professions to advocate for the well-being of their communities.

    “Whether they work in government, journalism, or business, can use their platforms to fight bigotry against Orthodox Jews and to advocate for civil rights, civil liberties, and policies that affect us,” said Mr. Gestetner. “Askanus doesn’t necessarily just mean speaking to elected officials, driving someone to the hospital, or cutting a check for an organization.”

    Mr. Gestetner chose the Sleepy Hollow Hotel and Conference Center in Tarrytown which is in Westchester County, as the venue for the OJPAC event because he wanted a location that was midway between upstate and downstate to make meeting easy for leaders in askanus, he said.

     “We had 200 people who came from Flatbush, Boro Park, Queens, Long Island, Lakewood, Passaic, Teaneck, Monsey, Orange County, and Sullivan to catch up, discuss policy, and enjoy a good evening,” Mr. Gestetner said.

     Ron Coleman, Joel M. Petlin, Askan Yosef Rapaport, Alex Rapaport, Eli Steinberg, Avi Schnall, Meyer Tauber, Councilman Kalman Yeger, and journalist Shloime Zionce, were the honorees at the OJPAC reception that amidst elegant food, the music of Moishy Schwartz, and inspiring speakers, showed appreciation for advocates and leaders within the community.      

   One Boro Parker who was honored at the OPJAC reception was Alex’s Yosef Rapaport, a media consultant who won the Senior Askan Award.

     “Mr. Rapaport is someone who is has been activist and an advocate of the community for many years,” said Mr. Gestetner, who uses his marketing expertise in his own advocacy or Orthodox Jews. “To see someone who has been advocating for the community for such a long time is a good chizzuk for the next generation.”

     For the organization’s Organizational Askan Award, OJPAC honored Mr. Rapaport’s son, Alex Rappaport, who Masbia’s executive director, because he is “someone who runs an organization and does activism with it: beyond what is above the call of duty,” Mr. Gestetner said. “Alex focuses on feeding the poor, whether they are Jewish or not, but he also uses his platform and his role to make a Kiddush Hashem and to care for everyone.

    “In addition, Alex uses his access to reporters and journalists in the general media to present points and arguments on topics that are relevant to the Orthodox community.”

    Although some people run for elected office or work as senior staffers in politics focus on the basics, such as "sidewalks and city issues,” Mr. Gestetner said, “the heimishe elected people I know help people beyond just providing the typical, expected constituent services.”

    City Councilman Kalman Yeger for instance, “is someone who, at every opportunity, speaks out against hate and haters,” said Mr. Gestetner before he presented Councilman Yeger with OJPAC’s the 2021 Askan in Government Award.

   “[Kalman] does it as a proud Jew, and he gives us chizzuk.”

     “He uses his platform time and again, whether in the City Council alone, or through social media to push back against people who pick on Orthodox Jews.”

    “What we call an ‘askan in media,’ is someone who is a journalist or a documentarian, who takes to heart the cause of trying to be fair to the Orthodox community,” said Mr. Gestetner, who uses his own expertise as a marketing consultant to do his askanus as a community advocate.

     Shloimy Zionce, for example, who writes for Ami Magazine and makes YouTube vidoes to highlight the beauty, meaning, and realities of heimish communities, uses his platforms to shed light on the aspects of Orthodox communities that remain mysterious to outsiders.

    One helpful thing anyone can do, Mr. Gestetner said, is to cultivate relationships with local elected officials to bring relevant issues to their attention.

     “If there is petition going around regarding a policy that affects us, people should sign it,” Mr. Gestetner added. “If people know how to go to City Hall and to Albany to advocate, they should.                                                               

     “If people have funds and can donate to organizations that focus on governmental policies: that is a good thing.”

   Perhaps the easiest way to participate in askanus is for people who are active on social media, which is “a key platform where news and information gets spread, to use their platforms to spread accurate facts and numbers, appreciating those who try to be fair, and by calling out those who are unfair,” said Mr. Gestetner.

   “With social media, you just have to sit on a sofa, and you can be involved,” he said. “It is a simple proposition.

     To better open up the lines of communication between the heimishe community and the media, which does not have the best record of portraying the community accurately and expressing its points of view, Mr. Gestetner implore Yidden who are willing to, to speak to the press when they have the opportunity.

    “When reporters give the impression of wanting to be fair and honest, we have to give them the quotes, backgrounds, and the numbers they need,” said Mr. Gestetner, who explained that a lot of policy challenges that affect the Orthodox community are often the result of the public discourse that precedes them.

    “When there is a lot of noise about Orthodox Jews doing something or not doing something, then you have the unfortunate follow-up effects: the uneven focus and enforcement from government: for example, the red zones that resulted during COVID.

  “We need to speak honestly and clearly about these topics. We need to provide  evidence, such as numbers, statistics, facts, figures, and quotes to get the truth out there.”