As I tweeted earlier, I resigned my duties as Director of Jewish Outreach for the New York State Republican Committee.
A main reason behind this is simple: Dean Skelos, the Leader of the Republicans in the New York State Senate has an understanding with former NYC Democratic Councilman Simcha Felder that he, Skelos, will back Felder in the November elections for the “Super Jewish State Senate District” on the expense of David Storobin, a sitting Republican State Senator.
On a personal level I think Felder is a nice guy and I was working recently to get this point across to him. However, he has a very poor record in addressing real long term concerns of the Orthodox Jewish Community, and I made my displeasure known through my news blog www.GestetnerUpdates.Com. Skelos’ boys were obviously not happy that someone as vocal against Felder as me was retained by the NYGOP State Committee and therefore called for my head late last week. However, Chairman Ed Cox and his Executive Committee properly held the line on my behalf.
Another issue which brought a distraction to the NYGOP is my ongoing work to defend the Orthodox Jewish Community and the Hasidic way of life against an endless amount of attacks, lies from forces inside and outside the Jewish Community. While others take each alleged misdeed of an Orthodox Jew as a pass to smear the whole Hasidic Community, I have been out there – as an advocate and at times as a contractor – to bring to life the American ideal of “Innocent until proven guilty;” a privilege that some do not want to grant for Orthodox Jews. I have been a voice for balance when issues surrounding the Jewish Community are in the news. The same forces, who misrepresent, spin and lie about many cases and situations surrounding the Orthodox Jewish Community, were out in force to misrepresent to the public the work I have done on behalf a Minority that has few defenders. While this too was a distraction to the State Committee, the Chairman held the line. But I didn’t believe it was fair on my end to force the Committee to deal with this on a daily basis.
Some reports, based on a Jewish Channel that has less views in a busy week than what I have on a slow day, suggest I resigned because I didn’t pledge loyally to the Israeli flag in a recent interview. This is nuts because I am more pragmatic on the Israeli issue than Satmar; a community that Skelos and the GOP is more than happy to work with. (In fact, at age 21 my op-ed ran in the Rockland Journal News ripping the Neturei Karta; a public stance that few Israeli-flag-waving Americans have done at age forty). Some claim that my personal stance how to approach the abuse cases in the Orthodox Jewish Community was an issue with the GOP. This too is crap, since my opinion is similar to the one taken by Agudath Israel; an Orthodox Jewish organization that Mr. Skelos and the GOP work with all the time. Therefore, I do maintain again that Skelos’ boys and my work to push fair and balanced treatment of Orthodox Jews in the public arena, has been a distraction to the State Committee, and as such I stepped aside.
