Some civic and political leaders in The Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn are expressing outrage over Mike Bloomberg’s bigoted statement that he ‘withstood pressure of 10,000 black hats’ on the issue of MBP.
While I share in this outrage, I must point out that many of those loud voices were and are the same who enabled Bloomberg all those years and who made his third term possible. One of the loud voices made it to the City Council in large part because Bloomberg Alumni and funds made it happen; another outraged voice was the Chairman of the NYC Council committee that approved for Bloomberg to ignore the referendum and run for a third term, and a a key person in the MBP fight was on the front lines pushing Hasidim to vote for Bloomberg three years ago.
Agreeing with Bloomberg on some things while publicly disagreeing on others is good. But that’s true only in the first or perhaps second term of Bloomberg. However by the time he came for a third term, it was very clear to everyone that his tax-hiking; anti-Religious agenda is not good for the Orthodox Community. If so, why enable him to run another term?
I am not saying the Orthodox Jewish Community gave Bloomberg the votes on Election Day, but it was a close election. And if those who have now “the courage” to stand up to Bloomberg had the courage to do the same while serving in the City Council, perhaps, just perhaps, the Council would have never reversed the public’s will that barred Bloomberg from running for a third term. Now that he is there and is degrading Orthodox Jews, stop whining because you made it possible in the first place!
