Hasidic Community's bloc vote is a far cry from democracyBy IRVING FEINER (Original Publication: Nov 21, 2007) Staff writer Steve Lieberman reported on Nov. 8: "Ramapo's Hasidic Jewish bloc vote provided the margin of victory for Democrat Thomas Zugibe for district attorney and for Republican Sheriff James Kralik's re-election." That "margin of victory" would be the villages of Kaser and New Square: Kralik 2,974, Tim O'Neill 47 while Zugibe won New Square 1,978 to 11 over Republican DA Michael Bongiorno. New Square Deputy Mayor Spitzer explains that neither New Square nor any other group that votes together has anything to apologize for when it comes to taking care of their own interests. Other ethnic and racial groups, as well as unions, traditionally vote for one party or another. So Mr. Spitzer suggests that New Square is just like other groups - taking care of their own interests. It is impossible to find an equivalent insult to truth. 1. The folks of Kaser and New Square are not an ethnic group; they are sects. And there are no ethnic or racial groups or unions that repeatedly vote 100 percent to 0 and occasionally 99 percent to 1 percent. The only other 100 to 0 or 99 percent to 1 percent elections occurred in Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. 2. "Other groups" hear the pleadings of many candidates. Whom to vote for is not dictated by a community's leaders, who decide how the village would vote. "Other groups" do not obediently submit to the orders of "community leaders." They think for themselves. A community's interests may be similar but voters are never 100 percent in agreement about which candidates will best serve their interests. 3. More people vote in presidential and gubernatorial elections than in local elections, an indisputable fact. Not so in New Square and Kaser. The combined tally for the two villages in the local elections of 2003 and 2005 was 5,085. In the presidential and gubernatorial elections of 2004 and 2006, only 4,626. In the presidential and governor's elections of 2004 and 2006, 200,051 voted in Rockland, compared to 125,509 in local elections of 2003 and 2005; 60 percent more for president and governor. In New Square and Kaser, turnout is 10 percent higher in local elections. Why are New Square and Kaser so distinguishably different from the rest of the county and the entire nation? As an editorial in this newspaper asked, "Are all the voters registered in the area living in the area?" 4. Rocklanders believe the county's poorest communities are Spring Valley and Haverstraw village where the median family income is $45,000. Not true! The county's poorest communities are Kaser and New Square where the median family income is $12,000 to $13,000, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. How do those village families with four, five and six kids exist? Is it a self-imposed poverty or are they victims of an unsympathetic economy? Please Deputy Mayor Spitzer, explain. 5. Young people from all "other groups" are in the armed forces. Dozens of kids from Haverstraw and Spring Valley are, but none from New Square and Kaser. If this absence were due to a religious abhorrence to war and killing I would shout my support. Sadly, that is not the case. I anticipate this community view will trigger accusations of anti-Semitism or "self-hating Jew." I preempt the allegation. I am a very proud secular Jew. Proud of the contributions to humanity of secular Jews like Einstein, Freud and thousands of others in the sciences, literature and arts. In my 83 years I have felt the searing sting of anti-Semitism, as has my extended family in a more tragic way. I saw with my own eyes, as a U.S. combat soldier in Germany, the holocaustic consequences of Nazi anti-Semitism. If this preemption doesn't shield me, I say to the accusers, if I am anti-Semitic and a "self-hating Jew" then so are millions of Israeli Jews who resent the "haredim's" (Hebrew word for ultra-Orthodox) perversion of their democracy. Feel free to share your responses,
iffy79@verizon.net.
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