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(New York Jewish Week) — If Lee Zeldin pulls off an upset win over incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul within the election subsequent week, he would be the first Jewish Republican governor in New York State historical past.
In that case, he most likely gained’t be capable of thank the vast majority of the state’s Jews, who like Jews elsewhere, are inclined to vote Democratic and, polls present, are inclined to reject the type of pro-Trump conservatism Zeldin represents. (Zeldin voted towards certifying the 2020 presidential election outcomes.)
And but his tough-on-crime stance and hands-off strategy to yeshivas has gained him appreciable traction throughout the Orthodox group, a minority inside a minority whose votes are coveted by politicians throughout New York. Though Zeldin’s personal Jewish background is within the non-Orthodox denominations — he’s the grandson and grand-nephew of distinguished Reform and Conservative Jews — his conservative views have gained him main endorsements from Hasidic and Haredi Orthodox teams in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.
Zeldin, considered one of two Jewish Republicans within the Home of Representatives, was elected to Congress in 2014 after serving as a state senator. A resident of Shirley, a hamlet in Lengthy Island’s Suffolk County, he’s a member of the B’nai Israel Reform Temple in close by Oakdale.
In an interview Friday, Zeldin, 42, instructed the New York Jewish Week that he attended Hebrew college at B’nai Israel as a toddler — and that his twin 16-year-old daughters, Mikayla and Arianna, had their bat mitzvahs there as nicely. (Though his Mormon spouse, Diana, didn’t convert to Judaism, the Zeldins are elevating their youngsters Jewish.)
“Rising up, my publicity to Judaism was throughout many various types of Judaism,” Zeldin mentioned. “That continued into and previous school up into immediately.”
Requested about his upbringing in Shirley, Zeldin mentioned it was generally Reform, generally Conservative, “relying on who [in the family] we had been with.” Along with B’nai Israel, the household typically attended the Farmingdale Jewish Heart, a Conservative synagogue that was based by his grandfather, Abraham Jacob “Jack” Zeldin.
“My interactions, values, classes, knowledge handed alongside, was most frequently handed alongside from my grandfather, Jack,” Zeldin mentioned.
In a 2010 letter in assist of Zeldin’s bid for the state Senate, Zeldin’s grandmother Jean wrote that she and Jack had been “life-long Democrats,” however they nonetheless assist their grandson, “though he’s a Republican.”
“He’s the one Republican we’ve got ever supported, not simply because he’s our Grandson, however as a result of he is a superb human being and good Jew,” Jean Zeldin wrote. “There are usually not sufficient Jewish Republicans.”
Zeldin mentioned the synagogues and congregations he interacts with now are “all throughout the spectrum,” however has had extra involvement with Chabad and Fashionable Orthodox synagogues over the previous couple of years.
“There are lots of vital values that assist construct character when confronted with a choice,” he instructed the New York Jewish Week in 2014, when requested how Judaism influences his mind-set. “One of the best factor you are able to do when you may have a robust moral sense is to do what your intestine tells you is correct.”
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His great-grandfather Morris A. Zeldin was one of many founders of what’s now UJA-Federation of New York, one of many largest Jewish organizations on the earth. He was referred to as a “a pioneer within the Zionist motion” in a 1927 New York Instances obituary. Morris got here to the U.S. in 1912 from Petrokov, Russia, and was near quite a lot of Jewish leaders worldwide, together with the primary president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann.
Lee Zeldin’s great-uncle, Isaiah Zeldin, was a distinguished rabbi who moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1954. Isaiah Zeldin grew up along with his father, Morris, in a “Zionist, Hebrew-speaking family,” the Jewish Journal, an area weekly, wrote in 1995.
Isaiah based the Stephen Clever Temple, now a big Reform congregation in Bel Air, in 1964. In line with the Jewish Journal, Isaiah Zeldin turned “a distant hill” right into a congregation that, on the time, served “extra folks than another synagogue on the earth.” The Stephen Clever Temple didn’t reply to requests for remark.
When Isaiah died in 2018 on the age of 97, Lee Zeldin invoked his great-uncle’s title on the Home flooring, calling him “Uncle Shy,” a nickname for Isaiah.
“His father’s image, Morris, is in my workplace,” Lee Zeldin mentioned in his remarks, including, “We are going to honor you, your legacy and your impression for generations to return.”
Isaiah additionally had a relationship with distinguished politicians over time, foreshadowing his great-nephew’s profession in public workplace. The rabbi had his photograph taken with Presidents George Bush and Invoice Clinton, in addition to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Native council members additionally got here to his synagogue to talk.
The Jewish Journal article mentioned that Isaiah had “a fame as a right-winger so far as Israel is anxious.” This stance might inform a few of Lee Zeldin’s insurance policies towards Israel — the candidate is a robust supporter of the Jewish state and has spoken out towards the Iran deal.
Zeldin mentioned his communications along with his kinfolk had been all the time “private, not political,” including that his interactions with Isaiah turned much less frequent all through Zeldin’s life.
“After we did have a chance to work together, it was a really significant time that was spent collectively as a household,” Zeldin mentioned. “These weren’t political interactions, they had been private household interactions.”
Because the uncommon Republican Jew in Congress, the candidate famous that he “wouldn’t paint all Jews with one broad brush.”
“I wouldn’t paint the complete Jewish group come what may,” Zeldin mentioned. “Folks have totally different priorities. Within the halls of Congress, there are way more Jewish Democrats, and in lots of respects, we’ve got discovered many alternatives to have the ability to work collectively on points the place we are able to discover widespread floor.”
In 2017, Zeldin launched the bipartisan Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which might permit states to dam contractors who assist the anti-Israel boycott. It nonetheless has not been handed.
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Lee Zeldin’s different nice uncle, Bernald Zeldin, 98, was the founding president, in 1959, of the Jewish Heart of the Hamptons. At present, the Reform synagogue meets in an architecturally important constructing in East Hampton and is thought for its Friday night time companies on the close by seashore.
Recalling the synagogue’s founding in an essay obtained by the New York Jewish Week, Bernard Zeldin referred to as it “a labor of affection — a love for the Jewish folks, a love of the Jewish faith, a love for my Jewish heritage, and a love for the State of Israel — all handed right down to me from my Mom and Father.”
The Jewish Heart of the Hamptons’ present rabbi, Joshua Franklin, instructed the New York Jewish Week in an emailed assertion that “there’s not a lot to say” regarding the temple’s relationship to Rep. Zeldin.
“He has visited a number of instances previously, I imagine, and his household was right here after we honored Bernie Zeldin in 2019,” Franklin mentioned.
Lee Zeldin, an solely baby, was born in 1980 to Merrill Schwartz and David Zeldin. He graduated from William Floyd Excessive College in Mastic Seashore in 1998 and went on to earn a bachelor’s diploma from the State College of New York at Albany and a regulation diploma from Albany Regulation College.
After serving within the military from 2003 to 2007 — which Zeldin mentioned has knowledgeable his “outlook on international coverage, understanding threats, and learn how to construct and take part in a coalition of allies to get one thing productive accomplished” — he launched his personal regulation observe in 2008, the place he labored till his election to the New York State Senate in 2010.
Most polls have Hochul forward of Zeldin to win the election, however some have tightened over the previous couple of weeks. Because the momentum shifts, he has change into a mainstay in Orthodox neighborhoods — holding massive rallies, placing on tefillin with Hasidic voters and assembly with distinguished rabbis throughout the state.
Zeldin was endorsed by the Bobov Hasidic motion, the Flatbush Jewish Group Coalition and a number of Crown Heights activists. (Hochul, in the meantime, was endorsed by the Satmar Hasidic faction loyal to Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum of New Sq. in Rockland County.)
Regardless of his attraction amongst Orthodox Jewish communities on points like crime
(he’s a fierce opponent of money bail reform) and yeshivas (he opposes new state regulations that would tighten oversight of how secular subjects are taught at the private Jewish schools), Zeldin has not all the time supported the social security web points vital to a group with a excessive poverty charge. The Orthodox group constitutes a few of New York’s poorest households, who rely upon packages that present billions of {dollars} in federal funds, such because the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program and housing help.
But Zeldin has persistently voted no on extending authorities packages like social safety and Medicare. Zeldin voted towards a invoice that reauthorized block grants for anti-poverty actions. In November 2021, he voted towards the Biden plan that gives cash to increase social security packages, decrease well being care prices and Medicare enlargement.
When requested what he would do to assist low-income Orthodox households, Zeldin disregarded the road of questioning. “There are such a lot of generalities and stereotypes in that query,” Zeldin mentioned. “I don’t even know the place to begin. It’s a massively loaded query.”
Election day is Nov. 8.
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