MARK MEYER APPEL ON THE ZEV BRENNER SHOW SAT NITE JUNE 30 AT 12 PM WMCA RADIO 570 AM

Congresswomann Nydia Valasquez

HOW THE CHILD ABUSE ISSUE

HAS aFFECTED THE BROOKLYN POLITICAL MACHINE

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez-Hakeem Jeffries:

WITH

 MARK MEYER APPEL

Founder The Voice of Justice

Mark Meyer Appel, Rabbi Yosef Blau and Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum

ON

TALKLINE WITH ZEV BRENNER,

SATURDAY NIGHT

 JUNE 30, 2012

MIDNIGHT – 2:00 AM

 WMCA 570 AM METRO NY,

LOSERS OF THE WEEK

Vito Lopez – The powerful Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman can rest knowing that he punched out an old rival, Rep. Ed Towns, and helped pave the way for Hakeem Jeffries’s victory, but he badly miscalculated challenging Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who trounced Councilman Erik Dilan by a nearly two-to-one margin. Two years is an eternity in politics, but Dilan may be questioning another run in 2014 based on those results. And Velazquez’s progressive allies are smelling blood. Now they’re going after Dilan’s father, state Sen. Martin Dilan, in September, which could force Lopez to spend more resources on what he likely considered a safe seat. But as Shakespeare wrote in King Lear, “Come not between the dragon and his wrath.”

Rabbi David Niederman – The most influential rabbi inWilliamsburg’s Hasidic community tried everything to get his Satmar faction to put Erik Dilan in Congress. He urged residents to vote in columns in Der Yid, the neighborhood’s largest Yiddish language newspaper, sent hundreds of Orthodox Jews to staff the polls during primary day, and even helped convince yeshivas to extend their school year. But he was unable to pull enough votes for Dilan among the Satmar Zalmanite community to counteract Velazquez’s support throughout the congressional district. Niederman remains the top political maven in the Zalmanite community, but politicians who visit South Williamsburg now must also meet with his bitter rivals, the Aronites, whose power continues to grow with each election cycle.
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Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez

 should thank the Aronite faction of Williamsburg’s vote-rich Satmar religious sect for fending off a strong challenge from Councilman Erik Dilan in yesterday’s primary, according to Velazquez supporters.

The south Williamsburg Satmar Jewish community is split between two rival brothers, Zalman Teitelbaum and Aaron Teitelbaum — who control the community’s Zalmanite and Aronite factions. The brothers have been at odds for years over control of the Satmar empire, previously led by their father, Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaumm and even got into a war this year over control of upstate Hasidic summer camps, which oddly played into the congressional race.

The Zalmanite faction, which is larger and has asserted greater political power in the past, has been affiliated with Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez, who was supporting Dilan. But the Aronite faction appeared to show new political strength this election, according to its leaders, though Dilan appears to have won the overall vote among Satmars. Velaquez’s campaign estimated a 60-40 split in favor of Dilan.

Still, Aronite leaders say that yesterday’s turnout was a benchmark for their community.

“We turned out a huge block vote for Nydia,” said Gary Schlesinger, executive board chairman of UJCare, an Aronite social services group.

The Orthodox community printed several editorials in Yiddish-language newspapers several weeks before the election, urging Hasidic families to vote in the primary. And Williamsburg yeshivas even delayed the end of the school year to ensure that residents would stay in New York in late June.

At IS 71 on Heyward Street, perhaps the busiest poll site in the district where 2,619 voters cast their ballots, Velazquez received 947 votes and Dilan recorded 1,622 votes.

Poll watchers said that Rabbi David Niederman, executive director of the influential United Jewish Organizations group and a Zalmanite leader, and Ira Harkavy, Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s legislative right-hand, camped out at the site for much of the day.

“This was the center of their effort and it shows that there’s increasing diversity in the Hasidic community,” said Brooklyn Legal Services’s Marty Needelman, a Velazquez ally. “It also shows that Vito’s deal with the UJO isn’t decisive in controlling elections.”

Both Diana Reyna and Lincoln Restler narrowly defeated challenges from candidates that Lopez backed in 2009 and 2010 respectively, in districts that included Satmars. But Councilman Steve Levin, a Lopez ally, prevailed in 2009 in part because of his Satmar support.

In a state committee race this fall against a Lopez-backed candidate, Restler could benefit from the split in the Satmar vote.

“The enthusiastic support for Velazquez in the Williamsburg community was key to [Velazquez's] dominant victory,” said Restler.