More than 40 speakers over a nine-hour period can be mind-numbing for even the most dedicated party loyalist, and that was just the experience felt by Democrats at the party’s nominating convention on February 17. The convention was held at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan, and was mostly uneventful.
U.S. Senator and Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-Park Slope, Brooklyn), Attorney General Letitia James (D-Crown Heights, Brooklyn), Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D-Glen Cove, Nassau County) and Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin (D-Harlem, Manhattan) were all selected by acclamation by party delegates.
The names of Jews from a bygone era were never mentioned, including Herbert Lehman, Bob Abrams, Eric Schneiderman, Nathaniel Goldstein, Jacob Javits, Oliver Koppell, Louis Lefkowitz, Judith Kaye, Eliot Spitzer, Alan Hevesi or Arthur Levitt. Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, is the only Jew on the statewide ticket. He spoke about every other ethnic group except his own.
The post for governor was contested by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D-Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn), Deputy Chief of Staff and Counsel at the New York State Senate Paul Nichols (D-Jamaica, Queens) and Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove, Nassau County). Suozzi and Nichols decided to skip the convention for no apparent reason. Williams and Nichols were not given speaking roles at the convention but Williams did speak to delegates at a private breakfast closed to the media. The incumbent, Kathy Hochul (D-Buffalo, Erie County) achieved 85% of the support from the delegates, Williams garnered nearly 13% and Nichols scored almost 2% of the delegate vote.
After his breakfast speech before the delegates, Williams told The Jewish Link of New Jersey he stated to the party faithful “why we can’t go back to normal, why normal doesn’t work, why our messaging of the Democratic party hasn’t worked. We keep pushing ‘normal’ on folks and that’s what they’re rejecting and that’s why the Republicans are beating us, so we have to become a different party. I’m planning on winning the primary.”
Meanwhile, Democrats have a supermajority in the state Senate and Assembly and control all statewide elected posts and the New York City Council. It is unclear where Williams sees Republicans beating Democrats in New York State, except maybe on Long Island.
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, opened the convention with a joke.
“The length of my sermon is determined from where I am coming from to where I have to be because I’m composing my sermon along the way,” Rabbi Potasnik said as he warmed up the crowd of delegates. “It’s 18 minutes from my home to the synagogue, so my sermons are always 18 minutes. Today I drove from Westchester. The traffic was rather heavy.”
Then Potasnik got philosophical.
“We know the person who hates me today will hate you tomorrow. Let us remember the following. In Hebrew the word for bread is “lechem.” With those three letters (Lamed, Chet, Mem) you can form two other words. One is “lachim”—that means to fight. The other word is “chalom,” which means to dream. Sadly, there are some who have to fight for a piece of bread. There are others who dream to fight. We will continue to fight for a dream where all people, regardless of their faith, regardless of what they look like, will see each other as members of one human family on the inside and on the outside. Amen.”
Schumer had his nomination seconded by Senator Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers, Westchester County). She is also Jewish. However, it wasn’t about being Jewish when Mayer gave Schumer a rousing endorsement on another issue.
“Another special thing to me. Chuck supports women in power,” Mayer gushed. “Chuck recruits women to run and then he supports them to run just like he did for me back in 2006. That’s who he is, that’s what he does and I couldn’t be more proud. At every juncture, no matter what title he has had, he always had New York on his mind. The title he’s most proud of is Senator from New York.”
Schumer enthusiastically accepted the nomination, recalling how his father, who passed away recently at age 98, was still with him. Even after Mayer, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson spoke about Schumer’s many accomplishments in the Senate during the past 23 years, Schumer, 71, also patted himself on the back, extolling the advances he made by appointing more female Black and Hispanic judges to federal courts throughout the state. He never once mentioned anything about appointing Jewish judges.
“In the past year, Senate Democrats have confirmed a record number of federal judges. These are lifetime appointments with unseen but huge power over people’s lives. The majority of new judges we have confirmed are women, a majority of new judges we have confirmed are people of color, and the majority of new judges we have confirmed are public defenders, public interest lawyers, people focused on the community and not just prosecutors and people from the big law firms,” Schumer remarked. “We not only have demographic diversity but we have professional diversity for the first time on the bench. For the first time we have three African-Americans as our U.S. Attorneys who can oversee the criminal justice system here in New York. My passion and commitment to help everyday New Yorkers is stronger than ever. I love New York. I love representing New York as Senate Majority Leader, and most of all I love working in partnership with you who represent the best of what this state is about.”
Jay Jacobs, the state party chairman, took the stage to pay homage to the rank-and-file committeemen and rouse the crowd to get volunteers out and about to secure Democrats on the ballot across the state. Jacobs also took a swipe at his rivals, the Republican Party. He hearkened back to the 1850s when there was the Know-Nothing Party, a populist and xenophobic movement made up of a secret society of men.
“It had a lot to say against everything and everybody. They were powerful for a time and they reigned in our political world. Today, not just in New York State but across this country, a new party has emerged. It’s the Do-Nothing party,” Jacobs quipped. “It is the Republican Party that has become the Do-Nothing party. They have the audacity, the temerity, to stand there time and again critiquing what we do in efforts to make lives better while they stand by and do absolutely nothing. The Democratic Party are the ones who do the work. We are the ones that get it done. We are the ones that are making lives better. Taking care of children, child care, you know what we’ve done and we’re proud of it. They are the party, the Do-Nothing party, that just gives people the ideas as to why not to vote for somebody else. That’s their whole message.”
Among the 10 speakers who were not given a platform to nominate or second the nomination of a candidate, was Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-Lincoln Square, Manhattan), 74, the dean of the New York Congressional delegation and the only member of Congress with a yeshiva education. He was educated at the Crown Heights Yeshiva. His sprawling congressional district includes Borough Park.
“With the leadership of Kathy Hochul it’s been a new day in Albany,” Nadler said. “I am proud to call Kathy Hochul my governor. Kathy’s hard-working, collaborative approach has delivered results and made government work for all New Yorkers. Since taking office, she immediately went to work solving tough problems. She put forward a strong blueprint to combat the surge of COVID-19, accelerate the state’s economic recovery and create a pathway for more families to join the middle class. I know that Governor Hochul is the person who can best lead our state through difficult challenges ahead. She’s a woman of integrity, a New Yorker, albeit from a distant city in the western part of our state. She is a New Yorkers to her core. She is bringing the necessary changes to our state.”
The most striking speech came from the attorney general upon accepting her nomination for reelection as she took aim at the sexual harassment scandal that brought down the tenure of Andrew Cuomo.
“When women in New York State accused the most powerful man in the state of harassing them, the evidence was clear and overwhelming,” James said. “These women shared their truth. They shared their vulnerability. These were serious allegations that needed to be investigated vigorously and independently and that was exactly what was done. I understand the importance of the investigation and the need to ensure impartiality. The investigation revealed a dangerous pattern of bullying and harassment by the former governor. It has become clear that the former governor will never accept any version of these events other than his own. To achieve that, he is now claiming the mantle of victim and disgracefully attacking anyone in his path. Pushing others down in order to prop himself up. I will not bow. I will not break. I will not be bullied by him or Donald Trump. I am proud to stand by the findings of the report because truth crushed to the ground will always rise again. Truth, my friends, is a blindfolded woman and she will prevail.”
There were many elected officials who did not get the chance to speak at the convention but who were committeemen who voted for the statewide ticket. Some were noticing how Schumer was the only Jew on the statewide ticket; there not being any Jewish jurist on the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals; Nadler being the only Jewish Democrat in the New York Congressional delegation; and only one Jewish member of the Hochul cabinet, Janno Lieber, the head of the MTA transit system.
“Kathy Hochul is collaborative and optimistic. I think that’s going to drive Democrats forward with a message of unity and resilience. I’m really excited about the comptroller, the lieutenant governor, Senator Schumer,” State Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Greenwich Village, Manhattan), 56, told The Jewish Link. “As a Jew in public service, we’re lucky we have Senator Schumer. We also have a party that is incredibly responsive. I just passed legislation that the governor signed on hate crimes reporting, which is so crucial. We cannot be complacent about antisemitism. We need to ensure that all of our public officials are cognizant about issues that concern Jewish New Yorkers and all New Yorkers.”
Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, spiritual leader of Kehilat Sephardim of Ahavat Achim, the Bukharian Jewish Center in Kew Garden Hills, Queens, says the convention was uplifting and exciting.
“As someone from the former Soviet Union, it’s good to see we have equal representation from different types of people,” Rabbi Nisanov told The Jewish Link. “Even within the same party you have division and you have different ways of thinking and different ways of doing things. I’m very excited to be part of history.
“It’s troubling to see not a lot of people like myself and so many Orthodox Jewish persons. It’s troubling not to see new immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are running. It’s troubling because it’s the mood in the country as a whole, especially now where people are disaffected by the political system and politics is local. More young people should be enthusiastic and should run for it [office] because we live in a country where there is no discrimination. We need that equal opportunity. I have the dubious honor of being one of the few Bukharian committee members in the Democratic party,” added Rabbi Nisanov, who is a Democratic committeeman from the 25th Assembly District, represented by Israeli-born Assemblywoman Nily Rozic.
Rabbi Nisanov said he would like to see the Democratic Party move a bit to the center of the political spectrum. “I think the Democratic party as a whole went a little too much to the left; it’s too liberal, and there are many Bukharian Jews and many Jews who are disaffected by that idea, but we have people in both parties.”
Up next is the state Republican nominating convention being held at the Garden City Hotel in Nassau County on Monday, February 28 and Tuesday, March 1. The state Conservative Party and Working Families Party nominating conventions will be held on Saturday, February 26 in separate locations, so The Jewish Link will not be on-site, but will catch up with the happenings afterwards.
By Marc Gronich
