- A New York Times story trashing yeshivas inadvertently stirred up the Orthodox Jewish community, ultimately leading various New York City sects to endorse Republican Lee Zeldin for governor.
- The story, headlined “In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush With Public Money,” infuriated Orthodox Jews because none of their elected leaders came to their defense.
- The one exception was Zeldin, who released this statement: “Yeshiva education teaches values that have their students living law-abiding, productive lives, and provides high-quality learning experiences for so many young boys and girls,” the statement read. “As Governor, I will promote more school choice, not less, and do everything in my power to fight for students first and empower parents to be in control of their family’s destiny in life and truly be in charge of their child’s education and upbringing.”
- “Literally nobody stood up for us, nobody spoke out,” Jacob Rosenberg, a man from the Satmar Hasidic sect who spoke to Breitbart News at Zeldin’s Williamsburg rally Sunday. “There was one person who spoke out: Lee Zeldin.”
- “Lee Zeldin spoke out and Kathy Hochul did not, regardless of whether there’s anything they can do,” Rosenberg added. “Lee Zeldin at least pretended to care, he spoke up. Kathy Hochul dropped the ball. She was silent, she wasn’t there. We are starting to wake up that a lot of our Democratic friends — who we thought are our friends — are just here for the votes. It’s not that we need a Republican. We just need somebody who speaks out for us and cares about us.”
