Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Hasidic Leader Alone Among Pols From Pre-9/11 Front Page To Keep Clout

Local primary races in New York City are pretty ho-hum this year. With no real challenger for Mayor Bill de Blasio, primary day will pass more-or-less unnoticed tomorrow.

Sixteen years ago yesterday was a different story. After eight tumultuous years, Rudy Giuliani was term limited out, clearing the way for what the New York Times, in a front page story on September 10, 2001, called “the busiest primary campaign around here that anyone can remember.”

To illustrate the story, the Times ran above-the-fold photos of the four leading Democratic hopefuls.

Of everyone pictured the four images, which ran the day before the terror attacks that would define an era, there’s only person still active in local politics: Satmar community leader Rabbi David Niederman.

Niederman, then as now, is head of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, a powerful local nonprofit. He also serves as a key liaison between political leaders and the Satmar community in Brooklyn.

Others pictured in the photos are dead, disgraced, or have moved on from politics. Mark Green won the primary, but lost the general election to Michael Bloomberg. Peter Vallone Sr., pictured with a guy in a Dodgers hat, never ran for office again. Alan Hevesi pled guilty to corruption charges in 2011.

Only Fernando Ferrer remains active in public life. He has been on the board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority since 2011.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.