NYC Councilman Cries Anti-Semitism In Affordable Housing Fight

Image by New York City Council Photo

By Ari Feldman October 27, 2017

The crisis over the Broadway Triangle continued this week, with opposing sides exchanging barbs ahead of a major zoning vote.

A group of activists called for Councilman David Greenfield, who supports a major development in the Triangle, to recuse himself from the vote in a letter sent this week. They cite his close ties to the UJO, an Orthodox Jewish organization that strongly supports the development.

Greenfield responded with allegations of anti-Semitism, saying that the activists’ letter “calls into question the true motivation of this group.”

“The letter is part of a clear and calculated campaign of intimidation and continued misinformation by the opponents of this private application,” Greenfield told the New York Daily News.

In an editorial Thursday, the Daily News backed Greenfield up, calling the activists calls for Greenfield’s recusal “deranged.” They call the activist’s concerns “a conspiracy theory so far-fetched, and held together so tenuously by the fact that key players happen to be Jewish, it can only be called anti-Semitic.”

Opponents of the plan maintain that because Greenfield’s next place of employment is the Met Council — which supported the original rezoning plan for the area, a plan that was found to discriminate against blacks and Latinos — it is in his personal interest to support the plan.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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