NYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams expands Jewish outreach efforts
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Jacob Kornbluh April 15, 2021
Eric Adams, one of the leading candidates for mayor of New York City, has increased his outreach efforts to the Jewish community. By Wednesday, Adams had visited Jewish communities in all five boroughs.
Adams’s outreach to all aspects of the Jewish community is an integral part of his campaign’s strategy to build a formidable coalition that could get him to City Hall. The Jewish vote has historically proven to be a powerful and even decisive factor in mayoral elections. Experts estimate that New York’s 1.1 million Jews make up about 20% of the voters in the city’s Democratic primaries.
“Eric Adams has long understood the diversity of this city, and has long-standing relationships in every corner of the Jewish community,” said Menashe Shapiro, a consultant who works with the Adams campaign.
A review of Adams’ campaign activities in recent days showed him meeting with leaders and visiting Jewish institutions in four of the five boroughs. He had earlier visited the Jewish community in Staten Island.
On Monday, the candidate toured Yeshiva Darchei Torah and the Weiss Vocational Center in Far Rockaway, Queens. Adams also met with local community leaders at a parlor meeting in a private residence. On Tuesday, Adams met with the leaders of the Hasidic Bobov sect, the largest Orthodox voting bloc in the Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. He also visited the Manhattan Day School, a modern Orthodox elementary school and met with leaders and rabbis of the Upper West Side and Upper East Side communities later in the day, according to the campaign.
Image by Courtesy
On Wednesday, after picking up an endorsement from Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx Borough President and 2005 mayoral candidate, Adams visited the SAR Academy in the Bronx and met with Riverdale Jewish leaders.
The remaining leading candidates have all met with Jewish leaders in more limited and virtual settings in recent weeks and have expressed their views on hot button issues in responses to a nine-question survey by the Forward in February and in several candidate forums.
Shapiro said that Adams “reaching out to Jewish leaders in all five boroughs is more than just seeking monolithic support for the election. It’s about building a broad governing coalition for when he’s mayor.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
