In a makeshift campaign office in her neighbor’s apartment on the Upper East Side, Rachel Storch ticks off the sort of concerns that motivate many a New York City Council candidate: subway crime, housing costs and quality of life.
But Storch, who is Jewish, told JNS a few days before the June 24 primary that rising Jew-hatred pushed her over the edge to run for the council in District 4 on the Upper East Side, which stretches from 93rd to 14th Streets and includes Museum Mile, New York Public Libraries, much of Broadway, Rockefeller Plaza, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Empire State building.
“As somebody who did lose family members in the Holocaust, it has been devastating to me to see the scourge of antisemitism rear its ugly head across New York City, across the country and, of course, around the globe,” she told JNS, seated at the apartment’s kitchen table surrounded by boxes of campaign materials.
The Democrat, who wore a Star of David necklace, has a very Jewish New York kind of story to her makeshift campaign office. The room was available because the nonagenarian apartment owner, whom she calls a kind of grandfather to her children, was in Missouri—where Storch used to live—dating her aunt, who is in her 80s.
Storch told JNS that recent attacks on visibly Jewish New Yorkers, the marginalization of Jewish students on college campuses and vandalism of Jewish businesses, including in her Upper East Side neighborhood, signal a dangerous turning point.
“We are at a critical juncture in the largest home of Jews outside of Israel,” she said. “I am laser-focused on ensuring that the Jewish community has a voice and representation in local government to say enough is enough.”
‘Common ground’
Storch, a former Missouri state representative, recently stepped down after five years as chief operating officer of the Orthodox congregation Fifth Avenue Synagogue on Manhattan’s East Side.
She moved back to New York from Missouri in her 30s, she told JNS, after Esther Jungreis, the late author and speaker, introduced her to the man who became her husband.
Storch told JNS that she isn’t cynical about creating change in New York City, citing her past experience as a legislator in a conservative state, where she learned how to build bridges and advocate effectively.
“So much of being an effective legislator is about relationship building, and I have always worked to be a unifying force–someone who could bridge divides, someone who never closes a door to someone who comes from a different background than me,” she said.
“I believe that there is almost always some common ground that can be found or a consensus that can be built,” she told JNS.
She told JNS she is “a mother proudly raising four Jewish children,” who attend the Modern Orthodox day school Ramaz and go to Jewish camps. She said that it is of “paramount importance” to her that “they continue to live a safe and dignified life as Jews in New York City.”
“My great-grandparents came here many generations ago, fleeing persecution and poverty to create a better life for their families in New York City,” she said. “That was really what America always represented, and especially New York City, in the eyes of the world.”
“A land of opportunity, a place where people of any faith could come and create a better life for the next generation, maintain an education, have social mobility and practice a religion freely,” she added. “Today, some of these things are being called into question, and we have to ensure that these values are protected for this generation and for generations to come.”
‘Unafraid’
Storch told JNS that the New York City Council used to have 12 to 14 Jewish members, but the Jewish caucus has dwindled to five. “It’s really critical that we have a voice and people who are unafraid to stand up and speak out,” she said.
She said that the council must use its voice to ensure that hate crimes are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ask tough questions of leaders of public universities about Jew-hatred on campus and to push for the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred.
She also said that education is essential.
“Far too many young people have no information or disinformation that they are getting from TikTok and other social media sources,” she said. “They’re disavowing the Holocaust, and we want to make sure that there is something in the public school curriculum that teaches children not only about the Holocaust but about ensuring that New York City can be a place for all of us.”
“The same tools that can be used to fight antisemitism can and should be used to fight any other form of hate, whether it’s prosecuting a hate crime or having a fully staffed police department who can patrol in areas where there might be more vulnerability, or ensuring that campuses are safe,” she said.
“These are universal standards that should be upheld, that any individual should be able to practice a religion freely, or walk to a house of worship safely or attend a school, religious or otherwise, safely,” she added.
Storch cited the shortage of New York City Police Department officers as a major issue and said that the force must grow from 33,000 to 38,000.
“One of the issues we have is that the NYPD is really depleted,” she told JNS. “An ideologically driven City Council has worked harder to rein in cops than rein in crime, and I think that the commissioner has done such an outstanding job, and she needs more partners in the city council who will support the NYPD.” (The police commissioner is Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish.)
The Democratic party has changed dramatically from when Storch first took office 20 years ago as a state legislator, she said.
“One of the things that attracted me to the Democratic Party was that it was a broad umbrella that embraced a plurality of views and made room for everyone. It wasn’t homogeneous, but it was accepting,” she said. “Today, there are voices in the Democratic Party that have become very shrill and represent values that I do not and would never espouse—anti-Zionist and antisemitic.
“My goal is to fix the party from within,” she said.
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