Some 200 Orthodox Jewish communal leaders, advocates and local government officials gathered Wednesday night in Brooklyn for an Agudath Israel of America legislative reception, during which Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, and Mark Levine, city comptroller, received awards.
“Any advocacy starts with relationships,” Rabbi A.D. Motzen, the new director of Agudah’s Washington office, told JNS. “If the community doesn’t know who represents them and the representatives don’t know their community, they will not be able to properly represent their community.”
Levine, the city comptroller who is Jewish and received a mezuzah award at the event, told JNS that the gathering afforded the opportunity to demonstrate unity during a difficult time for Jews.
“This is a very challenging time for the Jewish community in New York City and beyond,” he told JNS. “I think it was very, very important that we came together tonight to celebrate what makes this community so strong and what I so deeply admire.”
A previous chair of the City Council’s Jewish Caucus, Levine said that he has maintained a close relationship with Agudah since entering public office.
“I’ve always been warmly embraced by this organization and this community, so I wanted to be here to show my support for them,” he told JNS.
The comptroller, who has defended the Jewish state amid calls, including from City Hall, for the Big Apple to boycott Israel, said that more must be done to curb Jew-hatred, including stronger education initiatives in public schools and colleges and improved tracking and prosecution of hate crimes.
“It requires action on all fronts,” Levine told JNS. “We have so much work to do. I’m all in on this fight.”
The Jewish community remains committed to the city despite the challenges it faces, according to Levine.
“We’re just proud of who we are,” he told JNS. “We’re going to support each other. We’re going to support this city, and most importantly, we’re not going anywhere.”
Yeruchim Silber, Agudah’s director of New York government relations, presented Levine and Menin with the mezuzah awards during the program, which was held at Brooklyn Square Rooftop.
Silber told the audience about the state allocating $243 million in its budget for mandated services funding for nonpublic schools and more than $150 million for security programs benefiting schools.
It also includes more than $150 million for security programs benefiting schools and other institutions and statewide 50-foot buffer zones around houses of worship and educational institutions and the Mezuzah Protection Act, which protects residents’ ability to display religious items, he said.
Silber praised New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announced decision to opt the state into the federal scholarship tax credit program once federal regulations are released, calling it a potential “game changer” for families.
Menin told attendees that “at a time of rising antisemitism in our city, to receive this mezuzah from Agudah really means the world to me.”
The City Council speaker, who has relatives who survived the Holocaust, described the current rise in Jew-hatred as “shameful and unconscionable,” citing recent incidents of antisemitic vandalism in Brooklyn and Queens.
“We are, on a daily basis, fighting the scourge of antisemitism,” she said.
Menin highlighted the City Council’s efforts to combat Jew-hatred, including legislation creating buffer zones around houses of worship and schools to protect congregants and students from harassment and intimidation. (Mamdani nixed the school buffer-zone bill, which passed the council without a veto-proof majority.)
Igor Galanter, a resident of Midwood in Brooklyn, told JNS that Agudah’s advocacy is important, because “it represents our community and the overall Jewish community.”
“Supporting the organization is very important for all of us,” he said.
Lester Chang, a Republican member of the New York state Assembly, whose district includes parts of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community, told JNS that he attended the reception to show solidarity amid rising Jew-hatred.
“The Chinese and Jewish communities have always stood together,” he told JNS. “We’re stronger together.”
Chang, who is not Jewish and who visited Israel last year, said that he introduced a resolution in January 2025 calling for the state to recognize an “Oct. 7 Remembrance Day,” but non-Jewish Democrats “shut it down in committee” and ensured that it failed.
“We were astounded but not surprised,” he told Fox News at the time. “So we converted it to a bill.”
He told JNS on Wednesday that “they even switched people in the committee to make sure that it failed. It failed by one vote.”
“That tells you who supported the Jewish community,” he said.
