In a call from his basement in West Hempstead, N.Y., surrounded by office supplies and a printer in his campaign command center away from his three children, ages 10, 7 and 5, Moshe Hill told JNS about his decision to run for the newly-created fifth legislative district in Nassau County, which includes West Hempstead north of Eagle Avenue, which has a large Orthodox Jewish population.
The Orthodox Jew, a political analyst and blogger who wrote op-eds for JNS from 2019 to 2023, talked to JNS for about 40 minutes on Friday, the day before early voting began on Shabbat—the same day he sponsored kiddushes at multiple synagogues in the district.
“Not saying to vote for me but in honor of early voting beginning,” he told JNS. “It’s all hands on deck.”
County voters can cast early ballots until Nov. 2, and on Nov. 4, they will choose between Hill and Olena Nicks, a Uniondale, N.Y., native and a Democrat who is a current legislator for the county’s second district. The current fifth district seat holder, Seth Koslow, is running for county executive, looking to unseat incumbent Bruce Blakeman.
According to New York Board of Elections data, Hill has secured $18.542.48 from 79 contributions. Nicks has raised $26,804.74 from 175 contributions since January.
The new Nassau County district map is the result of a legal settlement, in January, between the county and civil rights organizations, including the ACLU and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The settlement resolves a lawsuit alleging that the prior map diluted minority votes.
Hill secured the Republican nomination by default. Though he secured the backing of the local Republican party, he started working alone before realizing he could ask volunteers at the headquarters to print mailers for him and stuff envelopes.
He told JNS that he volunteered for Ameer Benno’s 2018 congressional campaign. (The lawyer lost by more than 22 points.) Hill has wanted to run ever since and saw his chance when the county redistricted.
“The timing finally made sense, and the need was clear,” he told JNS.
When JNS asked about his better-funded opponent, Hill said he wasn’t particularly nervous about Nicks but about “what’s going on in New York City” with the mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and frontrunner in the mayoral race.
“New York City is poised to have a very dangerous person as mayor,” Hill said, of the avowed socialist who has accused the Jewish state of “genocide” and said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the latter comes to the Big Apple.
Hill aims to “stem the tide,” because “what happens in New York City spills over,” he said.
“We have a great Republican majority in the legislature. We need to actually get a supermajority,” he said. “I’d love it for businesses to move to Nassau County, but please keep your politics in New York City and embrace our lifestyle.”
He added that Jews in the city might move to the county in Long Island after considering “whether or not antisemitism affects their ability to go to school, to go to work, to even drive to work without having a disruption.”
Community safety is a priority for Hill, who is proud of his county’s proactive approach.
He told JNS that there have been anti-Israel marches in Teaneck, N.J., “every single weekend.” Bruce Blakeman, the county executive, and the Nassau County Police Department have kept the county safe, Hill said.
The county is “leading the nation” in addressing identity concealment at protests, according to Hill. “Everyone was covering their face so they wouldn’t be identified by police,” he said.
The county signed the “Mask Transparency Act” into law on Aug. 14, 2024. Sponsored by former Israeli soldier and county legislator Mazi Pilip, the law requires protesters to lower their masks and identify themselves to police if officers have reasonable suspicions that the masked person intends to commit a crime.
Hill told JNS that U.S. News & World Report listed Nassau County as the safest county in the country in 2024. “These things don’t happen by accident,” he said.
If he wins, Hill plans to focus on local issues. In his first 100 days, he would begin a park project.
“I have a park near me, which is a passive park. We have a growing community in West Hempstead, and I think it deserves to be an active park,” he told JNS. “This means bathroom facilities, more courts, more fields.”
He doesn’t worry about county bureaucracy getting in the way.
“There was a stoplight that we needed on a corner,” he said. “Somebody got hit by a car, and she died.”
Told it would take several years to get a stoplight, Hill was pleasantly surprised when the legislator had it done in three months.
He noted that Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer, of Young Israel of West Hempstead, was hit by a driver, who then fled the scene, in front of the Orthodox synagogue in 2016. (The rabbi died in 2021.)
“We needed a crosswalk,” Hill said. “They got it done. So I’m working with amazing people who have been in this job for a very long time. There are already a few that have been really good mentors to me, who will help me get through the red tape.”
‘Candy and toys’
JNS asked Hill what he would improve upon in local government.
“We have a very strong county, because we have a strong Republican majority,” he said. “There are some people who are interested in obstructing.”
He allowed that there can be better communication. Hill has heard that in some parts of the new district, “they have not had such great representation in the past,” and voters “feel like their vote is taken for granted.”
Bill Gaylor, a Republican legislator in the county, by contrast has held weekly meetings with the local civics club, Hill told JNS.
Hill’s priorities also include passing a budget that paves roads, doesn’t raise taxes and fixes “wear and tear” that happens over time in a community, especially one that is hundreds of years old.
“We’ve got to keep on updating it,” he said. “Keep on maintaining it.”
Then there are his priorities for his kids—and theirs for him.
“I want my kids to play safe in the street,” he told JNS., His kids are excited for their dad to win too.
“They think it gives me power to give them a lot of candy and toys,” he said. “and I’m like, ‘That’s not how it works.’”
