Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Jewish vote up for grabs in 2021 NYC mayoral race as primary approaches
The chosen people still haven't chosen their candidate.
As the 2021 New York City mayor's race heats up, Jewish voters — one of the most coveted voting bloc in city politics — have yet to settle on a favored candidate for the June 22 primary.
"People first of all can't stand de Blasio. They think he's terrible. People here think de Blasio doesn't know what he's doing," Zalmen Hertz, a brash 24-year-old Rabbi from Bensonhurst told The Post, saying it was one of the few things about the race which everyone he spoke to could agree on.
New York City has about 1.5 million Jewish residents, by far the largest population of Jews in the United States. While it's impossible to say for sure how many are registered to vote, one study from PrimeNY estimated that up to 14 percent of city voters were Jewish, with more than 60 percent of them registered Democrats and thus eligible to vote in the city's closed primary.
"The race is wide open," Rabbi Chaim Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of the nonprofit Agudath Israel of America told The Post. Zwiebel said that city comptroller Scott Stringer and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams' name recognition gave them an early edge, but that it was still anyone's game.
"People are starting to pay attention," Zwiebel said. "Just because they have name recognition doesn't mean they will emerge as the candidate of choice in our community."
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