‘This is the time to unify’: Eric Adams ally meets with Orthodox leaders after bitter primary battle
Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams speaks during a event in Brooklyn June 21, 2021 on the eve of New York City Primary Election Day. Image by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 27, 2021
A key ally of Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, met with a group of Orthodox leaders in Brooklyn on Tuesday following a bitter primary last month.
“Adams is building his core team to make sure that there’s a voice in every part, every corner of the city in New York,” Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, chairwoman of the Kings County Democratic Party who has worked closely with Adams in recent years, told the community leaders during a roundtable discussion in Borough Park.
Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, was certified as the winner, beating his closest rival, Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, by just over 7,000 votes. Adams and Andrew Yang, who was the leading favorite in the early months of the campaign, aggressively courted Orthodox voting blocs, ultimately splitting their share of the vote.
Last week, Adams attributed his victory to the support he received from the Orthodox community. “This community stepped up big time,” Adams said during an event in Brooklyn. But in his remarks, Adams also complained about being snubbed by leaders who backed Yang, due to his pledge not to interfere in the yeshiva education system. “Many people that I’ve known for a long time, they walked out of the room,” he said. “Not you,” he told the crowd, leaders of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition who endorsed his mayoral bid. “You walked into the room and said, ‘Eric, you are not a new friend, you are an old friend, and friends don’t forget friends.”
Bichotte, who is also a member of the State Assembly representing a significant Orthodox population in Flatbush and Midwood, suggested that keeping tabs on who supported Adams or his rivals in the primary will not affect the Jewish community assuming he takes over as mayor next January.
“I see this as a unification,” she said about the Tuesday meeting, which was heavily focused on quality of life matters. “This is the time to unify.” Joel Eisdorfer, a former longtime Jewish liaison for Adams and a close ally, was also present at the meeting.
“The reason why Eric was elected is because he’s not a Johnny-come-lately,” Bichotte said in an interview. “He has been around, he’s been a friend to the Jewish community. So if anything, it is a big win for the Jewish community.”
Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte and New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams. Image by Courtesy
She also pointed to the fact that even amongst Yang supporters, Adams was considered their second choice in the new ranked-choice voting system that benefited him in the final rounds of the vote count. Bichotte said that Adams, who is focused on putting his administration together given that he’s likely to win the general election in the solidly Democratic city, has “had a lot of meetings with different Jewish community leaders and is now ready to push forward the city that will address and listen to the concerns of everybody.”
Bichotte, who is also close with Mayor Bill de Blasio, maintained that Adams will be more sensitive to certain issues that have not been fairly addressed by the current administration. “I think you’re going to find a different mayor in Eric Adams because this is important to him. So I see this as a unification like this is the time to unify.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
