Jew for Morality to Release Rabbinical Opposition List on Monday; Baffling Hamodia Question

Former Assembly candidate and district leader, Santorum alternate delegate, and Brooklyn Tea Party head Joseph Hayon – who put on hold his work for the Santorum campaign to help elect Storobin - informed that they will publicize a Rabbinical declaration list against Fidler tomorrow. The declaration will call the community to oppose Fidler, who is unequivocally supporting marriage redefinition.



Rabby Belsky endorses Storobin



Hayon also notes that Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky endorsed David Storobin the day before Rabbi Belsky went to the hospital. Storobin didn't want to publicize the endorsement by Rabbi Belsky – may he have a Refuah Sheliema soon - out of sensitivity to his serious condition. Even in the Hamodia interview, Storobin only refers to Rabbi Belsky’s ‘support’, not endorsement.

Talking of the Hamodia interview, it’s baffling that the paper didn’t question Fidler about his marriage redefinition support, and when they raised the issue with Storobin they phrased it as a ngative, asking him: Why do you think marriage redefinition will be an issue in this campaign? Bob Turner didn’t make it an issue during his campaign, and his political operatives agreed with that stance.

Did Fidler give the interview on the pre-condition that the marriage issue is not raised? Did the Hamodia succumb to political pressure to leave this exchange out of the interview excerpts? The Hamodia used to be more objective with its coverage. We hope that in the promised dissections and analyses of the interview, the Haomida will shed light on why this crucial issue was omitted in the interview with one candidate, and bizarrely phrased for the other.

OP plans a dissection of his own on other parts of the interviews, which may be the closest we will come to bring the two candidates together in an Orthodox forum.

Correction: we wrote that “Storobin have yet to get a single community leader in the non-Russian Orthodox community behind him.” We now realize that Shmuel Lefkowitz is, of the Agudah leadership is fully in his column (check out that link on the debate around the debate).

Correction 2: We wrote a while ago that the usage of marriage in the Turner-Weprin race was a political gimmick. Hayon is now reporting to us that he and his associates collected rabbinical signatures for Turner - the most-significant was Rabi Belsky’s, who gave his first endorsement for Turner - and the political operatives reluctantly joined them because they were unable to defy the rabbinical decree against Weprin. I trust him on the order of events, but still think that the Koch support and the sense of a momentum shift swayed some with pure political motives – including Assemblyman Hikind – to use the Torah for their political ends. Hayon speculated that Hikind, a Torah V’daas student, was influenced by Rabbi Belsky’s endorsement. Time will tell if the Rabbi’s endorsement will sway him in the current election.

For notification of new posts, follow me @opundit.