Brooklyn, NY – Crossing Party Lines, Many Chasidic Voters Supported Trump

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     Polling site workers help voters at a polling location for the 2016 US presidential election in a senior center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, 08 November 2016. EPABrooklyn, NY – Hillary Clinton may have bested President-elect Donald Trump overall in New York State, but when it came to Brooklyn’s Chasidic communities it was evident that Trump was the clear favorite.

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    While most of Borough Park’s voters are registered Democrats, Trump took a whopping 69 percent of the vote in the 48th Assembly District, which is represented by Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

    Ironically, just one week prior to the election, Hikind announced that he would cast his vote for House Speaker Paul Ryan as a write in candidate, saying that his conscience would not permit him to vote for Trump because of his immoral behavior as previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2fGK2am).

    Trump’s often questionable actions and blunt remarks didn’t seem to deter Borough Park voters.

    “I don’t really care that he’s not a model,” teacher and rabbinical student Shaya Stern told the New York Times, noting that he felt Trump was more qualified than Clinton to lead the nation.

    Journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt said that the Orthodox Jewish world understands that the non-Jewish politicians often have different value system.

    “People are not looking to the United States president to be a representative of some sort of morality in the way that other Americans might,” said Ms. Chizhik-Goldschmidt. “People are looking for a strong leader, a tough leader.”

    Others felt that Trump represented the best hope for a shakeup in Washington D.C.

    “We need new people in office,” said Borough Park resident Moses Steinmetz.

    Support for Trump was somewhat less solid in Williamsburg, where Satmar leaders encouraged their followers to vote for Clinton. Trump won a majority in some, but not all of the districts, that include Williamsburg’s Jewish area and a similar situation unfolded in Crown Heights.

    A video of Trump’s Orthodox Jewish daughter, Ivanka, visiting the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe shortly before the election with her husband Jared Kushner, made the rounds on social media.

    “The biggest joke in the Orthodox community after the election was that Chabad won over Satmar,” said Ms. Chizhik-Goldschmidt. The Rebbe’s blessing worked and the Satmar endorsement didn’t.”

    Borough Park’s Republican rally is not unprecedented. Republican candidates won at least 70 percent of the vote in the 48th District in the last two elections.


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    24 Comments
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    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    7 years ago

    About time they voted with their head and not their posterior!

    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    7 years ago

    Borough Park is registered Democrat, only for the local elections. For president, they prefer the one with conservative values.Those values would represent how they feel about Israel and domestic social issues.

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    7 years ago

    I hope that none who voted for Trump are on Medicaid. That is one of the things he plans to start getting rid of and section 8. I read that yesterday.

    docko
    docko
    7 years ago

    The only reason why Satmar voted for Clinton as were told to by the rebbe, was because good old BILL pardoned 5 chassidim that burned down a federal building after misusing federal money to build a clinic. Talk about corrupt. azoi mikristalzich yiddelstzich.

    yankie
    yankie
    7 years ago

    Poor Dov Hikind, scared to vote for trump and even Clinton. He probably really wanted to vote for Clinton, because he’s a democrat politician and must go with the pack no matter what, but was afraid of the backlash from his constituents. Chas vesholom he votes with his heart. Would never want to be in his position, with forces pulling him from all sides.