Haredi voters will likely play a large role in the second rematch between Republican Bill Weber, the incumbent candidate for New York State Senate, and Democrat Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, who served as senator before Weber, from 2021 to 2022.

So far in the 2024 general election, both candidates appear to have spent more funds on advertisements in Haredi media than they did by this time in the cycle in previous runs for this seat, according to Shtetl’s analysis of public campaign finance data.

Reichlin-Melnick has a sprinkling of ads across the Rosh Hashanah special issues in the Haredi media. Though he is absent from these particular issues, Weber has already pushed much further into Haredi media than in previous races. With a little more than a month left to go until Election Day on Nov. 5, Weber’s campaign has spent at least $4,650 buying advertisements in the Haredi news outlets such as Community Connections, The Front Page magazine, the Monsey View, and the Monsey Mevaser. 

This is in stark contrast to the previous matchups in 2020 and 2022, where neither candidate had spent any money on ads in Haredi magazines at this point in the race. Weber's campaign eventually spent on ads in 2022, but only closer to the election. He went on to win the race. Neither candidate appeared to spend any money on ads in Haredi magazines in their 2020 race, which Reichlin-Melnick went on to win.

So far in 2024, one ad described recent legislation Weber passed in the senate that will help two Haredi religious organizations receive tax-exempt status, while another ad invited supporters to an event with former New York governor George Pataki. In another ad, Weber invites Haredim to attend a “Thursday night chill with Bill” and attend a “toameah with Bill,” referring to sampling Shabbat food on Friday afternoon before Shabbat actually begins. 

Reichlin-Melnick has spent much less advertising in Haredi media, according to the campaign finance disclosures to date. Still, with at least $500 in ads so far, the Democrat has spent more this year than he did in 2022 by this point in the election season. In one recent ad, Reichlin-Melnick is pictured with Haredi activists Meyer Tauber and Aron Wieder, a Democrat who is running to represent part of Rockland in the state assembly. To distinguish Reichlin-Melnick from progressives, with whose policies he used to align more closely, one ad from his campaign describes him as a “centrist democrat, not aligned with the far left liberals.”

Other ads for Reichlin-Melnick, published in Yiddish, say Haredim need a friend “with power” who is in the “majority party” and “can actually deliver” in the Democratic-controlled Albany, a not-so-subtle dig at Weber who, as a Republican, has not been aligned with the ruling party in the state during his tenure.

The increase in ad spending may reflect a growing eagerness to court Haredi voters in local elections. The 38th Senate District includes all of Ramapo, a town home to the fast-growing Haredi communities of New Square and the Monsey area.

One main issue animating the upcoming election is the question of the East Ramapo public school district, where voters in the largely Haredi area rejected budgets that public school proponents said were necessary for the district’s survival. 

This summer, New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa took the drastic step of directing the East Ramapo school board to raise property taxes by an additional 4.38% for the current school year after that proposal had been rejected by voters.

In an opinion piece published in a Haredi news outlet, Reichlin-Melnick criticized Rosa’s move as a “betrayal against democratic principles.” Since then, public school activists who have spoken to Shtetl and support Rosa’s decision say that they believe Reichlin-Melnick betrayed them in favor of Haredi voters.

Other activists expressed similar frustration in a recent opinion piece in the Journal News. Reichlin-Melnick “seems focused on pandering to get votes from the white majority at the expense of students of color,” the group of activists wrote. 

Both Weber and Reichlin-Melnick advocate boosting the district’s funds using money from the state rather than from local property taxes, and support changing the “foundation aid formula” by which state funding for public school districts is calculated.

While many Haredi leaders in New York believe that voting for Democrats is more prudent when that party controls the governor's office and both chambers of the legislature, ordinary Haredi voters lean Republican, and some have even defied Haredi leaders’ endorsements of Democrats at the ballot box.

Neither Weber’s office nor Reichlin-Melnick’s campaign responded on Monday to requests to be interviewed for this article.