Primary day delivered some new faces in the elected leadership of the Haredi community, from Brooklyn to Rockland County.

In New York’s City Council races, we were on the ground to follow two contentious races, one in Boro Park and the other in a neighboring district in Brooklyn where there was no incumbent candidate. We also kept an eye on a surprisingly-important family court judicial race upstate, and others.
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NYC Council District 44 (Boro Park)
Yeger uncontested in Democratic Primary, but Republican Primary Too Close To Call in Contest With Tischler

Where was incumbent Councilmember Kalman Yeger on Tuesday? The councilmember who represents a largely Haredi district that includes Boro Park was nowhere to be seen. His campaign office was closed, he had no representatives at polling sites, and there were no other indications he was running a campaign as our reporters walked the district on primary day.

That’s likely because Yeger was uncontested in the Democratic primary. Yeger also ran uncontested on the Conservative Party line. He maintains a slim lead of 20 votes in unofficial results for the Republican Party primary.

If Yeger wins November’s general election, the upcoming term would be the last before he has to leave office due to term limits. First elected to City Council in 2017, Yeger earlier worked for former Councilmember Lloyd Henry, former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and the previous councilmember in District 44, David Greenfield, who is now CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. Among the more prominent episodes in Yeger’s career, he was removed from the council’s immigration committee after he tweeted that “Palestine does not exist” in 2019. He is chair of the council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics.

For this election, Yeger also chose to run for the Republican Party nomination, a tactic he first deployed in 2021; there was no Republican candidate in the district in 2017, and the district had been heavily in favor of Democrats for many years.

However, the partisan makeup of the district is changing, in large part because of changing Haredi political attitudes. Yeger received 2,500 more votes as a Republican than as a Democrat in 2021, and an additional 924 votes on the Conservative Party line; only 34.5% of his vote total came on the Democratic Party line.

Despite the importance of that Republican line, Yeger’s campaign seemed to be inoperative on primary day, generating a very close race, in a challenge from firebrand podcast host Heshy Tischler, who rose to fame in 2020 for his opposition to COVID-19 lockdown measures. Tischler previously ran for City Council in 2017 and 2021, but he has never earned more than 5% of the vote in either a primary or a general election.

With news coverage of Tischler over the past three years, observers were wondering what support he would actually have in an election. On Tuesday, Tischler received just 357 votes according to unofficial results on primary night. But with Yeger’s low-effort campaign, Tischler got close enough that election watchers were unwilling to call the race on primary night; Gotham Gazette lists it today as “a close race” with no clear victor as yet.

But no matter who is declared winner of Tuesday’s Republican primary, Tischler will get another chance to challenge Yeger in November’s general election, as he ran uncontested for the Boro Park Flatbush party line.

Nevertheless, observers still expect Yeger to run away with the general election in November, as he received over 66% of the vote in 2017 and ran uncontested in 2021.
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District 43 (Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, and Sunset Park)
Susan Zhuang declares victory in brand new Brooklyn City Council district

In a significantly-reshaped city council district with an open seat in Brooklyn, Susan Zhuang won the Democratic primary decisively, with 59.1% of the vote in unofficial results, defeating Wai Yee Chan and Stanley Ng, who won 31.3% and 9.6%, respectively, with 95% tallied. 

The district, which was redrawn in 2022 and is now majority Asian-American, includes part of Boro Park southwest of Maimonides Medical Center, where many Haredi Jews live. It also includes parts of Bensonhurst and Gravesend, where many Jews of Russian and Syrian descent live.

All three candidates ran on platforms that included opposing efforts to defund the police and to eliminate Specialized High School Admissions Tests.

“The Jewish community and Asian community have a lot of similarity,” Zhuang told Shtetl at her campaign office on primary night. “We care about education, we care about public safety, we care about a lot of common sense.” 

On the topic of education in Haredi yeshivas, and the New York Board of Regents’ 2022 decision requiring yeshivas to provide an education equivalent to that of public schools, Zhuang said, “I think that religious schools should have the choice,” adding that “we will fix” what needs fixing but immediately asked about the yeshiva school system, “If it’s working, why would we need to fix [it]?”

Celebrating with Zhuang were state assemblymember William Colton, for whom Zhuang has been working as Chief of Staff, and Mark Treyger, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the NYC Department of Education and a former councilmember who began his career interning for Colton. Zhuang referred to both men as her “teachers.” 

Candidates Vito LaBella and Ying Tan are in a close race for the Republican nomination with almost 98% of scanners reported. Whoever is declared winner of that race will compete against Susan Zhuang in the November general election.

The general election could be tight: According to data analyzed by the Center for Urban Research, 51.8% of registered voters in the redrawn district are Democratic, a figure 1% greater than in the old boundaries, and a third are unaffiliated. Residents in the new boundaries voted heavily in favor of the Republican candidate in the 2021 mayoral election.
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Chris Exias claims victory in contentious Rockland family court judge election

In a race that surprised observers with its high level of Haredi involvement, the chosen candidate of many Haredi leaders, Chris Exias, has a strong lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for Rockland County family court judge, with about 61% of the vote in early results. Patricia Brimais-Tenemille trails with about 38% of the vote. There are no Republican candidates for the position.

‍Shtetl previously reported on ad campaigns in Yiddish publications suggesting Exias would rule on child custody cases and child abuse cases in a way that favored parents who observe Haredi practices.
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‍Incumbents win City Council primaries in Districts 29, 34, 47, and 48

District 47 (Coney Island and Gravesend): Justin Brannan, a Democrat who represents the old District 43, ran uncontested. In District 47, about 55% of voters are registered Democrats, and about 17% are registered Republicans, according to data presented by CUNY. The incumbent in District 47 is Republican Councilmember Ari Kagan, who won his primary with more than 75% of first-round votes.

District 48 (Sheepshead Bay and Flatbush): Incumbent Councilmember Inna Vernikov won the Republican primary over Igor Kazatsker with more than 70% of the vote. Vernikov was first elected in 2021, when she won her general election with 61% of the vote. In the upcoming general election, Vernikov will face Democrat Amber Adler. About 43% of voters in the district are registered Democrats. The district contains Haredi communities and Jewish communities of Russian and Ukrainian descent.

District 29 (Forest Hills): Incumbent Councilmember Lynn Schulman won her Democratic primary with over 53% of first-round votes, and runners-up Ethan Felder and Sukhi Singh with 34% and 10%, respectively. Schulman was first elected in 2021, when she won her general election with over 60% of the vote. Only 12.4% of voters in the district are registered as Republicans. In the 2023 general election, Schulman will face off against Republican Danniel Maio. 

District 34 (Williamsburg) Incumbent Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez won her Democratic primary with over 84% of the vote. There is no Republican candidate running in the district.