D4 HAMODIA
Candidate Carl Paladino Visits Hamodia
Remarks Draw Rebuke From Rabbis
BY YOSEF RAPAPORT &
YOCHONON DONN
In a post-September primary
interview with Hamodia, Mr. Ed
Cox, chairman of the NY State
GOP, marveled at the slow rise of
Carl Paladino, noting, “He made
some rhetorical mistakes [and as
long as] he doesn’t make large mis-
takes in the future, I think the past
will not be as relevant as you might
think.”
But with less than three weeks
left in the campaign, it seems that
Mr. Paladino has stuck to his own
known way of doing politics: With
almost every news cycle the candi-
date seems to have been stirring
up fresh new rhetorical controver-
sies.
After being roundly con-
demned by many in the Jewish
community and by many of his
opponents for his remarks against
Albany Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver, Mr. Paladino has sought to
align himself with, and to be seen
in the company of, Orthodox
Rabbis. On Sunday, with close
advisor Rabbi Yehuda Levin at his
side, Mr. Paladino toured Jewish
points of interest in Brooklyn,
including the offices of Hamodia.
Rabbi Levin has been leading a
dogged and independent fight
against redefinition of marriage
and other liberal stances on moral
issues, and has often railed against
some in the Orthodox establish-
ment for not making this issue a
number-one priority. Rabbi Levin
has found an ally in Mr. Paladino.
Indeed, Rabbi Levin told Hamodia
that he was the one who wrote the
statements Mr. Paladino read at
the various Orthodox venues they
visited on Sunday.
But soon enough, some of the
words spoken by Mr. Paladino
made nationwide headlines.
Speaking before a group of Rabbis
at the Karlsburg Shul (but not
attended by Harav Yechezkel Roth,
shlita — as was mistakenly report-
ed in the media), not only did Mr.
Paladino, a Catholic, rail against
“immoral lifestyles,” but he chided
— by name — leading Jewish
Orthodox Rabbis of Brooklyn
including the Rebbes of Satmar for
receiving his opponent, yet not
challenging him on “moral issues.”
Mr. Andrew Cuomo, the
Democratic opponent, had recent-
ly visited several Rebbes in the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
The issues raised ranged from
state aid to yeshivos to religious
liberty.
“Will the Rebbes in Boro Park
say anything to my opponent
about Torah values or will they
ignore these important issues like
the Rebbes in Williamsburg did?
That’s the reason I am visiting dis-
tinguished Rabbis and not the
Rebbes,” Mr. Paladino railed.
Mr. Paladino went on to accuse
some in the Jewish community of
attempting to deceive Rebbes into
accepting “crumbs” from “extreme
politicians [who are] antithetical
5 CHESHVAN 5771
Rabbi Yehuda Levin (L) speaking while Carl Paladino (R) listens intently during an interview at Hamodia on Sunday.
to the Torah way of life.”
During his visit to Hamodia, Mr.
Paladino asked to read his state-
ment to Hamodia staff, which he
did; including a request for “bless-
ings and support… to win for us the
G-dly values.”
Hamodia contacted Rabbi
Moshe Roth, a member of the
Karlsburg Beis Din and son of
Harav Yechezkel Roth. Rabbi
Moshe Roth denied the widely dis-
seminated reports that his father
had any connection to the Paladino
affair or had endorsed the candi-
date.
“My father never intended to
attend this meeting,” said Rabbi
With less than three weeks left in the campaign, it
seems that Mr. Paladino has stuck to his own known
way of doing politics: With almost every news cycle
the candidate seems to have been stirring up fresh
new rhetorical controversies.
Moshe Roth. “They came to the
Karlsburg shul in the hope that he
[would] come in and join in
endorsing Paladino.”
Rabbi Moshe Roth added,
“Politics is something that my
father is never involved in and
never says an opinion [about].
Even in a case in which all Torah
leaders and leaders of Torah insti-
tutions would unite behind a single
political stand, my father would
not join — he just does not mix into
politics.”
Rabbi Moshe Roth added that
his father Harav Yechezkel Roth
was “deeply distressed” by the
comments against prominent
Boro Park Rabbanim made by
Republican gubernatorial candi-
date Carl Paladino in the Karlsburg
beis medrash on Sunday.
The Karlsburger Rav is a lead-
ing Posek in Boro Park and the
head of the Karlsburger Beis Din;
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010
his son related in the name of his
father that he asked specifically of
Hamodia to publicize his dissatis-
faction, using the word “mecha’ah
— protest” for the exploitation of
his name and the name of his shul
in publicizing disparaging remarks
about the Novominsker Rebbe,
shlita, and Harav Moshe Wolfson,
shlita — and Paladino’s criticism of
the Satmar Rebbes, Harav Aharon
Teitelbaum, shlita, and Harav
Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, shlita.
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel,
Executive Vice President of
Agudath Israel of America, joined
in condemning Paladino’s state-
ment by issuing an unusually
stinging rebuke.
“It is ironic that a candidate
seeking to portray himself as ‘the
religious values candidate’ — no
comment on that — would come
into the heart of the Orthodox
Jewish community with no direct
knowledge of the facts, and recite
someone else’s prepared text por-
traying distinguished Gedolei
Yisrael [venerated Jewish leaders]
as gullible, ignorant pawns manip-
ulated by ‘power brokers and
power seekers.’ Perhaps the one
being manipulated here is none
other than the candidate himself,”
Rabbi Zweibel wrote in an email to
Hamodia.
In a telephone conversation
with Hamodia yesterday, Rabbi
Levin acknowledged that he wrote
Paladino’s statement, and that he
did not feel it is inappropriate for a
non-Jewish candidate to suggest to
leading Rabbis what their priorities
Hillel Engel
should be. He claimed that his spir-
itual mentor, a very prominent Rav
who is no longer alive, endorsed his
method of publicly criticizing
Rabbanim who endorse or honor
socially liberal candidates.
“This is what I have been doing
for the past 30 years,” said Rabbi
Levin, who has campaigned for
conservative candidates for many
years.
OTHER ISSUES
Would those schools that
accept vouchers be allowed to
discriminate, to choose which
students to accept?
No, you can’t do that. Not in the
world we live in today. We have to
be practical. But obviously, if the
school’s base is in Boro Park, then
most will be Jewish. If the school is
accepting vouchers [it has] to
accept everybody.
I believe in school vouchers. I
believe in tax credits. In the mean-
time, while we are fighting to get
tax credits and school vouchers, we
will support the expansion of the
charter school system.
Will the schools that accept
vouchers have to have a fixed
curriculum?
One of the things I’m going to do
is dismember the New York State
Board of Education. I’m going to
take that policy that they set now,
I’m going to take the curriculum
that they set, and we’re going to
drive back to very simple, broad
principles. In other words, in math,
this is what you’re expected to
accomplish. End of story.
There will be … minimums, and
we’re going to let communities
decide the specifics of the curricu-
lum and the policies that are set.
That I stand very strongly on.
We have people in Albany
deciding on our policy and our cur-
riculum who are faceless, who are
not accountable to the people
today … that’s wrong.
Many of our readers are
dependent on Medicaid. How
are you going to cut $20 billion
out of Medicaid?
I assure you that in cutting, no
person legitimately on Medicaid
will lose one nickel. I assure you of
that. Our Medicaid is so far out of
reach right now. We are 100 per-
cent higher per capita than the
next-highest state. The fraud, the
waste, the abuse of programs… [I
prefer programs] such as in-home
care for the elderly rather than
sending them [to nursing homes] …
or to pay a family member to care
for the person in the home. Right
now, we pay nursing homes
$75,000 per person. In-home care
can bring that down probably to
$25,000. If we save on 25 percent of
the patients, [due to] home health
care, we save $2.6 billion. This is
very doable and has to be done.
But how will you cut $20 billion,
when according to Mr. Cox, head
of the GOP of NY, cutting fraud
and waste will only produce $5
billion in savings?
The federal base for eligibility
for Medicaid is 130 percent of
poverty level. New York State is the
highest in America. It’s at 230 per-
cent on optional benefits. The
optionals bring it up from 130 to
230. If we can get that to 190 per-
cent of eligibility, who are we hurt-
ing? None of the legitimate people.
I’m not proposing anything defi-
nite on the specifics of it. I’m illus-
trating to you various options that
are available to bring Medicaid
down. We certainly can do some-
thing about a Medicaid system that
has emergency benefits that invite
every Tom, Dick and Harry in
America to come to New York State
for their operations … We will bring
down that exercise in waste, if you
want to call it that, putting the bur-
den on New York taxpayers for peo-
ple that [don’t live] here. It’s bil-
lions of dollars.
You are down 18% in the polls.
Do you plan to spend some of
your considerable wealth in the
last weeks leading up to the
election?
In the primary, three days
before the primary, we had surged
to a point where they said it was 43,
42. We had come up over the period
of two months to that point, from 3,
I think, to 1.9. We felt that we had a
surge. We thought we would win
after doing that. We thought we
would win by a couple of points
because we knew we were surging
at that time. We won by 26 points
three days later. Now, you tell me
about the polls. That right there is a
fact.
I think the problem with the
polls, according to our pollster, is
they don’t know how to gauge the
turnout. The turnout is going to be
very, very important in the final, as
it was in the primary.
Our advertising starts on
Monday and goes right through
the... [election]. I don’t let the press
dictate my strategy. I keep that to
myself.