From City Hall to Albany? Interview With Assembly Candidate Simcha Eichenstein

As Simcha Eichenstein, 34, prepares to transition from a political career of working for others to working for constituents, he told Hamodia in an interview that he would like to combine a wealth of governmental experience with an intimate knowledge of the Orthodox community to help his future district.

Born and raised on Boro Park’s 53rd Street, he now lives on 44th Street with his wife and four children. He is running unopposed.

“It’s good to be back here,” he tells Hamodia during the interview. “This is actually where it all started. Remember, April 26, this is where I first announced my candidacy. I think we could say that the official kickoff of my candidacy took place here, and I believe I sat in the very same chair.”

The first time I met you was exactly nine years ago, right here in this room, when you were campaigning for a city council candidate. Remember that campaign?

I believe I was here many times before that. I started off more as a local advocate, working with some social service organizations and trying to help them with government. And I quickly realized that I could accomplish so much more in government versus out of government. So the last four years I worked for the mayor of the city of New York. I also did state legislative affairs.

A lot of people never heard of you. I think it’s important to explain to readers that behind the scenes, you were involved in every city initiative that impacted the Orthodox community, whether transportation, or special ed, or sanitation.

Absolutely. The vouchers. These are all issues that I worked on in the last four years. Look, I was at City Hall working for the mayor, but these are issues that mattered most. It was personal to me. In many cases, whether it be quality-of-life issues, I mean, this is the community I live in.

You used the term “behind-the-scenes person.” Someone once repeated a line to me that [former Israeli Prime Minister] Menachem Begin used to say, “If you don’t care about getting the credit, you can actually accomplish a lot.” And that line really stuck with me. When that person shared the line with me, I responded, “And if I may add, if you’re only interested in getting the credit, you probably accomplish nothing.”

But look, that was my job, right? I was a behind-the-scenes person and that was my job, to let others get the credit. I was very comfortable doing that. But this is now a very different setting to me, and – I’m not going to lie – it doesn’t necessarily come natural to me. But I’m adjusting and I’m enjoying it, and it’s great being stopped on the street and having people, random strangers, walking up to you and stopping you and sharing their concerns.

I had a little bit of that before as well, in my previous life, but nothing like right now. And you’d be surprised. You pick up a lot. People have ideas. People just pose questions, why is this like this? And perhaps you should look into this issue.

What was the best idea that you got from a man on the street?

I left shul last week, and a person points to the fire hydrant and says, “You see these fire hydrants? They were built in the 1800s. Are you seriously going to tell me that in 2018 we can’t come up with a newer, a better way of doing this, in which two parking spots are not eliminated per hydrant?”

Oil trucks, the gas companies, when they come and they refill gas, they don’t have this system in which it sticks out and they need to take up a couple of parking spaces.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot. There has to be a better way to do this. And I’ve heard some different ideas. There’s got to be a simple solution. So I have some ideas in my head I’m discussing with some folks.

Isn’t that a city issue? You’re running for state office.

No, no, it’s a quality-of-life issue. Look, when you put yourself out there running for office to be a representative of the people, yes, I get it, there are different branches of government, and some people run at a federal level and some people run for office at the state level, and obviously the city level. But here’s the bottom line: You’re telling, in my case my future constituents, G-d willing, I am here to represent you. And I am here to look out for you. And I want to fight for you and I want to advocate for you.

True, I’ll be serving in a state body, but that does not mean that if there are quality-of-life issues on a local level that you could perhaps work with the local council member if it’s a city issue. Or if it’s a federal matter, reach out to the congressman and push and advocate and fight for your people.

So yes, it is a state office. But I see it as an opportunity to serve all people in this district on any matter they may have. Hey, they may have bureaucratic issues, not even with a state agency but with a utility company. That does not mean that we, as elected, should shy away from taking on those issues because it doesn’t necessarily fit exactly the type of office that I’m running for.

What is your position on progressive issues that have come up recently? Having a fee for plastic bags? Now they’re talking about limiting balloons.

I haven’t heard the limiting balloons yet. Limiting balloons, as in helium balloons?

Not only helium, all types of balloons.

I have not heard about eliminating balloons.

That’s the next thing.

I’m not a fan of the fee on plastic bags. I’ll call it a tax and I’m not a fan of any tax. So I’m certainly not a fan of plastic bag fees.

But I think in general, we as a community, we have to build alliances with communities that we may not completely be aligned with. We’re a unique community. We have unique needs. In many ways, we’re very different. Our way of life is very different from the rest of the state. Many legislators, and quite frankly, many people outside of these communities, of our communities, don’t understand our community. They don’t understand our way of life. They view it with suspicion.

And we need to educate them, but we also need to find areas where we could work together with them. Now, I’m not saying we should compromise on things we can’t support. That’s not what I’m trying to say. But what I do think is that we need to build alliances, and obviously the bills that we’re opposed to, we should oppose. But you need to find ways to work together with your colleagues.

The Assembly is a body of 150 members. In order to get anything passed, you need to get them to buy in. I need to get buy-in from the 149 members, right? Or at least the majority of them, or the majority of the Democratic conference. If not, it’s not going anywhere. That means I need to build alliances with these people. I need to tell them, let’s work together on the issues that I care about. Well, that also means you need to work with them on the issues they care about.

Regarding the report on yeshivos issued by the city two weeks ago. As an assemblyman, rightly or wrongly, you’ll be seen as a leader in the community. How would you use that position to explain what our issues are about? First of all, to the media, to fellow legislators, to the public?

On this issue, and obviously this is an issue that I’ve dealt with, is one of the main issues that we need to hit the reset buttons.

Our yeshivah system is a beautiful system. Put aside the fact that kids are well-behaved, but it’s a longer day than any other school system out there. Kids are studying rigorous studies, in some cases until eight, nine o’clock at night. We need to educate legislators who don’t know what the yeshivah system is about. They’ve never been through a yeshivah, they’ve never seen it. They have this image made up based on what they’re reading in the press, which is certainly not the case.

And unfortunately, there is a group of individuals — I don’t know how many they are — who’ve been making a lot of noise. A handful of individuals, disgruntled individuals, who are on a smear-mongering campaign of our yeshivah system, of the Orthodox community, the Chassidic community, our way of life. They’re out there in the press, pushing a false narrative about what our yeshivah system is.

Here’s the bottom line: If you read the entire 14 pages of the city’s report, we could nitpick where there are some criticisms. And I’ll leave it to the press, they’ve done a very good job on only focusing on where they could find a bit of criticism. But the Department of Education visited 15 schools. If you read their report, they were actually in classrooms and the city seemed pretty satisfied.

Furthermore, the city reaches a conclusion in their report, and I’ll quote it. “A strong argument has been made that Judaic studies can be a powerful context in which to cultivate critical thinking and textual analysis skills.” Which means that the city actually agrees that when yeshivah is learning non-secular studies, this is also critical thinking. This is rigorous education.

So my message to this handful of so-called advocates is, say it as it is. Say I do not like the Judaic studies. Call it as it is. They’re painting this picture that Judaic studies shouldn’t even fall under the category of education because it’s not “studies.” Judaic studies is no easy subject. I mean, I went to yeshivah. I’m a product of the yeshivah system. During Judaic studies we debated Talmudic law, the way I’m sure they debate general law or whatever topic in law school, whatever subject you’re there for.

I believe that if we start educating many of these people — and I’ve spoken to many legislators in the last couple of months, and I’ll tell you that many of them, after explaining to them, they were like, “Really? Interesting.” They just did not understand what a yeshivah is.

I look forward to working on that. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I’m pretty optimistic that there’s a lot of room and we can accomplish a lot.

Did you plan on trying to climb the ladder in Albany? Some legislators prefer to cut alliances with leadership and bring home funding for the district. Others do the hard work of attending committee hearings, etc.

Yeah, look, I’m running to represent this community, obviously, but I want to be a legislator. That’s the primary job of an elected official. So yes, I look forward to sitting on committees and participating in the process while legislation is being negotiated, while it’s making its way through its committees. Oftentimes, it has to go through many committees.

Don’t forget, a bill often gets amended again and again and again as it’s making its way through the house, out of committee. Even once it’s out of committee, in the next committee — that’s when the details are formed. There are many examples which I believe, our community has been left out.

Take the issue of housing, for example. The 421a was renewed last year. As most people know, if you buy a condo here in Boro Park, or at least up until the last year or half-year ago, it would come with a 15-year tax abatement. Basically, you wouldn’t pay property taxes for the first 15 years.

Now, that bill was up for renewal a couple of years ago. There was actually an agreement that later blew up, and then they passed a short term, six-month legislation. It blew up again. And then last year, they ultimately passed a new 421a bill. Now unfortunately, most new developments in our community no longer qualify for 421a, for this tax abatement. The reason is because the way the assessment works there are two limits that were implemented that leave us out of it. One is the assessment, on the assessment side the number is too low. And also, the amount of units per development.

The point being, we need to have a seat at the table while all these negotiations are going on. And I want to fight for that. Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, who chairs the housing committee, is a neighboring assembly member here. His district comes into Midwood. Knows our community, understands our community. We just need to make sure that we have a seat at the table when the details are being hammered out, we don’t get left out based on the assessment being too low.

So now, a big issue, or what seems will be a big issue in the next couple of years, is property tax reform. I don’t know that it’s going to be in 2019, but I know the mayor is talking about it.

Will that be on the state level or the city level? Property tax assessment is city, right?

Yes.

Isn’t this what the charter commission is looking at?

Correct, but what I’m saying is that the conversation is starting now. While these conversations are happening, we need a seat at the table, and we need to make sure that our community is represented as well.

You know, as it relates to real estate, REBNY always has a seat at the table. REBNY is the Real Estate Board. The major developers always have a seat at the table. But there are also developers that are mom-and-pop developers that build three units at a time, four units at a time, six units at a time. These people, unfortunately, aren’t “big enough” to have a seat at the table. I want to be their voice.

A big concern among our readership is tuition aid. It seems like for the past couple years lawmakers have been talking about helping yeshivos with security funding, mandated services. All nice things, but what about the parents who pay tuition? That funding doesn’t trickle down to parents.

I hear you, but I just want to correct the record. I’m not disagreeing with what you’re saying, but as you know, I’m someone that worked at City Hall the last four years. I worked extensively on the childcare voucher issue. And you know this. We’ve spoken a lot about it in all these years. I am very proud of the fact that we’re able to work on it. And obviously I credit the mayor. This is a commitment that he made to our community, and he stood by his commitment. He added additional funding, also baselined it, and he was really there for us.

Another education piece that I worked on was the universal prekindergarten program. Do you remember when it was rolled out? Many yeshivos said it doesn’t work for them, and obviously at that point the mayor agreed to relax some of the rules, made it easier for them to be in compliance. And many yeshivos today do.

I personally went out and met with administrators one-on-one, tens of them, convincing them why this program does work for them, and how it could work for them. And I’m proud to say that many of them have, after that, implemented a UPK program. That is one year’s free tuition, and by now there are hundreds of people in this community who did not pay tuition for a year. That’s a huge relief.

But there are other things that could be done at the state level. Let’s talk about vouchers. People don’t realize that in reality, most vouchers that we benefit from are administered through the city but it’s actually state vouchers. There’s a lot that we could potentially do with vouchers.

I’m a strong believer of separation of church and state. I understand that there are times that it works to our disadvantage. But if you look at the curriculum issue, for example, I mean, we believe as a community there should be separation of church and state, and government should not interfere with a religious curriculum. We have a constitutional right to send our children to a yeshivah. A parent has a constitutional right to pick the direction of their child’s education, and religious schools are protected.

There’s so much other stuff, areas we could work on. The fact that a program exists doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight for there to be more. Great, there’s vouchers. Guess what? There’s not enough. There are thousands of people on a waiting list. Well, you know what? The city did more last year. That’s great. Next year let’s go to the state and let’s get more from the state. They have a share in this as well.

Outside of the big-ticket items, anything else you would want to push for?

When I knock on doors, most of the issues that we just discussed — I get that it’s important. And we’re going to work on it. But those are not the issues that are raised. It’s the parking issues. It’s the sanitation issues. It’s the local quality of life issues. This is really what people raise.

And then we have, obviously, other issues that people raise. But for the most part, all communities are aligned on the quality of life issues. And on those types of issues I want to be there. Some of these are very complex. You know, you mentioned before that I worked on the sanitation reroute change, as well as the Shabbos meter parking. And I did work on both of these extensively.

What’s your relationship with Simcha Felder?

I have a wonderful relationship with Simcha. And by the way, my friendship with Simcha Felder goes back many years. I want to say over a decade.

In fact, I used to live not too far from Simcha, and I used to daven in his father’s shul. Simcha is someone that I admire. He’s a person that will fight tooth and nail on behalf of this community, and he will not back down no matter what. And I pray that I should be able to accomplish in my next term half of what Simcha Felder was able to accomplish in the last couple of years.

So I obviously have nothing but good things to say about him, and I look forward to continuing my friendship, but also mentorship from him. And I think we’ll be working together and we’ll be working hand-in-hand. And it will be just a great, excellent relationship.

And maybe, I know Simcha learns the Daf every single day. We could perhaps carve out some time and I could perhaps join him in the Daf learning.

Right now, what’s on the agenda in Albany is the Child Victims Act. If this would be about protecting victims, nobody would be arguing against it. This is something that critics of this are saying is out to bankrupt yeshivos based on things that happened decades ago.

I’m sympathetic to the victims. And if it’s about seeking justice, I support seeking justice. There are two components to this bill. There’s the criminal side, and then there’s the civil side.

On the criminal side, I am 100 percent with the advocates, with the victims, in them pursuing justice. Go after the perpetrator.

Having said that, on the civil side, I don’t think it’s fair to the institution. I mean, we’re talking about incidents that happened decades ago. The current bill that passed one house carries with it a 50-year lookback. Fifty years — think about that for a minute. The principal may have passed on by now. The bus driver, the janitor, they’re all long gone from the institution.

At this point, the institution is under new leadership. In some instances the leadership may have turned over multiple times since this incident. I don’t think it’s fair to the institution. Here’s the reality: This will bankrupt yeshivos. So I’m very sympathetic to the victims. I want to be clear. And I want to be onboard in helping them pursue justice. But we can’t bankrupt the yeshivos for incidents that happened up to 50 years ago.

So on the civil side, if we’re talking about a lookback of a couple of years, that’s something that I’m open to. But a long-term lookback with decades and decades, up to 50 years, that is not something that I can support.