CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #205 Mr. Leon Goldenberg - Politics 101

There was an election in Flatbush a few years ago for a judge which we lost by 76 votes for a woman who was running and she lost by 76. >> We have the same thing with the DA over here of about 50, >> right? The DA which means any shul in Queens for the DA any shel had they come out >> made the difference >> would have made the difference in Flatbush any sh could have made the difference. People are not registered. It's very simple. And you need to register if you're in New York City, you need to be registered as a Democrat. That includes Queens, part of New York City, >> you need to be a registered Democrat. Rare occasions that being registered as a Republican makes a difference. The primary is what's critical. Mandani won the primary. Now that he won the primary, chances are he will be our mayor. [Music] Abim and welcome to Toro Talks Kazak's program with special guests. We have with us all the way from Brooklyn, Leon Goldenberg. Welcome. So good to see you. Thanks for joining us. >> First time ever in Queens. >> Oh, really? First time in Queens. Okay. I know it's your first time to Kazak headquarters, which it's funny. He walks in. He's like, "Oh, I didn't realize Kazak is so big." >> I have a daughter-in-law from Queens. Oh, very nice. Form. Yes. Yes. So, we're going to be speaking about a topic which people might say, what's the connection to Torah and talks and but it's politics 101. And you'll see the connection momentarily, but before we get to the topic, a little bit background about yourself and the great work you're involved with. So, I guess uh the things that I am involved in most are Shalom Torah centers uh which I run now for the last 16 years which is a Kira school in Manalapan. We have 900 200 children. 100 of our children were in public school. Came out of public school. >> Kazaka music terriers. >> Yes. They came out of public school. Um most of our kids, I would say 85 to 90% of our graduates go on to Yeshiva High School. By the time they graduate from Yeshiva High School, they're 100% shabbat. >> Amazing. >> So that keeps me busy part of the day. Mhm. >> I am involved in the Auda for almost 40 years. And that'll just give you an idea of why I got involved in politics. 40 years ago, I had the I had the the ability to buy a piece of land to build Tom Shabas, the first Tom Shabas uh that existed in Burough Park and Flower Bush. And in 1986 we had a groundbreaking event which was attended by leading rabbis Rabanum and a few politicians and it was really a beautiful event. It was on 44th in the Utrich on the lot. I had arranged for a contractor to work basically at cost and architect everyone. It was it was going to building was going to be put up with simple building you know just a warehouse building was going to be put up cheap. A week after uh we had this beautiful groundbreaking, we get a letter from the MTA, Mass Transit Authority, saying they're taking our lot on eminent domain. Now, in reality, they were right. They were building power stations. People don't realize, but the trains run on DC and and we generate electricity on AC or just the opposite of >> you don't know. Yeah. Uh so they have to convert the power and they figured out if they build these conversion power plants every 20 blocks they can speed up the train. >> So the reasoning was correct and you want to take an empty lot instead of taking down two or three buildings that have residents living in them and stores. But it didn't work for me. >> Values had skyrocketed since I had bought it. And it's a whole process to fight and it could take years and years before we get any money and by that time the prices have skyrocketed. And I said to Mr. Hershitz who's the founder of Tomas who we talked to and he said a very strange lion a very strange language. He said let's go to our agura. Not let's go to the auda let's go to our agura. And that was my first uh dealing with the auda. And I called up um I'll tell you his name in a second when I remember it. I called him up. He was the council for the auding to say well maybe two 3 weeks I can fit you in for 10 minutes. And he says what time now? I said 12:00. He says can you be in my office 2:00. I said two o'clock when he says you said it's important now. In two hours. So I picked up Mr. Hershwitz and we went to the Argood and he said at the end of the day this is really something that we need to involve the politicians >> to stop the the MTA. >> And just to give you one idea uh of what what took place when they want to take property and I'll try to move it along quickly because that's not the purpose of this. When they want to take a property, they have to advertise it three times in the paper that they're having a hearing about taking the baminate domain. They advertise it three days. Three times on Chabas in the New York Times, >> an Orthodox organization in Burough Park, not advertised in any Jewish newspaper, only in the New York Times. And luckily on the last ad, somebody saw it. Call me up. you know that there's a hearing next Monday or Tuesday, whatever it was and I was flabbergasted and Dove Hiken came down with me and he just got up and he just blasted them for the way they they did it and they cancelled the meeting and that week I got a call from the MTA. Uh they'd like to sit down and talk. It was a year process. It was a long process but at the end of the process I gave them the lot. They gave me a building on 63rd in Utri which today houses bush. >> Look at that. Unbelievable. >> So to shabas is something I've been involved with as you can see for quite some time. >> Diaga >> where I am involved in the political end of diaga whether it's New York City, New York State or Washington. Matter of fact, tomorrow we'll be going uh by the time people hear it we were ready in Washington. Uh and and then Cojo Flap which I sit on the executive board. Those are >> so you keep yourselves very very busy. >> Three of the main >> amazing. >> So we're gonna be focusing on today's Torah talk like we said political politics 101. Uh so tell us what why is it so important to be politically uh active? Why do people have to wait for them to have an issue with some MTA or some building? >> Well, that's also important. But I'll I'll tell you another one. I I won't disclose names, okay? But I got very close to an assembly person not in New York City. I used to have there was a uh a council member who was really a great friend of the Jewish community, a Jewish person but not religious but really a great friend uh Fiddler Lou Fiddler. and he was introducing me to legislators all over the state that he had connections to. And he introduced me to certain assembly person and really was a very nice meeting. And I actually went out uh as couples for dinner uh with that assembly person. And that assembly person was very prolific, was passing, was putting forward legislation passed about the age of consent for marriage in New York. Did you know that up until about eight years ago, whatever it was, seven years ago, a girl of 12 could get married. >> Even in the SWAT community, that's a little young. And there were cases where girls were being forced into marriage at 12, 13, 14 years old and the person wanted to pass legislation to raise the age to 18. But because of my relationship, I got a call. What does the Orthodox community need? I called David. We reached out to some Rabraham some Rabanum in the Sarda community where there are younger marriages and there were some that requested 16 but we felt that wouldn't fly and instead uh we we decided that 17 is what we would ask for and I did and the legislation passed with 17. >> Wow. something that nobody knows about, nobody's involved in. >> And so the impact is sometimes, you know, we talk about I I'm up there for yeshivas for, you know, mandated services and, you know, where we get millions and millions of dollars for the yeshivas, but there's sometimes little things that happen >> that have very big effect >> that have have have an impact. I would say a very big effect. I would say >> that case maybe not, but in general, there's a lot of things have an effect. whether it's the yeshivot or their shs or the organizations. I could go on and on. >> I've written to several members important members of Congress recently and I'm not going to give names about Mandani. Okay, I'm actually writing two more today. And about globalizing. Now you want to tell me your first state of Palestine? I can hear that. the fact that you had a state of Palestine from 2005 to 2023 and you simply ignore that and the fact that you could have had a state in the larger part of Palestine in 2000 2008 and you choose to ignore that is you know an argument but globalizing the inifada means kill Jews all over that means the two Jews that were murdered in DC the one that was murdered in Boulder and the other ones that were burnt alive was because of globalizing the One of the people that I've reached out to that Mandani is seeking an endorsement from hasn't received it yet. And that person has said publicly that doesn't mean that that's where it'll end because these are all Democrats that they will not uh endorse until that is cleared up. Okay. Now, will they, won't they? I can't tell you. But the point is is that the people that I've written to quietly, no fanfare, not tweeted out, quiet email sent. And most of what happens, most of the good things that happen in government are quietly and not by banging down the doors and letting the whole world know I'm against this, I'm against that. uh the Auda was probably the most instrumental organization in passing these the legislation at the federal level. Now most of that work was done quietly. It's $5 billion. There's really no cap on it. There's really no cap on it. There's only a cap on how much we can give which hopefully in years future years we can raise because that's how most these programs run. you know, you start here and you you know, you grab a little more, it'll grab a little I don't like to use that. Put that out. >> So, personal experience of elected officials having an effect on our community, you mentioned a few already. That's one. And um >> there's two done that I mentioned. >> Right. Exactly. And what do the Gdolean, the big rabbis of our generation, what do they say about being politically active and and voting? >> It's critical. It's always been critical to our community. >> Even more so now. Even more so now when you have Mandani and you have somebody like that running and we have so many people in our community that are not registered and we have so many people in our community that decided to be registered as Republicans or >> independents which is wonderful if you're living in Florida >> and when I do myself in Florida I will become a Republican but right now I'm in New York and just to give you one idea under legisl ated side. There are 150 members in the assembly. 50 49 keeps going back and forth. 4950 are Republicans and 100 are Democrats. So they have not only majority but the supermajority might be under. Hopefully with an election might be down to 99. Imagine we'll be happy with 99 because it's no longer a super majority. In the Senate they lost a super majority and we're thrilled. Wow. Wow. 50 Republicans decide they want to pass legislation and they get 50 Democrats to agree to pass the same legislation. >> That's 100. >> That's 100 out of 150. >> Majority >> majority. Does it pass the assembly? >> Should >> it should >> 100, right? 100. >> Let's count that again. 100 versus uh 50, right? >> So 100 wins. >> It doesn't. >> Why doesn't it? >> Why doesn't it? Because the speaker will not allow a piece of legislation to come to the floor for a vote that does not have 76 Democrats supporting it. >> Oh wow. >> So basically the Republicans in the assembly and in the Senate very nice people. >> This is New York obviously. >> This is New York. We're talking about New York. You know you're listening somewhere else it's different rules. You go to Florida it's different rules. But for New York, basically what they can pass in legislation are three things. I've been thinking about changing my office on East 14th Street between Eminem and I wanted that street to be changed name to Leon Goldenberg Way. >> They can probably accomplish that for me. They can also accomplish if somebody has sometimes you have a cop or a fireman that gets disabled at 18 years and they want them to get to 20 years because they get a better pension. They can pass legislation to bypass the pension system for that individual cop or fireman or whoever it is that they're trying to pass that they can pass. I look, people don't know how many pieces of legislation are passed in every year. >> Believe it or not, almost a thousand pieces of legislation >> are passed every year. And the governor will sign 30, 40, 50 at a time. >> And sometimes I will look at what was signed and who is leading the legislation. >> Sponsor the bill. It's called >> sponsor the bill. And basically you'll find that Republican sponsors are sponsoring bills like this. They are not sponsoring any legislation. They can co-sign. They can vote on it if they like the legislation, but they cannot be the main sponsor. They cannot be the lead sponsor except on street namings and you know minus is a little tax bill for their locality upstate where it might make a difference. Other than that, they couldn't pass legislation. So our community needs to be involved with the Democrats. Now the Democrats are terrible. The Democrats have Mandani. You want to make a difference? Then we have to put people in that can fight them on the Democratic side, not when they're sitting up in Albany and they're basically ignored and they're completely ignored. Uh I can tell you about my own business something. I had a a meeting with with with a very important Republican and I called and he says he's never had a meeting with the real estate group and I said I'll take care of that immediately. I get out and I call the person and the person says I can't meet with him. I said why can't you meet with them? I can't be seen by the Democrats meeting with him. Mhm. >> So, it's very nice that Five Towns sent a Republican senator and a Republican assembly member to this state and they can scream about anti-semitism from today till tomorrow, but that's all they can do. They cannot pass legislation. We need people that can pass legislation that will help the yeshivas, that will help the community, with security, with with funding for the yeshivas. That's what we need. And so therefore, we need Democrats in office, Democrats that are moderate, Democrats that care about crime and not just, you know, uh, you know, pass pass, uh, bail reform. Bail reform is important and was critical, and I will say that, but it was overboard. when there's a young man who landed up spending three years in jail for stealing a backpack because he couldn't come up with $500 bail about her. That's that's what caused bail reform. It's not about looking at the numbers. It's about individual cases that make the the the scene. He was three years in jail every time he couldn't come up $500. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if somebody called you up at one o'clock on a Friday and said, "I just got arrested. They want a million dollars bail." Would you get him out before Chabas? Would you? You would. Right. You would get him out before Chabas. A $500 bill he couldn't come up with. And every time he came to go to court, there was this mess up, that mess up. He land up sitting in Reich for three years. After three years, he came out and he committed suicide >> from 16 to 19. So all this legislation has passed about. But if you want to make a difference, if you want to change those laws for the better and to make sense and discovery and everything else, you need to have Democrats working on it, you're not going to accomplish it by having Republicans that are screaming about it, rightfully so. And what they're saying is true, but they can't pass the legislation. >> Locally over here in Queens, where I am, uh my councilman is uh is Councilman Jim Janeiro, and my Sam Burger, and they're moderate, >> right? They're moderate. >> Yeah. go out to far away and you have Republicans >> again the Gdolei is strong you have relationships a lot of big rabbi what's there to say about the politically act political >> so we need to be involved we need to be active >> uh over the years I used to go down to ask him many questions that were very very difficult questions of what we can support what we can't support who we can support because of certain things that they've done >> right >> okay those conversations go on a regular basis and Flower Bush, Rebellia and Rebius uh Riseman are the ones undergo this and they understand these issues and they understand that things that seem but this guy you know what he did you know what he voted for I know what he voted for >> but he can help us and it's important to maintain those >> so it should be known that a lot of things that the community leaders do everything is they follow the very very important that people know that that it's not just you know they decided uh amazing Leon really appreciate your time uh we have a customer of a final message for our broad audience final message register register register >> everybody you know should be registered >> there was an election in Flatbush a few years ago for a judge which we lost by 76 votes a fro woman was running and she lost by 76 >> we had the same thing with the DA over here of about 50 >> right the DA which means any sh in Queens means for the DA any shoo had they come out >> made the difference >> would have made the difference in flatbush any sh could have made the difference people are not registered it's very simple I'm going to go to jury you're going to go to jury duty anyway you have a driver's license I'll take you for jury duty and at the end of the day it's important that we go to jury duty >> so that we make a difference there too >> but you're not going to get called for jury duty because you got registered which is the biggest um you know once upon upon time was true. Today it's no longer true. You need to register and you need to register if you're in New York City. You need to be registered as a Democrat. If you're living upstate, if you're living in Muny, if you're living in the, you know, in in the country, if you're living in the five towns, it may be different. But if you're living in New York City, that includes Queens, part of New York City, >> you need to be a registered Democrat because the the congressional races except for very rare occasions, which was the uh you know, when when uh Anthony Weiner was dispared as a Republican makes a difference. For those that are registered as Republicans, when was the last time that your vote counted in the primary? Because that's all that matters to me. You have to tell us something. In general, you could vote for anyone. >> In November, you vote however you want. >> Yeah. >> We're talking about the primary. >> Last primary that made a difference as a Republican 2016 when Trump ran for office and before that 26 years earlier. uh 22 years earlier, 26 years early in 1990 when when Bush ran. >> It's been >> that's when it makes a difference in New York City being a Republican and I guarantee you if you ask anybody any of your Republican friends, I didn't vote in the primary for President Trump. I didn't think to go to the primary. What's so important? The primary is what's critical and that's what people have to understand. Mandani won the primary. Not that he won the primary, chances are he will be our mayor. Especially if we have three people running against him, I guarantee you he's the next mayor. >> Okay, >> vote. It makes a difference. Every vote counts. >> Leon, thank you very much for coming. Join us at Kazak Torah Talks. Amazing, amazing, amazing uh feedback there. We're constantly getting info kazak.org Tuesday nights 8:30 p.m. kazak.orglive chazq.org/live. Special thank you to the various different platforms that host Kazak to talk. Special thank you to our friends at Tory Time and Daily Giving. A dollar a day goes a very far way. We encourage everyone to be a daily giver and we want to thank you once again, Leon, and all those that are involved with Kazak, all the volunteers and staff and board members and supporters. Great things are happening. The summer is the busiest time for us. We're trying to get as many kids from public schools into yeshivas for the September school year. >> Okay. Yes, for sure. Amazing. [Music]