The city's newest mayoral candidate: Anthony Weiner (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Back in November, the New York Times noted this year's mayoral race is historically significant because it lacked a Jewish candidate.

"The likelihood that no major Jewish candidate may seek to run for mayor is also the consequence of the extraordinary undoing of the political career of a man who could very well have been the Democratic front-runner at this point," the paper argued. "Anthony D. Weiner."

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning that Mr. Weiner announced his return to the race, however, and this dynamic suddenly changed. But can Mr. Weiner, still politically haunted by his lewd Twitter scandal from two years ago, build support in the city's sizable Jewish vote? After all, socially conservative constituencies, including Orthodox Jews, could be extremely turned off by the salacious nature of his downfall.

"Likud Jews, as I call them, they are conservative hawks on issues like Israel--Weiner was very popular with them," Jerry Skurnik, a veteran political consultant who focuses extensively on the city's demographics, told Politicker. "Jews are a big segment of the vote. It's not like the old days, when they would be 40 percent in a primary, but they're still a significant vote. The question is, does Weiner have too much baggage? The fact that he's Jewish does help."

Mr. Weiner's old 9th Congressional district roped in a remarkably diverse swath of Jewish voters, allowing Mr. Weiner, a legislator known more for his obsessive dedication to constituent issues rather than accomplishments in Washington, to forge ties with secular, Russian and varying degrees of conservative and Orthodox Jews in southern Brooklyn and central Queens. Representing these Jewish enclaves, he built a reputation as an ardent supporter of Israel, synagogues, yeshivas and various Jewish cultural programs.

Political consultant Jeff Leb argued Orthodox voters can even be forgiving of Mr. Weiner if he makes an earnest effort to reach out to their communities and show he is still invested in the issues that concern them most.

"I think that Anthony had a very strong base in the Jewish community prior to his unfortunate incident," Mr. Leb said. "The Jewish community could definitely be open to forgiving Anthony, provided he's open and explains himself and apologizes."

Others speculated Mr. Weiner's high-profile marriage to a Muslim could hurt him among some voters as interfaith marriages, like same-sex ones, are taboo among many Orthodox Jews. Ironically, it is Ms. Abedin's own credibility and refusal to abandon Mr. Weiner that is viewed by some political pundits as one of Mr. Weiner's few assets as he attempts to win over the general electorate.

"I think it hurt him when he ran for Congress, but it's not a deal breaker," said Michael Fragin, an Orthodox Jewish consultant and host of the political talk show Spin Class. "Weiner will definitely force other candidates to challenge their assumptions of where they can win over Jewish voters, whether it's the Upper West Side, central or eastern Queens, areas of Brooklyn heavily Orthodox or not Orthodox, like Sheepshead Bay."

Mr. Weiner's candidacy, at the minimum, seems likely to force his rivals--some of whom, including Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and 2009 nominee Bill Thompson, that have their own bases in the Jewish vote in areas far outside of Mr. Weiner's old congressional district--to adjust their outreach or tactics as they vie for a coalition that leads them straight into City Hall.

Rabbi Admoni addresses the crowd as Erick Salgado and State Senator Diaz watch.

In the basement of Ahi Ezer Congregation in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn last night, conservative Democrat Rev. Erick Salgado gathered with rabbis and other Jewish leaders to raise money and support for his mayoral campaign. And for some, the event was a forum for rabble-rousing against the socially liberal positions embraced by the vast majority of New York City's Democratic officials.

"It is my party--my Democratic Party--that takes away everything I believe in," Rev. Rubén Díaz, Sr., a Bronx State Senator, declared in a passionate speech. "It is the Democratic Party--my party--that imposes in our communities gay marriage. It is the Democratic Party that wants to impose abortion. It is the Democratic Party that takes away our rights."

A number of rabbis also addressed the crowd, condemning not only gay marriage but also Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial regulations for metzizah b’peh, a ritual Jewish circumcision practice. Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Nelkenbaum, speaking first, took his case even further and criticized pornography, polygamy and bestiality as well.

"When I was growing up, there was no such thing as pornography. It was outlawed," he quietly contended. "We see the trend here ... It is not necessarily going to stop with this. They talk about polygamy, they call it. They want to make legal polyandry--relations with more than one husband--... and bestiality, who knows where it can end? It really has to be stopped with this and hopefully turn back. Therefore we're backing Mr. Erick Salgado because he's ... committed to stopping these perversions and corruptions of the mind."

Rabbi Nelkenbaum said he feared the presence of these perversions, as he called them, would inherently influence the innocent audiences who witness them, leading to the overall downgrade of society. Unless, that is, Mr. Salgado was there to help fight back.

"You know the advertisement industry ... they spend millions and billions of dollars in advertisements. What's the money for?" he asked. "If you look and see a poster, it says, 'Drink Pepsi,' 'Drink Coca-Cola,' 'Eat Spaghetti.' You see a somebody putting spaghetti down his mouth. It makes an impression on a person, no? That's the way to live, they're doing it! It must be good, let me do it also. So the fact that something may be repulsive doesn't mean that with due time that a person won't get conditioned."

For his part, Mr. Salgado--vowing to push back against "the left wing" and "the liberals"--avoided wading into the specific allegations of moral wrongdoing. Instead he focused on his outsider status.

"We have a tough choice in this election. There's many career politicians ... They do know how to express themselves well. They know how to talk about politics. They know how to move around and change the words," he said, pivoting to criticize Council Speaker Christine Quinn for attacking him as anti-immigrant during a debate Wednesday. "How many people saw the debate yesterday? At one point, the Speaker tried to twist my words. And she's an expert at twisting things."

Mr. Salgado, of course, has an uphill battle to the mayoralty. The Democratic electorate, with the exception of some communities, tilts much more to the left than he does and many of his party rivals have institutional support, full campaign war chests and citywide profiles. But the reverend believes that by uniting Hispanic, Orthodox Jewish and other immigrant communities, he has a path.

"They like to say, 'You have no chance. You have no money. You have no name recognition,'" he mocked his detractors. "But still, if I have the children of God with me, I'm going to achieve the victory."

Mr. Salgado's speech can be viewed below, courtesy of the blog NYC Elects -- 2013, which has several other videos from last night as well:

Councilwoman James addresses the crowd.

Yesterday, vandals burned close to a dozen mezuzahs--religious artifacts affixed to doors--in front of Jewish homes in Williamsburg, drawing widespread outrage both in the local community and among candidates for higher office. This morning, several such pols were among the officials at a press conference blasting the perpetrators.

"Today all of us are Jewish and all of us celebrate this wonderful community,"  Councilwoman Tish James, a candidate for public advocate, proclaimed. "But I've come here today to say that the individual or individuals that is responsible for this most heinous crime will be prosecuted ... You will be caught and it is in your best interest to turn yourself in. In fact, I urge you to turn yourself in before anyone in this community gets their hand on you. It's in your best interest."

Several elected official behind Ms. James, including Council Speaker Chris Quinn, visibly reacted to the "get their hands on you" reference to vigilantism, but they still took their own turns to condemn the muzuzah burning, which occurred on Holocaust Remembrance Day, as a hate crime.

"Make no mistake, that was a coordinated hate crime perpetrated on Holocaust Remembrance Day--clearly an act designed to spread fear into the hearts of New Yorkers, in particular the Jewish community," Ms. Quinn firmly stated. "So I'm out here to send a very strong message to the coward or cowards who have perpetrated this crime: your actions do not reflect the belief or feelings of New Yorkers. Our city's greatest strength is our diversity and we will not tolerate acts of hate."

Several of Ms. Quinn's rivals in this year's mayoral race also issued statements on the controversy. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was first out of the gate yesterday, followed by former Comptroller Bill Thompson today.

“Nothing but hatred can explain why someone would burn mezuzahs on Yom Hashoah, the day we remember the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust,” Mr. de Blasio said. “This is a sickening act of prejudice that strikes at the very core of who we are as a city.”

View Ms. James' comments below, video courtesy of Shimon Gifter:

Tom Allon

Tom Allon wants you to know he doesn’t have an Independence streak.

The Manhattan Media CEO, recent Republican and long-shot mayoral candidate released a statement blasting the controversial Independence Party and his rivals in the wake of an opinionated Daily News investigation into the party’s origins. The piece, which quoted party leader Lenora Fulani asserting that Jews “do the dirtiest work of capitalism, to function as mass murderers of people of color,” enraged Mr. Allon.

As the New York Times has noted, Mr. Allon is currently the only Jewish candidate running for mayor and he is hoping the city's many Jewish voters will rally around him. According to the Daily News, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Queens State Sen. Malcolm Smith and former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion--all potential rivals of Allon’s--recently schmoozed with various Independence Party leaders.

"Christine Quinn, Malcolm Smith and Adolfo Carrion should be ashamed that they are pictured with Fulani at a recent event,” Mr. Allon said in a statement. "They, and all other candidates for office in New York, should reject the Independence Party line as long as Lenora Fulani is associated with it and as long as  the party continues to deceive those voters in New York who really just want to be Independent, not Independence Party members.”

Mr. Allon also took the opportunity to remind everyone that he is the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

"As the son of Holocaust survivors, I find people like Newman and Fulani the vilest of anti-Semites and anyone who associates with them should be judged accordingly,” he said.

Moshe Indig celebrating Nydia Velázquez's win last Tuesday. (Photo: NY1)

Anyone who follows northern Brooklyn politics enough quickly learns that there is an incredibly sharp political divide between the two rival factions in Hasidic Williamsburg, where the larger faction favors candidates backed by Brooklyn's Democratic leader Vito Lopez and the smaller one favors candidates he opposes. With both factions turning out in record numbers in last Tuesday's election where incumbent Rep. Nydia Velázquez thumped the Lopez-backed candidacy of Councilman Erik Dilan, that smaller faction decided to take a small victory lap today.

In a press release blasted out by George Arzt Communications, the same firm that worked for Ms. Velázquez's campaign, Rabbi Moshe Indig, a power broker in the the “Aroni” Satmar sect, declared his faction's ongoing success over Mr. Lopez.

"Though Velázquez lost in Williamsburg, the margin was slim among the Satmar – 47 percent – 43 percent – because of the support of the Aroynem," the statement declared, with Rabbi Indig adding, “This marks a new era in Brooklyn. In a short period of time the Aroynem have surged and matched the influence of the Zaloynim.”

The rabbi pointed to past victories as well, including Dan Squadron's successful campaign for the State Senate in 2008 and Lincoln Restler's bid for the state committee in 2010.

“In the last 3 years whoever the Aroynem have endorsed and supported in Brooklyn, have won,” he declared (This isn't technically true, as there was another council and district leadership race apiece that went Mr. Lopez's way in that timespan).

View the full statement below, which Brian Krapf, Executive Vice President at George Arzt, described as a "favor to Rabbi Indig" as opposed to anything from Ms. Velázquez's campaign:

NEWS RELEASE

THE SATMAR PEOPLE IN BROOKLYN FLEX POLITICAL MUSCLE IN NYDIA VELAZQUEZ RACE
---
AROYNEM SECT NEUTRALIZE IMPACT OF RIVAL ZALOYNIM IN
VELAZQUEZ LANDSLIDE VICTORY

(Brooklyn, NY: Friday, June 29, 2012) Any perceived advantage Brooklyn Democratic Chair Vito Lopez thought he had in Williamsburg’s Satmar Jewish community were strongly dispelled after 20 -year incumbent Nydia Velázquez easily cruised to reelection to Congress this week.

Lopez who tapped City Councilman Erik Dilan to challenge Congresswoman Velázquez, no doubt believed the lockstep support of his longtime allies, the Zaloynim, would be able to deliver all of Williamsburg to Dilan and a potential devastating blow to Velázquez’s reelection hopes. However, the Zaloynim’s rivals in the Satmar community, the Aroynem, who have grown in power since the communities split in 1999, voted en masse for Congresswoman Velázquez, helping her secure her landslide victory.

We certainly delivered a strong political message across the state with Nydia’s victory,” said a leader among the Aroynem, Rabbi Moshe Indig. “Williamsburg is no longer under the complete control of the Zaloynim – the Aroynem has just as much power and influence.”

Though Velázquez lost in Williamsburg, the margin was slim among the Satmar – 47 percent – 43 percent – because of the support of the Aroynem.

“This marks a new era in Brooklyn,” said Rabbi Indig. “In a short period of time the Aroynem have surged and matched the influence of the Zaloynim.”

The Aroynem point to the establishment of their social service organization the JCC of Williamsburg, which rivals the Zaloynim-controlled UJO headed by Rabbi David Niederman, as proof that the Aroynem are on equal footing with their rivals. They have also grown in numbers in Williamsburg and Borough Park in recent years. The Aroynem have 30,000 members in Brooklyn, and 15,000 boys and girls in their Brooklyn school district.

They also point to their successful support of other political leaders including State Senator Daniel Squadron. The Aroynem helped Squadron defeat incumbent State Senator Marty Connor who was backed by Vito Lopez and the Democratic organization. They also helped elect City Councilman David Greenfield and District Leader Lincoln Restler. It is widely reported that the Aroynem now have their sights set on the defeat of City Councilman Steve Levin.

“In the last 3 years whoever the Aroynem have endorsed and supported in Brooklyn, have won,” said Rabbi Indig.

The Aroynem have also exerted their power in Sullivan, Monticello and Orange Counties; Kiryas Joel; Monsey; Spring Valley; along with the Williamsburg and Borough Park sections of Brooklyn.

One of the more recent fights has involved 4 summer camps in Ulster County to which both sects send their children. Both the Aroynem and the Zaloynim laid claim to the camps and the disputes reached the courts. The court ruled they hand no grounds to adjudicate the dispute and urged both sides to negotiate an equitable solution.

While many urged that the Aroynem and Zaloynim to split the camps equally, Vito Lopez tipped the scales toward the Zaloynim with a visit to the Ulster County Executive, Mike Hein. With Lopez at the meeting was Assemblyman Joe Lentol, Councilmembers Steve Levin and Erik Dilan. After the Lopez-applied political pressure, Hein awarded all 4 camps to the Zaloynim in May 2012. The Aroynem have again gone to court, this time arguing Ulster County did not have the authority to award the camps. The case is ongoing.

Following the death of the Satmar Rebbee, Moshe Teitelbaum in April 2006, a succession feud erupted between his sons, Aaron and Zalman. Followers of each brother believe they are the Rebbee’s true successor. As a result these dual communities exist within Satmar communities such as Williamsburg.

Rory Lancman at his campaign announcement.

Assemblyman Rory Lancman got a nice boost for his congressional campaign yesterday when he received the formal backing of the Jewish Press. The endorsement, which might be the first one from a newspaper in the race, comes as Mr. Lancman is competing against Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and Assemblywoman Grace Meng in a Democratic primary for a northeastern Queens Congressional District.

"In an extensive interview with The Jewish Press, Mr. Lancman impressed us as someone we would like to see in Congress voting on issues important to the Jewish community," the publication wrote about their preferred candidate. "He displayed a deep understanding of the nature of Israel’s struggle with its neighbors and why it’s important, for both Israeli and American interests, that the United States 'tilt' toward Israel."

The endorsement also reflects some of the messaging in the campaign that has occasionally tilted heavily towards Israel and the district's Jewish community. Mr. Lancman is the sole Jewish candidate among the main contenders for the seat, but all of the candidates except Ms. Crowley -- including Republican Dan Halloran -- proclaimed their strong support for Israel in their campaign announcements. Mr. Lancman's campaign logo even resembles the Israeli flag.

The various candidates in the race have also been rolling out other endorsements in recent days. Ms. Crowley announced that CWA Local 1101 and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association are supporting her while Ms. Meng received the high-profile endorsement of Congressman Gary Ackerman, who was previously running for reelection in the district before announcing his retirement.

Orthodox Jewish elected officials and community leaders gathered to endorse in a new, heavily Orthodox State Senate district Tuesday.

“I sing your praises, sometimes I get in trouble for doing that but I will continue to do it forever,” Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind told Republican State Senator Dean Skelos on his post-Shabbos radio show late last Saturday night. “I just want to personally thank you for being so amazingly responsive to all of New York State, but to the Jewish community in particular. You are really just a superstar.”

Mr. Skelos, the leader of the New York State Senate and one of the “three men in a room” that control decision-making in Albany, received this high praise for adding yeshiva tuition tax credits into the state budget and his recent work to fund bus service to those same private religious schools. Mr. Hikind is a longtime assemblyman and power broker in the Jewish neighborhoods of southern Brooklyn and, despite being a Democratic Party official, has been more than willing to endorse Republicans.

At the end of last year, Mr. Skelos traveled to the Masbia soup kitchen in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn where, after donning a velvet yarmulke, he chopped carrots, peeled potatoes and ladled kosher soup to the needy. He proceeded to tell a story about smuggling Jewish artifacts into the Soviet Union and joked that his own Greek Orthodox beliefs gave him insight into Orthodox Judaism, letting Yiddish words like tzitzis and shul roll off his tongue all the while. Cameras rolled and mobile phones snapped photos for the Jewish media to consume later, of course.

Mr. Skelos is hardly the first powerful politician to make the pilgrimage to Brooklyn’s kosher soup kitchens, but he is the most notable Republican to do so in recent years, demonstrating a new reality that a swath of heavily Democratic Brooklyn and Queens is ready to vote for candidates who belong to the same party as Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Indeed, Mr. Skelos and his Republican colleagues drew a new State Senate district in southern Brooklyn this year and packed it with as many Orthodox Jewish voters as possible. In past redistricting cycles, the district lines suggested Republicans sought to dilute the Orthodox vote.

In addition to Mr. Skelos, a healthy string of ambitious Democratic citywide and local elected officials have made the soup-ladling trek, which says nothing of their efforts to pay tribute to other prominent Jewish social service organizations but also speaks volumes about the community’s growing political significance.

“The Orthodox community is growing as a percentage of the population—and a percentage of the vote—every single day,” Mr. Hikind told The Observer last week. “If there’s one group that’s not leaving the city, that’s staying here, that’s buying homes, it’s the Orthodox community.”

This demographic shift, augmented by Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has transformed much of the Jewish landscape of the city, according to Michael Tobman, a political consultant who has helped advise campaigns and organizations in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

“I would say the trend is not just about Brooklyn politics,” he said. “The trend is internal to the Jewish community … which is to say older, middle-aged and more secular Jewish voters like my parents—two retired teachers and civil servants in Brooklyn—just don’t have the numbers anymore. It’s a tsunami of Haredi, Orthodox and Russian-speaking Jews.”

While some of this population surge is due to Hasidim, the traditionally garbed community whose cultural practices often lead to large families of 10 or more children (and whose neighborhoods voted more heavily for John McCain in 2008 than the State of Utah), the larger Orthodox Jewish population is experiencing explosive growth in New York City as well.

“The Hasidim have large families, but so do people in the Flatbush-Midwood areas,” Mr. Hikind said. “My daughter has five kids! The idea of having large families goes way beyond the Hasidic community.”

Although this has been an ongoing phenomenon, the political implications of this trend have suddenly become noticeable in two special elections taking place over the past year. After Congressman Anthony Weiner infamously tweeted an unfortunate part of his anatomy to the world at large, culminating in his resignation, Democrats were initially confident that their dominating registration advantage in the district would allow their nominee, Assemblyman David Weprin, to sleep through an easy election. After all, the consensus went, the same district that elected liberal firebrands like Anthony Weiner, Chuck Schumer and Geraldine Ferraro couldn’t possibly elect a Republican, especially some unknown like Bob Turner, a retired Breezy Point businessman and presumed sacrificial lamb. They were in for a rude awakening.

Even though Mr. Turner, a genial 70-year-old grandfather, comes from Irish Catholic stock and Mr. Weprin is a practicing Orthodox Jew, Mr. Turner successfully made the election about “sending a message” to President Obama about his administration’s policies on Israel. He was further helped by Mr. Weprin’s affirmative vote on gay marriage, a move that caused significant backlash in the community. For example, the prominent local newspaper Hamodia declared that Mr. Weprin sold “his very soul” with the vote in an editorial entitled “David Weprin, Who Are You?” Mr. Turner also shrewdly focused his campaign’s spending on Jewish and Russian media with audiences geographically concentrated in the district, allowing him to leverage his shoestring campaign into a five-point upset victory and a new job in Washington.

Mr. Turner has since declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Kirsten Gillibrand. Both he and his supporters point to his support among Jewish voters when giving his electoral pitch to his fellow Republicans.

The second recent special election demonstrating the increasing influence of the Orthodox community took place in the exact same corner of southeastern Brooklyn as Mr. Turner’s current congressional district. The vacancy opened up last December after Democratic State Senator Carl Kruger found himself in his own scandal, which was slightly more serious than Mr. Weiner’s, as Mr. Kruger ended up pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

Again, the neophyte Republican candidate in the race, attorney David Storobin this time around, was able to surprise the political consensus that assumed the Democratic candidate, Councilman Lew Fidler, would easily claim victory (The New York Times reported during the election that political analysts saw Mr. Fidler “as the overwhelming favorite in the district”). Although the results of the election are still in doubt—the most recent count on Monday had Mr. Storobin up by only three votes with an ongoing fraud lawsuit still to be resolved, likely followed by an automatic hand recount of all 20,000 ballots—the results were still impressive for the Republican and a symbolic sign of Democratic weakness among electorally important constituencies.

Mr. Fidler even had an extensive track record of funding significant Jewish social service organizations, and he worked as a volunteer attorney for the Hasidic leadership in Crown Heights in the aftermath of the 1991 riots. Yet he still lost badly in the neighborhoods where observant Jews are most concentrated.

“We can really make a difference, we can really make a difference whether it be gay marriage or Israel with Obama. The Turner-Weprin race was really amazing,” said Mr. Hikind, who crossed party lines to endorse Mr. Turner in that election. “The Storobin race was the same thing.”

“This has always been a swing community, but there hasn’t been a good opportunity for them to vote for Republicans before,” one prominent Jewish leader, who requested anonymity so he could speak candidly, explained to The Observer. “A lot of it has to do with social issues like gay marriage that are coming to the forefront. It was always sort of a back-burner issue but those issues are becoming starker.”

He also pointed out that New York City Democrats tend to be far more liberal than the Democratic Party as a whole, an attribute that could further separate them from moderate and conservative Orthodox voters.

“If you look at the Orthodox community, especially the ultra-Orthodox community, they don’t do TV, they don’t do sports. Politics is a big deal,” he said. “Politics is a massive interest in the community. People follow elected officials.”

And even though the community’s voters might side strongly with the Republican candidate in the 2013 mayoral race, they are mostly registered as Democrats and candidates seeking to win the Democratic primary are extensively courting the community.

“The community is very aware that the winner of the Democratic primary is likely to be the next mayor because of the current lack of a credible Republican candidate,” Councilman David Greenfield said when asked about the race. “As a result, I believe that you will see very high Orthodox Jewish turnout in the 2013 Democratic primary. The community also recognizes that if it’s a tight race, the seven or eight percentage points that the Orthodox Jewish vote makes up in a primary could definitely make the difference.”

The candidates involved all seem to recognize this reality and are doing much more to engage these voters than sending out platitudinal statements commemorating Jewish holidays. As the candidates competing for the nomination are nearly identical on social issues, some have been working to separate themselves in other ways.

For example, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio started up his own Iran boycott website and has held press conferences on the issue. He also took a firm stance against the Park Slope Food Co-op possibly boycotting Israeli products, calling it “wrongheaded and an affront to American values and interests.”

Other likely mayoral candidates, such as Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Comptroller John Liu, former Comptroller Bill Thompson and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, may be relying on more direct appeals through surrogates and appearances in Jewish neighborhoods, although their exact campaign strategies have yet to unfold. However, Ms. Quinn, an open lesbian whose political brand is intertwined with the LGBT movement, could have trouble winning over these socially conservative voters despite her more moderate ideological profile. Mr. Stringer is the lone top-tier Jewish candidate in the race, and his path to victory could rely on running up solid numbers in these Brooklyn precincts.

And, unsurprisingly, all five of the top candidates in the race have ladled kosher soup at Masbia, four of them in the past year. A sixth candidate, newspaper publisher Tom Allon, recently traveled to Israel and wrote an op-ed declaring, “New York needs a mayor like me who thinks like an Israeli: tough and always ready to defend his people.”

“You ask a very interesting question,” Mr. Hikind mused when asked which candidate would have the edge in the 2013 race. “If there’s no issue of someone who’s a conservative candidate, who fits our agenda better, it becomes a question as to who’s going to be there on issues important to the community. Who’s going to be there for us?”

The group proposed a new district in southern Brooklyn.

Last week, the judge in the redistricting case took submissions from the public on where New York's new congressional lines should lie, and one group, "the Orthodox Alliance for Liberty," submitted a plan aiming to unite as many Jewish communities as possible, especially Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and upstate.

In order to justify their proposal, the group argued the lines proposed by the legislative majorities, as well as the existing congressional boundaries, are wholly unacceptable.

"The current districting of the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in the New York City and Long Island area, as well as the maps proposed by the New York State Senate and Assembly majorities are untenable," they wrote to the court. "The sizable, distinct and ethnic and racial group of Orthodox Jews has been systematically deprived of just representation in the U.S. Congress. This Orthodox Alliance for Liberty implores the Honorable Court to correct an egregious wrong and restore a full voice for New York’s Orthodox Jews in the U.S. Congress."

The organization provided an example of this cartographic wrongdoing.

"Nowhere in the United States has a single neighborhood been broken into more than three Congressional districts, outside of 'Flatbush," they stated. "Flatbush, in fact, has been divided into no less than five congressional districts. Borough Park, as well, an undeniable strong concentration of Chassidic, Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers, has also been gerrymandered into political irrelevance."

Notably, the group proposed a new district in southern Brooklyn containing the Orthodox and Russian Jewish neighborhoods previously held by Representatives Bob Turner and Jerry Nadler. Combined with traditionally Republican Irish and Italian areas, the district would undoubtedly be one of the most ideologically conservative seats in New York State.

(Mr. Turner's house in Breezy Point is connected to Staten Island in the proposal.)

Other parts of the group's proposed map seek to connect the Hasidic communities in Crown Heights and Williamsburg, as well as in the Orthodox Jewish communities in the Far Rockaways and parts of Nassau County.

Read the group's full pitch, including for why these areas deserve to be classified as a community of interest, below:

(Photo: Getty)

A group of New York Orthodox Jews have formed a group, "Jews Pick Rick," supporting presidential candidate Rick Santorum in his quest for the White House, they announced in a statement this morning.

“What started as three men in a small room has grown into a larger operation as many Jews have emailed or communicated to us their interest in helping Santorum,” David Shor, the spokesman for the organization, said in the release.

"The sole goal of Jews Pick Rick is to turn the Orthodox community into Santorum territory, spreading Rick’s conservative message to Boro Park, Flatbush, Monsey, Lakewood and Five Towns," he continued, touting Mr. Santorum's foreign policy views.

The group also took the bat to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, "whose Jewish advisers are primarily secular Jews," according to the release.

"These statistics are reflected in the list of delegates from New York which both campaigns have -- there are several distinctly Orthodox names in Santorum's list with much fewer in Romney's. Santorum has a longstanding relationship with Agudath Israel, and the Orthodox community in his home state of Pennsylvania speaks highly of him."

As to what Jews Pick Rick will do for Mr. Santorum's campaign, they said their current plan “is to issue press releases to highlight Santorum’s positions that are relevant to the community.”

Mr. Santorum should probably keep those Hanukkah cards in the drawer, however.

Update: A reader points out that Mr. Romney does, in fact, have an Orthodox Jewish policy adviser on his campaign team, Tevi Troy.

Update II: Mr. Troy tweets that he's not alone, either.

Lancman and Turner at a Crown Heights event last night. (Photo: Twitpic)

Last night, Democratic Assemblyman Rory Lancman, who's running against GOP Congressman Bob Turner, tweeted his presence at a Crown Heights event remembering the Israeli government's decision to evict the residents of a Jewish settlement called Gush Katif in southern Israel.

Crown Heights isn't anywhere near the district, but the event, attended by Mr. Turner as well, is yet another marker in a sharp trend of Mr. Lancman's campaign efforts courting the Jewish communities in Queens and Brooklyn.

According to a reader in Queens, just this week Mr. Lancman made the front page of The Jewish Week, Queens Jewish Link and the Bukharian Times, as well as an article in the online Jewish magazine Tablet. Mr. Lancman was also recently on the front page of the 5 Towns Jewish Times in Nassau County, an Orthodox Jewish stronghold where some sources suggest Mr. Turner's Congressional District could shift.

According to his Twitter feed, Mr. Lancman also recently went to an event in Coney Island to meet with Avigdor Lieberman, the right-wing foreign minister of Israel, and a Queens Jewish Community Council meeting at his shul where both he and Mr. Turner discussed Israel & Iran.

His efforts are notable in the context of redistricting. New York is slated to lose two Congressional seats this year, and should Mr. Turner's district survive, there's a decent chance his district will absorb additional Jewish communities from surrounding districts.

Should that indeed happen, Mr. Turner would likely be happy as well. His upset victory in a special election last summer was partially based on heavy support from these same communities.