Kiryas Joel: Republican Candidate For NYS Senate Vows To Fight For Kehila

by FrumNews.com

Monroe, NY – With early voting already underway and Election Day fast approaching, FrumNews.com caught up with Monroe Councilwoman Dorey Houle, who is the Republican nominee for the 42nd New York State Senate District which covers Kiryas Yoel, Monroe, South Blooming Grove and much of Orange County and asked her a few questions dear to the Frum Jewish community.

1) With the increase in hate-crimes and anti-Semitic attacks across New York State, what are your plans in regards to Public Safety?

Regarding public safety, I will repeal the pro-criminal so-called “bail reform” laws that have handcuffed law enforcement and made it easier for dangerous criminals to get back out on the streets. That will create safer communities for all of New York, including the Hasidic community.

Editors note: The current Democratic Senator representing KJ, voted for the disastrous “Bail Reform” bill which endangers every resident of Orange County, NY.

2) Yeshivas are the heart and soul of the Jewish community. With Jewish education under attack by the far-left Democrats in Albany, what is your position on Yeshivas?

I support parents’ right to choose the most appropriate education model for their children. I support religious education, public education, homeschool education—whatever model is most beneficial to the child. Once elected to the State Senate, my responsibility will be to all my constituents regardless of their religious affiliation, background, or means. I will represent all of us.

3) Your opponent, Senator James Skoufis, who sponsored the “Village incorporation” bill and trumpeted the bill’s passage last month in a campaign mailing where Skoufis proudly credited with being able “to block [a] new Hasidic village.” Which was going to be the village of Seven Springs near KJ. Many in the Jewish community are calling Skoufis anti-Semitic, what is your opinion of the way the Senator portrayed the Jewish community?

👀 🫣 In campaign ad, State Sen. @JamesSkoufis, a Dem from Orange County, highlights passing a bill “to block new Hasidic village” and approach to “stopping overdevelopment” of Orthodox housing for the benefit of his district. https://t.co/y3elEBkwJw pic.twitter.com/FLBfAYOb5a

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 23, 2024

With respect to Senator Skoufis’s ads singling out the Hasidic community, it’s an incredible shame that an elected leader considers attacking his constituents an achievement. Unlike my opponent, I won’t participate in or contribute to a rhetoric that espouses hate toward anyone, particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise in America, Houle concluded.

Although only on the ballot on the Republican line, Dorey Houle has also received the endorsement from the NYS Conservative Party, leading to the full support from both Republican/Conservative leaders in New York.

*****

In 2018, shortly after the anti-Yeshiva rules were proposed in Albany. As widely reported at that time in Jewish and frum media. The Satmar Rebbe, Rav Aaron Teitelbaum Shlit”a of Kiryas Joel, publicly denounced Assemblyman and Senator-elect James Skoufis (who championed the anti-yeshiva proposals) as “wicked and evil” during a 90-minute speech in front of the entire community. The Satmar Rebbe criticized new mandates requiring never-before-seen Government overreach and oversight in private religious schools, including yeshivas.

Accusing the state and Skoufis of trying to prohibit Jewish education and infringe on our constitutional rights.

Senator Skoufis has also labeled the Jewish community and our Yeshivas of ‘spreading diseases.’

In a now-deleted tweet, a local state rep. @JamesSkoufis blamed the “unvaccinated” Orthodox community for a new case of polio in Rockland County, NY

Later in the day, Skoufis apologized and reached out to Orthodox leaders pic.twitter.com/tVmoyzhe2p

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) July 22, 2022

Yiddish Ads in Support for Dorey Houle which have been printed in KJ publications recently

Many community activists and Askunim in Kiryas Yoel have informed FrumNews.com that the community is deeply dissatisfied by the current Democrat elected officials. For the first time ever, it’s estimated that a majority of the Orange County Jewish Hasidic community in Upstate New York will be voting Republican down the ballet line Regardless of whom the KJ “Election Committee’s recommended candidates” are.

In a statement one local resident said:

• “Not only the current local Democrat politicians do nothing to benefit our community. But even worse at every opportunity they deliberately fight against the interests of the Kehila. The Yiddishe Klal are fed up with their failed socialist leadership. Council Member Dorey Houle and the slate of Republican candidates share our Heimishe views, values and understand our Chasidish Community’s concerns.”

.@JamesSkoufis is a tax-raising, soft-on-crime liberal.

We couldn’t be more different—and the choice is clear this November.

New ad drops today! 📺 pic.twitter.com/fC50Hoxc5E

— Dorey Houle for State Senate (@DoreyforSenate) September 30, 2024