D4 HAMODIA 5 CHESHVAN 5771 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010

Candidate Carl Paladino Visits Hamodia

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