The Jeffrey Wiesenfeld-West Bank settlers’ axis should be no surprise. It is standard NY politics.
In 1994, Brooklyn assemblyman Dov Hikind picked George Pataki for governor and Carl McCall for comptroller. That was huge politically. And so the buzz around Hikind mushroomed. 1994 also brought an end to Democratic control of Congress.
By the spring of ’95, Hikind was throwing a fundraiser on the Inteprid, and word got out that Newt Gingrich would be making a special appearance. But in the end he didn’t. And the reason was Jerusalem and Hikind’s settler ties. Hikind’s wife, Shani Hikind, was an executive with the Jerusalem Reclamation Project.
The JRP was involved in the Good Friday takeover of St. John’s Hospice back in 90 in Jerusalem (covered by Jeffrey Goldberg here). At the time, that was even too much for Christian Zionists. Mindful of the fact that he was was holding a constitutional office in the line of succession, Newt never appeared at the Hikind bash.
NY pols are a different story. Wiesenfeld was appointed to the CUNY board by Pataki in 1999. These days, Hikind is just another hack.
As for Kushner, welcome to the big leagues. NY’s Jewish population is graying and praying, in the words of Mitchell Moss. And that means conformity, IF you are looking for recognition from the “community”.
To crib Chaucer, Kushner’s parfait gentil knight thing has a smaller audience and fewer takers within NYC’s jewish population.
