White Plains School District – Vote Tuesday May 20

Posted on May 19, 2025 by First.One.Through

Westchester County has three neighboring towns which act very differently when it comes to their public schools. White Plains stands out relative to neighboring Scarsdale and similarly sized New Rochelle: it spends more and gets worse student performance.

White Plains has a staggering 2025-2026 budget of $277,965,500 for 6,836 students. That amounts to $40,662 per student. That is 13% more than Scarsdale spends, which is one of the best school districts in the entire country. It is also significantly more than New Rochelle which is a similarly sized city with comparable demographics.

And White Plains performs much worse than both despite its massive budget.

Almost all of the Hispanic and Black students in Scarsdale perform well in math, with both groups having over 80% proficiency. In New Rochelle, proficiency in mathematics is 57% each for the groups. Yet in White Plains, only 38% of Hispanics and 42% of Black students have proficiency in math.

Where does the money go in White Plains if not into educating students?

Ten years ago, the White Plains school budget was $208,750,0000 in 2016-2017 when it had 7,091 students, spending $29,439 per student. White Plains is now spending 38% more per student. Much of the cost is NOT GOING FOR THE STUDENTS but to facilities and teacher benefits.

Facilities

The school district has 1.4 million square feet of buildings, not including the new $33 million high school building going up now. New York State generally guides schools to have 85 to 125 square feet per child, depending on the grade. White Plains has 199 square feet per student, 60% more than the high-end recommendation.

And the White Plains school district is planning on spending much more on facilities despite a declining enrollment.

According to the school district’s long-term plan, school enrollment is projected to decline to 6,540 in 2028-9. Despite the shrinking student body, the 20-year plan has $395 million of expenditures to upgrade its facilities.

The city already has $88 million of debt and an $11 million capital lease (page 26). The capital lease and $38 million in notes are coming due in 2026. Presumably this is going to be refinanced in a higher interest rate environment which will add expenses into the school budget.

Fewer kids, worse performance and state-of-the-art buildings.

Teacher Salaries and Benefits

The budget lays out teacher salaries (page 39), with school principals making just under $200,000 per year and the school superintendent making over $300,000.

Employee benefits account for $68.6 million (page 10), or 25% of the budget. This is a 10% jump from the previous year, and accounts for OVER HALF OF THE INCREASE from last year’s budget. So while curriculum development went down this year, teacher benefits rose by $6.25 million.

And this is going to continue according to the long-term plan (page 25). Contributions to the teachers retirement and employee retirement systems are going to keep going up while the number of students declines.

Student Performance

There is a lot of data on student performance (pages 43 onward). There are a few take-aways:

The school is 70% Latino and Black and those groups are not reaching proficiency in English or math
Roughly 19% of the students are English language learners, 17% have disabilities and 56% are economically disadvantaged. The English learners and those with disabilities are doing terribly. It is unclear how the school can continue to keep these children in the school system when they are clearly unable to service them. The government should do a full review of the situation.

School Board

The school board will tell you that your taxes are not going up and that the school district is an incredibly open and caring environment with state-of-the-art facilities. What they are not telling you is that they have been over-taxing you for years to fund capital projects, have $50 million of looming debt coming due in 2026, are spending incredible sums on teacher benefits while allowing a significant percentage of the student body to flounder.

That is the sad reality.

ACTION PLAN

Vote on May 20. Polls are open from 12:00PM to 9:00PM. Find your voting location here.

Vote ‘No” on the school budget to reduce it by $3.4 million.

Vote for Julia Oliva, a parent of a second grader who wants to put money into services instead of football fields. It is time to phase out the old school board which has spent your money on shiny buildings instead of our youth.

School Boards Are the New Battleground: Why the New York Jewish Community Must Vote on May 20

Posted on May 15, 2025 by First.One.Through

If you thought the fight for our values ended with Jamaal Bowman’s defeat in last year’s Congressional Democratic primary, think again. That victory—fueled by a coalition of Jewish voters, moderates, and outraged citizens—was just one front in a much larger war. The next battleground? Our local school boards.

Yes, school boards—those often-overlooked panels of elected volunteers who decide how to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, what our children are taught, and what values our public institutions promote. Voting to approve school budgets and new school boards will take around New York State on May 20. In Westchester County, two city school board races —in New Rochelle and White Plains—are shaping up to be ideological flashpoints, and the Jewish community cannot afford to sit them out.

Because what’s happening in these school districts mirrors the dynamics that led to Bowman’s rise—and fall. And unless we show up, the same extremist playbook will continue to take root, just under a different banner.

From Bowman to the Board: The Same Movement, New Target

In 2020, former public school principal Bowman’s ascent was cheered by radical groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as he defeated Eliot Engel in New York’s 16^th Congressional District, one of several “progressive” victories. The DSA’s 2023 convention called on its members to build on those victories and get people elected not only in Congress but on local school boards.

The strategy was simple: infiltrate local systems—schools, unions, and boards—with activists trained not in pedagogy or finance, but in ideology. These organizations view school boards as soft targets: low-turnout races that are easy to win with grassroots organization, with enormous power over curriculum, staffing, budget and even political culture.

Nowhere is this strategy more visible than in the New Rochelle school board election, where Dr. Rosa Rivera-McCutchen is aligned with the same progressive, anti-Israel networks like WESPAC that propelled Bowman into Congress. Rivera-McCutchen has been outspoken in her support of “radical care” models, a euphemism for politicized curricula that blur the line between education and activism. Her book on “Radical Care” has a foreword by Bowman and he has endorsed her in the race, which should alarm every Jewish and moderate voter.

Remember: Bowman didn’t fall because his opponents suddenly outspent him, despite what radical socialists scream. He fell because our community turned out. In Westchester, especially in places like New Rochelle, Scarsdale, and White Plains, Jewish voters made the difference. And we must do it again on May 20.

The Stakes in New Rochelle

New Rochelle’s school district is large—9,700 students and over $360 million in spending—and politically volatile. While minority student outcomes have improved, the district is on shaky fiscal ground, and ideological activism is increasingly overt.

Two candidates—Elana Jacob and Jessica Klein—are running to restore balance. Both are active members of the Jewish community and parents. Both are running because they believe in education, not indoctrination. They are not interested in scoring political points—they’re interested in ensuring that students can read, write, think critically, and treat others with respect.

They are up against a well-organized, highly motivated bloc that views school boards as the next front in a larger ideological war. If we don’t match that energy, we lose the ground we worked so hard to win when we sent Bowman packing.

What’s Going On in White Plains?

White Plains is not immune. There, a two-seat school board race has drawn four candidates—two incumbents and two challengers. Sheryl Brady and Charlie Norris have each served for over 15 years. They are status quo guardians who toe the superintendent’s line, not particularly concerned about antisemitism indoctrination in the district, favor “age-appropriate” instruction on gender identity to even the youngest students in kindergarten, and are giddy about the city’s capital program that has professional-grade football fields. Their governance has led to skyrocketing costs—over $40,000 per student, among the highest in the state—while academic outcomes for minority students, especially Black and Hispanic students, have remained poor. That astronomical cost is funded 78% with local taxes, also a high in the state where the normal local tax burden for public schools is around 50%.

Enter Julia Oliva, a new candidate who is running on a platform of fiscal discipline, academic excellence, and common sense. She has a child in the public elementary school and believes in redirecting funds from flashy capital projects toward things that actually benefit students: vocational training, classroom instruction, and teacher development.

While it is unclear how she will do in a board setting, Oliva deserves our support. She would bring a fresh, needed voice to a board that desperately needs one.

The fourth candidate, Dr. Mohammed S Chowdhury, has no children in the school, is unfamiliar about the weak performance of minority students and the enormous budget, and not a serious invested candidate.

The Broader Trend: Silence Is Not Neutrality

Some in our community may ask, “Why get involved in school board politics?” Here’s why:

School boards set the tone for everything: what’s taught, how it’s taught, and whether bias—subtle or overt—is allowed to fester. They help set the budget for the public schools and influence whether charter schools or transportation for students at private schools will get funded.
These elections are winnable. Most school board races are decided by just a few hundred votes. In districts like New Rochelle and White Plains, the Jewish vote is not only significant—it is decisive.
The opposition is not sleeping. Progressive networks have identified these races as key footholds. They are training, funding, and running candidates who align with their views. If we stay home, we hand them the keys.

Remember: the same activist energy that got Bowman elected now animates many of these local candidates. They may not use his name—but they are advancing his ideology.

What You Can Do

Vote on May 20. Put it in your calendar. Bring a friend. Tell your synagogue or community group. You do not need to have students in public school to vote. You pay taxes and fund the future.
Support Jacob and Klein in New Rochelle. Support Julia Oliva in White Plains.
Vote on the school budget: Reject the White Plains budget to lower the expenses by $3.4 million.
Prepare to run in 2026: There is an election every year, and all that is needed is 100 signatures from the district.
Speak up: Attend board meetings, write letters, post on social media. White Plains Superintendent is Dr. Joseph Ricca (Josephricca@wpcsd.k12.ny.us 914-422-2019)
Volunteer: Local races are won with word-of-mouth and turning out.

These are low-turnout races. Your vote isn’t one in a million—it might be the one that tips the balance.

Final Word: This Is Where the Fight Is Now

We can’t let down our guard. The battle against Bowman was just the beginning. The activists who filled his rallies are now aiming for school board seats. And they are counting on your apathy.

Don’t give it to them.

Vote on May 20.

Stand up—for our children, our community, and our values.

RESOURCES

If you are out of town or unable to vote on May 20, you can pick up absentee ballots and drop them off before May 20.

White Plains Board of Education election information

New Rochelle Board of Education information

School Board Elections Are Like Rotten Tomatoes Documentaries—Unanimously Approved Because No One Watches

School Board Case Studies: White Plains and New Rochelle

Anti-Israel Socialists Are Coming For Public Schools

Talking About Local School Boards In New York State

Ignoring Columbia’s – And The Education Industry’s – Systemic Antisemitism (July 2024)

CNN And NY Times Call Congressional Hearing On Antisemitism in Public Schools A Fake Issue Concocted By Republicans (May 2024)

Follow the Money: Democrats and the Education Industry (November 2020)

School Board Elections Are Like Rotten Tomatoes Documentaries—Unanimously Approved Because No One Watches

Posted on May 14, 2025 by First.One.Through

If school board elections were Rotten Tomatoes scores, they’d be 97% Fresh—but only because nobody bothered to show up.

White Plains held its 2024 budget approval and school board elections and just over 2,100 voters cast a ballot in a city of more than 60,000 people. That’s less than 4% of the population deciding who controls a school budget north of $250 million. The budget got almost a 90% approval because only the devout show up to vote. You’d get more engagement trying to organize a bocce tournament in a thunderstorm.

This year, four candidates are competing for two open board seats, making the election a contested one – a rarity. Alas, fewer than twenty people showed up to hear them speak and two of them were the timekeepers. And what did the candidates talk about? Diversity, as if that’s a school board issue rather than a census reality. No discussion of education, student performance, budget allocation, or academic results. Just talking points straight out of a DEI seminar.

*Candidates for White Plains School Board Debate in White Plains High School library, May 13, 2025*

No one mentioned that Black and Hispanic students continue to underperform in math and science. No one asked why 14% of the city’s students—those in private schools—get zero dollars from the school budget. And not a peep about the fact that White Plains spends an eye-watering $40,000 per student, one of the highest per-student spends in the entire state.

Local taxpayers are footing 78% of the school bill. That’s not just high—it’s the highest in the state. The state average is 50%. If the board had its way with no one watching the shop, they’d probably approve one-on-one tutoring for every student and throw in a life coach just to round things out.

In a functioning democracy, school board elections should be about education policy, results, and fiscal responsibility. In White Plains – and most school boards – it’s a sleepy backroom handshake and a baked-in majority. The less people show up, the more the insiders run the show. And in 2025, they’re running it like it’s their own personal foundation.

Don’t believe me? The city is now adding a $33 million building to the sprawling high school as part of a $395 million 20-year capital plan, even though demographers predict that enrollment will stay flat for the next decade.

*White Plains High School is adding a $33 million building to be a free vocational school for teenagers*

It is no wonder that the school board panel discussion happened in the fantasy section of the high school library. Everyone in the room imagined that they were directors in a high school musical where education is irrelevant and money grows on trees. Maybe next year, the school board candidate debate should be held in a science lab so people can reorient the discussion towards student success.

Don’t get me wrong – I very much appreciate the volunteer work that the school board does. It’s essential. However, they have seemingly lost the focus on teaching students critical skills and have adopted an orientation that school is really drop-off child care so parents can go to work. The primary function – no, the mission – is to keep kids in elementary and middle school safe and happy. With few basic skills, the high school (read pre-vocational school), will prepare them for jobs in nursing and food services after they change out of their prom dresses.

Vote on May 20 in your local school board election and bring a friend. Trust me, there will be no lines.

School Board Case Studies: White Plains and New Rochelle

Talking About Local School Boards In New York State

Orthodox Jewish Student At Trump’s White House Writes A Kvitel

Posted on March 24, 2025 by First.One.Through

Satire?

The public schools of the United States have become increasingly broken, failing to teach math and science, with the US placing 25th among 37 OECD countries for 15 year olds. Teacher unions have long prioritized teachers’ well being over students, and woke causes over basic skills, leading America to fall far behind other developed countries. Fewer and fewer Americans are opting to bother going to college or graduate schools, leading to a giant visa program for people of the Global South to enter the US, with a record 1.1 million international students in the US in 2023/4.

President Donald Trump applied the woke-standard of absolutism like “defund the police” and “abolish ICE” to begin the process of eliminating the federal Department of Education and move control of schools to the states. He orchestrated a photo op with signing an executive order in front of school children which bemoaned the DOE’s spending over $3 trillion since its creation in 1979, without improving student knowledge.

US President Donald Trump holds an executive order in the East Room of the White house in Washington, DC, March 20, 2025 to start dismantling the Department of Education, in front of young students. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

The photo session included a young Orthodox Jewish student in the background. It was perhaps not surprising, as Trump was the only president to invite an Orthodox rabbi to speak at his inaugurations – both times.

When Trump held the signed EO aloft and the other students similarly did so, the Orthodox boy in large blue kippah continued to write. People speculated whether he had OCD and was compulsively checking his spelling. Perhaps he was correcting grammar in the EO or adding footnotes like the biblical commentator Rashi (1040-1105).

Others wondered whether the boy was asking Trump to protect yeshivas in Brooklyn which are being closed right-and-left for failing to teach secular studies, or perhaps leave the DOE open a little longer to root out rampant antisemitism on campuses.

It is rumored that both Sotheby’s and Kestenbaum & Company are fighting to obtain the Jewish boy’s mock EO for auction.

The Trump Letter To Columbia DEFENDS Research

Posted on March 20, 2025 by First.One.Through

To read progressive media, one would believe that the Trump administration is seeking to end “research and science” and “great debates” on the country’s campuses. That’s how papers like The New York Times understand the Trump administration’s letter to Columbia demanding change.

*The New York Times article on March 20, 2025 misdirecting readers about the Trump administration’s letter to Columbia University*

It could not be further from the truth.

The March 13 letter is just two pages long and covers nine points. Nowhere is “science” and “great debates” mentioned. “Research” is mentioned once, and the Trump administration’s letter is actively trying to protect it.

The first two points in the letter demand that the school must enforce consequences for the students that break university policies, including vandalism and harassment. It asks that the “Office of the President” handle such matters rather than the University Judicial Board, presumably because many members of the board are sympathetic to the student rioters.

The next three points build on this theme of discipline. It demands that the university adopt “time, place and manner rules,” – very common and ordinary measures – to prevent the disruption of “teaching, research and campus life” (emphasis added). It adds a mask ban so rioters can be held accountable and demanded a formalized university plan for groups that violate university policy.

The sixth point shifted from general disciplinary matters to define antisemitism, because that has been the crux of rioters’ conduct against Jews at Columbia. Presumably, it would help clearly define matters of free speech versus hate speech (to the extent that such thing exists).

The seventh bullet transitions back to discipline, empowering university security to arrest rioters.

The eighth point refers to a particular department within the school – the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department (MESAAS) – which is to be put under “academic receivership.” If there is a claim that Trump is coming after “research” and “great debates”, it must be in this discipline.

The ninth point seems to cover perhaps a related point to eighth – to make sure that admissions, including “international recruiting… conforms with federal law and policy.”

As seen above, the letter seeks to ensure the ability of students and faculty to do research (third bullet), albeit the MESAAS department has been marked as a problemed child.

The reality is that American universities have been trying to paper over their critical problems by importing students from the Global South, from those MESAAS countries. If there is a Trump target on academic research, it lies there, not in scientific matters, despite the Times claim that Trump is “imperiling the backbone of the nation’s research endeavors.”

America’s core problem lies in its PUBLIC K-12 schools which are FAILING TO TEACH MATH AND SCIENCE, with the US placing 25th among 37 OECD countries for 15 year olds. The country is relying more and more on international students – many deeply distrustful and anti-Western values – to fill the university’s STEM departments because America’s elementary and high schools have failed.

Progressive media will not place the blame squarely where it belongs – on the public school system – because it has long ago adopted the fiction that pouring billions of dollars into teacher unions will magically produce better educated students.

The Trump letter is an immediate call to make universities safe, not a call to dismantle research. The long-term fix is to remake America’s public schools, which have catered to teachers and administrators over students for far too long.

CUNY’s New Anti-Education Professor Of Intimidation (February 2025)

Ignoring Columbia’s – And The Education Industry’s – Systemic Antisemitism (July 2024)

Follow the Money: Democrats and the Education Industry (November 2020)

Disgraced Jamaal Bowman Schemes In Comeback Bid

Posted on March 3, 2025 by First.One.Through

Former Congressman Jamaal Bowman was an embarrassment to his constituents again and again.

As a member of the House of Representatives, he received a bipartisan censor for intentionally pulling a fire alarm to delay a vote, putting thousands of lives at risk. His constituents later filed a petition to have Planned Parenthood rescind their endorsement, after Bowman ranted to a crowd on the streets of Westchester, that Jewish women couldn’t be believed when they claimed rape during the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Now Bowman is starting his comeback effort after he was defeated by a fellow Democrat in last year’s primary, in a similar disgraceful manner.

First Bowman announced on February 20 that he is joining Zeteo, a media platform started by Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC commentator who has been charged with Jew hatred and justifying violence against Jews by various watchdog groups and individuals.

Now he announced the formation of a PAC (Political Action Committee) called Built to Win PAC. According to its website, its mission is to get non-Whites (“Black, Arab, Asian, and Latino communities”) to vote. It’s basically a sister clone of Justice Democrats, a PAC to get non-Whites into office with the backing of those communities.

So why start another PAC that does the same thing? It’s not as though Bowman’s PAC is going after conservative non-White voters; it’s using the same alt-left agenda as Justice Democrats, including supporting Gazans who initiated and supported a jihadi genocidal massacre against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.

Bowman knows he has a terrible record. His brand is so tainted that he needed to go around the country including California and Virginia with other members of Congress to try to raise money during his failed primary run.

A new congressional run – perhaps this time for Rep. Ritchie Torres’s seat in NY-15 if Torres decides to run for governor against the unpopular Kathy Hochul – would require money that may not be so forthcoming to a censored former politician. As such, creating a new PAC BEFORE he announces his intention to enter a race, could give him several advantages:

He may be able to market the cause more successfully if it isn’t about him personally
He gets practice stumping and meeting donors without being forced to disclose his numerous failings
Bowman can use the Zeteo platform with Mehdi to go even more viciously anti-Israel than Justice Democrats may be willing to go, perhaps unlocking deep jihadi pockets
Disclosure rules are more lax for PACs. Pro-terrorist groups have easier times giving money to blind pools than individual candidates. Bowman can court antisemitic donors with greater ease

Should Bowman enter the race, he may attempt to repurpose this PAC to himself. This is a tactic that was used by Rick Scott who took over the New Republican PAC in 2016. Scott’s moves in this regard brought multiple investigations. As the non-partisan group OpenSecrets stated about the issue, “Federal law would prohibit an announced federal candidate or campaign from coordinating with either state-level committees or federal super PACs, which can take unlimited corporate money that federal candidates are not permitted to receive.” Campaign Legal Center wrote at that time “Campaign finance laws are in place to prevent schemes like this one that hide information from voters about which wealthy special interests are spending big money to secretly influence our votes and our government.” Imagine these aren’t “wealthy special interests” seeking profit but groups out to destroy America and its allies.

Built to Win PAC may become the alt-left anti-Israel piggybank for Bowman and his co-host on Zeteo, Cori Bush, who made their losses all about the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC rather than their own failings.

Bowman’s reemergence on two platforms: Zeteo to engage the public in race-baiting, and with a PAC to draw in unlimited monies, is potentially a cause for serious alarm for the country, especially Jews in the midst of a horrifying spike in antisemitism.

*Rep. Jamaal Bowman throwing tantrum in profanity-laced rant on stage about AIPAC*

As Ritchie Torres Runs For Governor, Who Will Protect NY-15 From Jamaal Bowman? (November 2024)

Jamaal Bowman Is The Complete Package No One Wants (April 2024)

AIPAC’s Open Tent Versus Justice Democrats Niche Extremism (April 2024)

Mirroring “Illegal” Designations: UNSC 2334 And UNRWA

Posted on February 4, 2025 by First.One.Through

The United Nations created a temporary agency in 1949 to care for Palestinian Arabs who left Israel during Israel’s founding. It’s called UNRWA, the United Nations Work and Relief Agency. The staff of over 30,000 people are almost all descendants of those Palestinian Arab “refugees” with a few White Europeans sprinkled on the leadership to make the organization appear as an international aid group, rather than an employment agency.

UNRWA has long abused its mandate, extending services to hundreds of thousands of people who are not descendants of “refugees”, essentially becoming a bank in distributing loans to local Arabs, and teaching millions of its Arab wards to hate Israeli Jews and that they will get to move into Israel with UNRWA’s help.

After years of perpetuating the conflict, Israel decided to ban UNRWA from operating in Israel as of January 30, 2025, as many of its members took part in the October 7 massacre and others worked for terrorist groups outside of Gaza, including in Lebanon. As UNRWA only operates in conjunction with the host country of operations, keeping operations in Jerusalem open after Israel declared it illegal would not just make it operating against Israeli law but its own principles.

Yet UNRWA is continuing to operate in Jerusalem.

Freed Israeli hostages said that they were held in UNRWA facilities while in captivity.

Yet UNRWA still contends that it is “essential” and “critical.“

So UNRWA acts defiantly, even though in knows full well that it is doing so illegally.

It is reminiscent of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which made it illegal for Israeli Jews to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines with Jordan (E49AL), including the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a patently antisemitic law, enshrined after nearly three-quarters of a million Jews already live in the area, so Israel ignores it and allows Jews to continue to buy and build homes in the area.

The press often labels Jews who live in E49AL as “settlers,” whether they live in new settlements or large cities. The term “settlement” is a wandering noun which travels with antisemites who label Jews as illegal trespassers. Media compounds the narrative, often appending language “which most of the world considers illegal” whenever discussing a “settlement.”

Will that same media now label UNRWA’s operations in Gaza and the “West Bank” as illegal? Or will it prefer to mock Israeli law, quite the opposite of its christening antisemitic UNSC Res. 2334.

Will members of the UN Security Council consider trading Israel’s ban of UNRWA with rescinding the antisemitic UNSC Resolution 2334 to facilitate aid to Gaza and promote coexistence? It has never been the modus operandi of the United Nations, but the times, they are a changin’.

After UNRWA (February 2024)

The Only Way The Conflict Can End (November 2023)

“Land Belonging to Palestinians Before the 1967 War” (November 2021)

Trump Reverses the Carter and Obama Anti-Israel UN Resolutions (November 2019)

Time to Dissolve Key Principles of the “Inalienable Rights of Palestinians” (December 2017)

The Legal Israeli Settlements (December 2014)

Donald Trump’s Orthodox Jewish Rabbis

Posted on January 21, 2025 by First.One.Through

President Donald Trump once again turned to the Orthodox community to give a benediction on behalf of American Jewry at his inauguration. Yesterday, it was Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, a modern Orthodox institution. At his last inauguration in 2017, Trump called upon Rabbi Haskel Lookstein who had overseen the conversion of his daughter Ivanka, leader of Kehilat Jeshurun, a modern Orthodox synagogue in New York City, and Head of the Ramaz School, a modern Orthodox K-12 school. Liberal alumni of Ramaz objected to Rabbi Lookstein participating in the inauguration so the rabbi backed out, and was replaced by Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, also an Orthodox rabbi.

Trump’s selection of Orthodox rabbis stands in sharp contrast to every other president who chose non-Orthodox rabbis. In 2021, during Joe Biden’s inauguration at the height of the pandemic in a virtual ceremony, Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles and Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City spoke. The two female rabbis are on the far-left of the religious and political spectrum, with the latter being married to Randi Weingarten, the powerful far-left leader of the American Federation of Teachers which only backs Democratic politicians.

The divide between Orthodox and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism is now beyond the confines of keeping kosher and Shabbat observance. There is a clear divide politically and about Israel as well.

According to a May 2021 Pew Research poll, Orthodox Jews preferences for the Republican and Democratic parties were 75% and 20%, respectively. Conservative and Reform Jews tilted towards the Democratic Party by a mirrored amount. An incredible 81% of Orthodox Jews approved of Trump’s job performance, while a similar percentage of non-Orthodox Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance.

These sentiments are echoed in the divide in the Jewish communities’ feelings about a range of issues including Israel and the treatment of American Jews. The majority of Orthodox Jews approved Trump’s handling of immigration, the environment, Israel and his treatment of Jews in the United States, while non-Orthodox Jews were much more split.

These polls were taken well before the October 7, 2023 massacre by Palestinian Arab terrorists of civilians in Israel, and the horrifying cheers of jubilation from the socialist-jihadi alliance on American campuses and in Congress. Since then, even Conservative Jews have begun to migrate towards the Republican Party (now almost one-half from just over one-quarter 3.5 years ago), while Reform and unaffiliated Jews remain entrenched with Democrats, according to an October 2024 poll by the Manhattan Institute.

It should not come as a surprise to see Trump invite an Orthodox rabbi to Washington, D.C., even while they make up a small percentage of Jews in America. It will be interesting to see if the Jewish Conservative movement continues to shift away from the Democratic Party and become a fixture in Washington during the Trump Administration.

Jewish Vote For President Broke Important Threshold (November 2024)

Will Jews Pivot To Law, Order And Self-Interest? (November 2024)

Trump Secures Lowest Tally of Israeli Deaths From Palestinian Terrorism (November 2020)

Which Gazans Deserve Assistance?

Posted on January 19, 2025 by First.One.Through

As the ceasefire between Palestinian terrorists and Israel begins today, the 2.2 million stateless Arabs (SAPs) in Gaza are clamoring for support. They seek to return to homes and rebuild neighborhoods. They seek food, clean water, and medications that were difficult to obtain when Arab gangs looted supplies during the war.

The United Nations has long maintained that its agency, UNRWA, is the sole group that can address the needs as a humanitarian organization with established operations in the strip for decades.

But UNRWA’s mission is NOT to care for Gazans but only a subset of them; those who are descendants of Arabs who left Israel in 1948. The SAPs who are descendants of people who have long-lived in Gaza (whose grandparents didn’t move there in 1948) are not entitled to UNRWA’s largess.

Do non-“refugees descendants” have to stay hungry? Do they have to pay to rebuild their homes while they watch their neighbors’ houses get rebuilt with global donations? Will aid organizations build houses only for “refugee descendants” and leave other Gaza residents to fend for themselves?

Around 73% of Gazans are entitled to services from UNRWA, according to UNRWA in December 2020. Is the United Nations planning on ignoring the needs of the other 27%? Had UNRWA’s Gazan wards only accounted for 10% of the population, would the situation be different whereby the UN would not profess unique capabilities and not attempt to swoop in to address all of Gaza?

The UN has deliberately deceived the world to imagining that all Gazans – indeed all Palestinians – are refugees, entitled to global support. It uses “Palestinians”, “refugees” and “Gazans” interchangeably, in an attempt to continue to expand and extend its mandate, even though it was always conceived as a temporary agency with finite tasks. At this moment in time, it is advancing a power grab despite its gross and institutionalized failures.

UNRWA has long abused its mandate, and this is a moment to allow a different organization to address the humanitarian needs of ALL Gazans, not just UNRWA wards, and permanently shut down UNRWA in Gaza. Whichever group assumes governance of Gaza – perhaps a Palestinian Authority stripped of all members of Hamas in its parliament – should assume control of reconstruction efforts.

After UNRWA (February 2024)

Stop Genocide. End UNRWA (January 2024)

Shut UNRWA in Gaza Immediately (August 2018)

The United Nations’ Adoption of Palestinians, Enables It to Only Find Fault With Israel (March 2016)

Help Refugees: Shut the UNRWA, Fund the UNHCR (September 2014)

Political Spouses As NY Times Fodder To Accuse Republicans Of Racism And Sexism

Posted on January 15, 2025 by First.One.Through

The interactions of political opponents have gotten frostier through the years, as bipartisanship has been cast as evil. That dynamic is playing out amongst the spouses of politicians as well.

The New York Times chose to reframe that issue as really being about its perception of Republican racism.

Two particular incidents unfolded in Washington, D.C. in January 2025, as a new president and Congress were being sworn in. One included a Democratic Black female political spouse disrespecting a Republican White male politician, and the other had the mirror image of a Republican White male political spouse disrespecting a Democratic Black female politician.

The stories were covered under the Times’ theme of White male Republicans being racists.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued a press release that she would not attend the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20. Her actions were rationalized that she believed that Trump was sexist and racist, who was scared of educated, hard-working, successful Black people. There was no Times commentary that many people criticized her snubbing of Trump.

The Times used very different language when it wrote about Sen. Deb Fischer’s (R-NE) husband not shaking the hand of Vice President Kamala Harris during a swearing in ceremony. It cast Harris as doing her job in difficult circumstances while being disrespected by a White man. The Times wrote about the criticism online of the snubbing, calling the White male Republican’s actions racist and sexist.

As politics become more polarized, The New York Times fans the flames of division that its readers are the resistance against racist and sexist White male Republicans. It is crafting a bleak world that is no longer about policy differences and compromise, but a battle between good and evil.

And it is doing so in the aftermath of an election that saw more minorities vote Republican – with a Black female presidential nominee! – than ever before, seemingly marketing itself to a rapidly shrinking audience.

The Times is not just airing left-wing biased reporting but attempting to become the vanguard of progressive causes built on a foundation of smears and apologies for the woke-christened evil and noble, respectively.