The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Election 2020

NY17 Candidate Allison Fine Emphasizes a Commitment to Empowering People

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My interview with Allison Fine, congressional candidate for the 17th District, took place late in February and was slated to run as part of the mix inside May Mother’s Day editions prior to the print editions being canceled. So here it is for our online edition, one in a series of profiles of congressional candidates for the 17th District we have been presenting. 

During this period of quarantining and isolation too, if there is one thing I’ll remember most from speaking with Allison Fine it was her immediately relaying to me her #1 passion: to make sure every single person is known, seen and heard. “So much of what has pulled us apart in the last 30 years is people feeling invisible, unheard and powerless.”

Allison Fine, candidate for the 17th District  PHOTO by Grace Bennett

Fine has authored three books relating to harnessing technology for social good. “My entire career has been about giving people the tools and the power to manage their own life,” she said, noting she initially focused on helping nonprofits define and measure their success. More recently, she has worked with the Gates Foundation on the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on social change. As chair of the National Board of NARAL, the Pro-Choice America Foundation, she also sought to give people the tools to have autonomy over their own lives.

“Over the last 30 years we have seen the collapse of the middle class, and that is why our politics don’t align with our people, why we don’t have the political will for common sense gun control and reproductive freedom,” Fine said, noting the resultant loss of accountability. She believes that her focus on giving people that voice and power makes her unique in this race.

“It is that kind of building and shifting power to give more people a voice and the ability to control their own life that I know best in this race. So, this is not a moment in time to elect people who are career politicians and have worked inside this system – this is a time to have people who have very different experiences building and creating power outside to take us into the next chapter,” Fine argues.

Policy Priorities

The mother of three (her children are 24, 22 and 19), she is excited about trying to pursue change now that she is an empty nester. Fine is particularly passionate about women’s issues, dedicated to enabling women to control their own futures, both physically and financially. “The Republican Party is centered in controlling women; if it’s not abortions, it’s birth control or making sure we don’t get paid equally or we don’t have paid family leave,” she said. Citing the fate of Roe v. Wade and the realities in many states, she adds that “this is a fight worth having and winning, because over 70% of people in every state of the country believe in safer legal access to abortion. We need to build the political power and will to move past this bottleneck to full women’s equality,” she added, pointing to the Women’s Freedom agenda detailed on her website.

Fine is also dedicated to increasing job security. “So many people feel like the ground is moving beneath their feet economically.” She notes the uncertainty regarding benefits for increasing numbers who are contractors, freelancers, or “gig” workers, as well as everyone’s concerns about retirement and their children’s futures. She worries that her own kids will never be able to afford to live in communities like where they grew up (Irvington) or where she lives now (Sleepy Hollow, where she was raised).

Fine points out that with a quarter of NY17 LatinX, immigration must be addressed, noting the current administration’s “shameful” terrorization of both the documented and undocumented. “We need comprehensive immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people living in the shadows, we need to protect the DACA kids. We also need to hold accountable companies exploiting undocumented workers. I would love us to become a country where don’t just accept immigrants, we welcome them, as wonderful participants in our society, as people starting businesses, raising their families, working very hard, as those are the principles our country is built on,” Fine said.

A former synagogue president, Fine is also committed to fighting the rising wave of antisemitism and hate crimes. She points to the “separating” of communities, and advocates for having community mediators to bring different groups together in creative ways to increase understanding.

Noting too how technology has aided isolation of people and communities, Fine adds that “we are at the beginning of what I call “Online Onland Intersection.” As a legislator, she would push to hold social media companies accountable for misusing and selling personal data and failing to keep people safe online. She also points to co-working spaces as an example of maintaining the need for communal contact even while pursuing individual business interests.

Relatedly, Fine says “we desperately need people in Washington who understand automation and what is about to happen to our jobs, to our people, to our communities,” and calls automation an “equal opportunity disruptor” that will result in job losses everywhere – Wall Street, paralegals, the medical profession, and service industries. “Across the board, we need to make sure we have people who are making sure technology is harnessed ethical ways, that people are in charge of the technology and not the other way around and that we are investing heavily in workforce development because people are going have to create different kinds of occupations.” She added that access to capital, especially for traditionally overlooked groups like women and people of color, is crucial to create new businesses to support these new realities.

Fine also agrees that “the climate crisis is our existential crisis of the time,” and that the federal government “must invest in innovations that become commercial enterprises, to protect communities from rising temperatures, rising water, to vary the grid, and create jobs.” And she finds the lack of common sense gun control “confounding,” supported by the majority of the country but the inaction political.

A Crowded Field, With Many Women

Fine is impressed with how smart and well-intentioned her competitors are for this congressional seat. She is proud that so many women are running: “It’s awfully important who is at the table.. It matters for what issues are at the top of the agenda,” she said, pointing to countries like Finland that have a legislative majority of women that focus on issues like equal pay.

“Last year I created an effort called The Network of Elected Women because women are getting elected at record levels, at the municipal level around the country, county, town and village. We have 25 women here in Westchester who come together once a month and they support one another and they learn together and some of them are then taking the next step,” Fine said, describing the “virtual” meetings of the group. She added that New Castle Town Supervisor Ivy Pool has been a part of the council from the beginning, and it convinced her to run for Supervisor after being on the Town Board, an example of the need to convince women to take the next step for leadership positions.

“A couple of weeks ago, Goldman Sachs said it wouldn’t take any company public that didn’t have one female board member. Really? One? That’s how low the bar is set. Why isn’t it a third? Why isn’t it two-thirds? One?”

Personal Role Models and Being A Fighter

Fine points to her own mother and grandmother as her role models. Her grandmother, eventually fired for leaving her Lower East Side sweatshop sewing machine to march for suffrage, had arrived in the US in 1905 at the age of five on a boat from Lithuania, but found the courage to be an early fundraiser for Israel and fight for women’s rights while raising three sons. Fine describes her own mother as an introvert who found the courage to run for chair of the Westchester/Putnam Girl Scouts and eventually the Tarrytown school board, where she fought for children’s education for 10 years.

From them, Fine became a fighter: “you have to lift people up and move them forward. That’s what I do – I build communities and move them forward every step of the way,” she said.

Visit allisonfine2020.com for more information on Allison and her policy positions.

A Conversation with Adam Schleifer: Candidate for the 17th District

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PHOTO By Grace Bennett

It’s always delightful to discover a candidate’s creative side. In an interview with 38-year-old Adam Schleifer over coffee in Armonk, we covered a lot of territory–including his acapella, choir and Glee Club participation at both Greeley High School and at Cornell University! But we also discussed in depth Schleifer’s most recent role as a no-nonsense, accomplished federal prosecutor in California and the issues he would prioritize and strengths he would bring to the table as Congresswoman Nita Lowey’s successor.

Growing Up in and Returning to Chappaqua

We met soon after a Chappaqua forum addressing controlling noise from Westchester County Airport, an issue important to both New and North Castle neighborhoods. No stranger to noise, spending his early years in Manhattan next door to New York Hospital, and sharing a room with a younger brother, Schleifer attended the forum “to learn about the flight path over New Castle” and consider ways to tackle the issue and affected residents’ unhappiness. “The questions are whether there’s more that can be done to have a curfew that’s more enforceable,” he noted, recognizing the noise caused by both private and commercial aviation and the need to “reasonably balance the infrastructure and commercial needs of the area with the livability of the area.”

Schleifer was in the second grade when his family moved from the city to a home near Kisco Park–a neighborhood he speaks of fondly.  “It was like the Wonder Years… cul-de-sacs and streets branched off… I would ride my bike around, explore and get into minor trouble-but nothing too serious, thankfully,” he recalls. He also had a fantastic Greeley experience, remembering the sprawling campus and different buildings housing many school clubs. “It fit my sense of a really sophisticated, grown-up experience; it always struck me that if you went to Horace Greeley, you were prepared for the world.”

He also took full advantage of his years at Cornell, double-majoring in Government and Philosophy, singing acapella and playing baseball. Schleifer notes that he encourages others to embrace college as a time in life when “your entire job is to invest in yourself and learn as much as you can to develop the toolbox you can use  to negotiate the rest of the world.”

Schleifer picked up a few more good tools at Columbia Law School, especially, he said, serving on Law Review and participating on a competitive international Moot Court team.

He was also a research and teaching assistant in Constitutional Law for Professor Michael Dorf, and also formed a close bond with other professors, including Professor Arthur Chaskalson, former Chief Justice of South Africa’s Constitutional Court and member of Nelson Mandela’s defense team.

From Public Service to Private Practice and Back Again

After graduation, Schleifer spent two years as a federal law clerk, for both a Clinton-appointed pragmatic Democrat in the Southern District of New York, and, thereafter for a conservative appointee to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As a result of working equally well with both, he realized that “it was the beginning of my sense that in government, in law, in policy and in politics, most of the time, there is a right answer to a question. The media can produce a a warped sense that everything is hyper-partisan.”

Schleifer then spent five years practicing commercial litigation with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, starting just weeks after Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy. “It was a tremendous time to start your career as a private attorney. The founder of the firm wasn’t sure if the western capitalist marketplace system would even be around in three months at that point.” But then Schleifer decided that he wanted to be in the public sector “partly out of an insight that banking and insurance were two sides of one financial coin,” and became a Special Associate Counsel for the New York State Department of Financial Services focusing on consumer protection issues.

Schleifer is most proud of having worked against a payday lending lead generator named Money Mutual, which was backed by “high finance” companies that collected and sold information about people intended to seduce certain communities–mostly of color and veterans–into agreeing to usurious payday loans via advertising by spokesman Montel Williams, who they trusted. Schleifer’s team removed those ads from the airwaves and “we shut down that practice as it existed in New York.” He also said that he did similar work with respect to the subprime auto lending industry as part of a team on the first-ever case brought by a state under the Dodd-Frank Act to enforce consumer protection spending laws. It was this type of work, he said, that inspired him to become an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice.

As a federal prosecutor in California, Schleifer had the experience of being in court every day on behalf of the United States, eventually taking on more responsibilities regarding investigation, indictment and courtroom prosecution of crimes. He worked on everything from a prosecution of a motorcycle gang member dealing in large-scale distribution quantities of methamphetamine, to a gang’s conspiracy to traffic in illegal assault rifles and high-capacity handguns, to the murder of a federal agent by an international drug cartel, to “smog fraud,” where people were falsely certifying that their cars had passed emission standards.

Schleifer is particularly proud of his prosecutorial work on financial frauds, including a scheme by two Israeli brothers who took advantage of their own synagogue members and the immigrant community of the San Fernando Valley, essentially taking their money by claiming that they were expert investors. He worked on a similar matter where a Church member took control of a church primarily made up of elderly members, masterminding the multi-million dollar sale of the building and taking the money for himself. Schleifer noted that in many other areas of crime “we ask ourselves where the system may have “failed” someone, where someone who otherwise would have lived a life of honesty and rectitude was pushed by various circumstances to do things that were unfortunately anti-social and criminal, but in the fraud world, it is much more clear that many of these people are acting out of sheer avarice and laziness and vanity. I take this very seriously.”

Strengths and Priorities

“I have a record of achievement; I’m getting actual things done–like the Montel Williams case–but that’s just one example of actually working hard on behalf of New York borrowers to make New York markets more fair and to make the insurance and healthcare industries more fair and transparent,” Schleifer said of his qualifications, adding that his state and federal bipartisan experience sets him apart.

As far as what his priorities would be as Congressman, Schleifer noted that they have changed and evolved as he has engaged with people in the district. For example, local constituents are angry about the cap on state and local tax deductions: “that’s a cynical, unfair attack on blue states–that would be part of a broader repeal of the Trump tax bill,” he said. Schleifer added: “We need to make sure that at the higher levels, we have fiscally responsible, sustainable and fair marginal tax rates.

“I hope to accomplish many more than five things if I am elected… but I can say amongst the really important ones are gun legislation–universal background checks, it should be harder to possess a firearm than drive or lease a car, so that seems pretty common sense to me. There should be a ban on certain weapons of war, similar to some of the ones I took off the street in California.”

Schleifer is also committed to addressing climate change. “That may be number one because it is a matter of national security, international standing and intergenerational fairness. Everything else becomes a sort of arranging the deck chairs of the Titanic if we don’t have a healthy and habitable planet that we can leave to our children and our grandchildren.” He said that he would push very hard for a carbon tax “to disincentivize the production of additional greenhouse gases while also forcing companies that emit greenhouse gases to pay the full freight for the environmental cost that they impose.” He believes that green technology would benefit from the fair competition that would result, which would create more jobs, another one of his priorities.

Noting that gun control is the first step in addressing the rise in domestic terrorism and antisemitic violence, Schleifer adds that federal criminal laws–including the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Prevention Act–already on the books are underutilized, but are now being more frequently used (as in the recent attack in Monsey). He wants to focus on “enforcing (these laws) in a tough way to stand up to the scourge of terror because in 2020, whether it is Jewish people or any other people, should not be attacked for exercising their First Amendment rights or for anything else–(such as) who they love, what skin color they have or freedom of religion. This is a shadow of barbarism that we cannot abide.”

Schleifer would also like to see a federal holiday on election day, at least every four years, and “we should be promoting both through interstate compact and through constitutional amendment” the abolition of the electoral college.

“It’s insane that in 2020, most of the country’s views are essentially irrelevant to the question of who becomes the president and that a few voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and maybe sometimes Nevada, Oregon, Washington or Arizona define our presidential conversation. Voters in Texas, whether they are blue or red, and voters in New York, whether they are blue or red should have a say in our presidency,” he said, adding that he would also push for things like a tax credit to incentivize voting and other methods to support fair and active voter participation.

Schleifer also has a personal connection and many views regarding the United States relationship with Israel, as the grandson of Holocaust survivors and the son of a woman who has devoted a large part of her life to supporting that relationship (Schleifer’s mother Harriett is President of American Jewish Committee).  He recognizes the unfortunate politicization of the issue over the past four years, laying blame at both the feet of Congressional Republicans and the Israeli government.

“I think that we need to get back to the fundamental strategic reality, which is that the United States and Israel are close and mutually beneficial allies and that is not a question of partisanship, but a question of mutual interest.  We should be mindful of the fact that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, which is a pretty rough neighborhood. They have been so for a long time in an area that is, to borrow from Martin Luther King, ‘suffers from the sweltering heat of injustice and oppression.’ Israel is in many ways the shining light of the region, and it is unfortunate that it has become popular to both hate Jews to hate Israel in some very ignorant and uninformed ways throughout the world and throughout all parts of the political spectrum.”

Schleifer points to the antisemitism demonstrated by left-wing politicians in Britain and France and right-wing would-be fascists in Germany as examples abroad, to both alt-righters chanting “Jews will not replace us!” in Charlottesville and certain left-wing groups in the U.S. attacking our community.

Why Run for Congress?

Schleifer loved being a federal prosecutor, but when he was home for Yom Kippur last fall, his father had asked if he thought he would return to New York. That same day, Bet Torah Rabbi Aaron Brusso delivered a sermon on the troubling trend of “cancel culture”–noting how that on social media people are not engaging with each other as humans but rather are just trying to outdo one another. The sermon resonated with Schleifer, who while admittedly not particularly political and only a passive user of Twitter for news, felt despair over the state of the country and the president, who he calls the “bully/fraudster in chief.”

“I know how to take on bullies and fraudsters because that was my specialty for last the six years. Trump has done more to undermine our institution and our sense of constitutional governance than anyone, maybe ever, in our country,” Schleifer said. And he recalls that at the same time, he was reading More for Less by Andrew McAfee, which is about, as he calls it, the “four horsemen of the optimist: fair, efficient and vibrant capitalist markets, the resulting innovation, biological, technological, environmental advances, and free and informed citizenry with a responsive government. Schleifer thought “wouldn’t it be nice if our political leaders actually spent time thinking about real data and how to solve real problems.”

When he learned that Nita Lowey was not seeking re-election, Schleifer “felt like this problem was identifying itself to me. I felt that I had a record of concrete achievement at the state and federal level and that this was my home district and that I could make a real contribution.“

After a few weeks of discussion with his wife Nicole, who works in strategic communications, and discussions with stakeholders and individuals in his personal life and the world of politics, “I thought that I would come back home and give it a shot.”

Conversation with Chappaqua Native and National Security Expert Evelyn Farkas And Now Congressional Candidate for the 17th District

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PHOTO By Grace Bennett

An interview with the very accomplished Evelyn Farkas might have started ‘anywhere’ but we started with her raison d’etre for being ‘back in Chappaqua,’ her childhood home, and her ‘connection’ to the 17th District: “I grew up here, and I never really left… I don’t have my own nuclear family, so this is where I come back to as often as possible, for holidays and more…

“I left my town to serve my country,” she added pointedly. “I came back to serve my country,” said Farkas, whose campaign announced over $460,000 raised by the first filing deadline, just six weeks post launching.

The 52-year-old Farkas, MSNBC National Security contributor and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for President Obama, speaks proudly of her parents who raised her here–94- and 81-year old Hungarian immigrants who fled Hungary after the Communist Revolution failed. “They came to America for freedom and economic opportunity,” after moving from Manhattan’s ‘Little Hungary’ to Chappaqua when Evelyn was one month old; she and her three siblings graduated from Horace Greeley High School.

“When his ship docked in Brooklyn, my dad was 31, and he had to learn English. He knew a little from music and films, but that was all. He took odd jobs and eventually got his Master’s in Library Sciences from Columbia University. He had a Ph.D. and a law degree, so he was on track to be a judge in Hungary. My mother was 13 years younger, so when she came to the U.S. she did a year of high school and college in Oklahoma where she studied pharmacy. They moved to Westchester because he got a job as director of the Briarcliff Manor Public Library. They chose Chappaqua for the schools. I’m so grateful to this district and my schooling. When I got to college, I realized just how well prepared I was.”

I asked her what stood out the most for her in Chappaqua schools: “I learned to write really well–it was a fantastic education, starting at Grafflin elementary school. I can still sing the school song!” We shared a laugh as Farkas recited its lyrics. Greeley, she elaborated, gave her “a great start” with advanced placement in Social Studies, for example. She also recalled a guidance counselor who had a huge impact on her life; she said he helped her navigate college admissions–eventually landing at Franklin & Marshall College with a double major in government and German; she related that her mom worked at three hospitals to supplement her dad’s modest income, so that they could afford her years at F&M, from where, upon graduation, she landed a first job at the Council on Foreign Relations. She described a “massive debt” not paid off until many years later with federal assistance. Today she is on F&M’s board.

Breaking Barriers

“I do pride myself on working my way up–being self-made,” said Farkas, who after two years overseas went on to graduate school outside Boston to get a Masters and PhD at Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. While she was there, she served as a fellow for the House foreign affairs committee, and worked inside Bosnia for six months. As a Human Rights Officer, “it was the most absorbing, meaningful job I’ve had to date.” What followed: The Marine Corps hired Farkas as one of its first two women assistant professors and eventually promoted her to associate after she finished her doctorate. It was on to the Senate Armed services staff for Senator Carl Levin (“a phenomenal member”) who endorsed Farkas to represent NY-17 in Congress in the late fall.

For nearly a decade, Farkas worked on “a whole swath of issues… combating terrorism but also narcotics, Asia Pacific policy, export control, and homeland defense after 9/11.” This led to a key appointment on a post 9/11 commission “getting to the bottom of the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.” She also worked at the American Security Project founded by Senator John Kerry with whom she worked closely with on environmental issues before returning to the Department of Defense and reporting to “the head of the U.S.-European Command.” Farkas then became the Sherpa to Secretary Leon Panetta for the 2012 NATO summit which led to her most pivotal role when appointed to become Obama’s Assistant Director of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Euroasia.

“Of course, famously, one of my countries invaded the other… I was alarmed to hear that the Trump campaign had this weird relationship to the Kremlin. I knew exactly what that meant because I knew how the Kremlin operated. And that probably represented something more serious. I went on national TV and raised the alarm. I said we need to get involved and Congress needs to get involved.”

Farkas barreled ahead, speaking and writing op-eds–while weathering time consuming and costly attacks by the far right, she related. “Ultimately the Republicans still in control of Congress made me testify. Of course, there was nothing to it, nobody was leaking to me. I just have a brain and I could put the dots together.”

The Pros of ‘Inside Washington’ Tenure

That brain and resolve eventually landed Farkas as a contributor at MSNBC. Ensconced in her role there, Farkas stated that she did not think she would be a politician. But then in the fall, after Nita Lowey announced her retirement, friends who had worked for Nita and strangers in the district convinced Evelyn to run.

“People said to me they wanted someone who understands national security issues, who’s a fighter, who will protect both our democracy and our economic opportunities; these are issues near and dear to me…”

“So is looking at gun safety and fighting hard so that our children don’t need to be afraid to go to school or working to make sure health care is accessible to more people at more affordable rates, Farkas added.

“I will fight, it’s in my DNA.” Farkas emphasized her national stature and that she knows how to get things done at the federal level. “For seven years, I drafted and passed legislation. I know the ranking members, the senior staffers… I already have a voice that people listen to. They follow me on Twitter, they watch me on MSNBC, and care what I have to say.”

Climate Change as a #1 Priority

She describes the ‘backdrop to everything’ regarding her priorities boils down to “protecting our freedom and our economic way of life,” and in that, her Number 1 priority, she makes clear, is the climate crisis.

“With the planet on fire literally and melting, we can’t ignore the climate crisis. While that’s my top priority, there are other issues. And we have to tackle them all.”

“All of us are affected by what’s happening: Along the Hudson, Long Island Sound, Rye Brook: all affect the district and those who live here–connected to that are issues pertaining to the airport for example. We do have to manage our air quality and noise.”

Gun safety is a very close second priority, calling the current state of affairs “an appalling blemish on our society.”

“It’s also preventable… Do background checks. It’s so basic. Many of these shooters would not otherwise have had access to weapons. Mental illness would have disqualified some too. Farkas also advocates no fly/no buy legislation, noting her background in counter terrorism. “Appallingly, people who are banned from flying because of suspicion they might be involved with terrorism are not on a banned list for buying firearms!”

Another must do, she emphasized, is a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons. “I worked for the military and saw weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq and been out to battle zones. Those weapons belong in the hands of our military, and after that, our law enforcement. I don’t want those types of weapons on the streets of America.”

Protecting women’s rights, Farkas stated, is also a high priority. “It’s bad enough that at the state level there was an attack on Roe v. Wade, and not only that but access to reproductive health care. We need to work harder at getting equal pay for women and even harder for women of color across the board. We need to rectify that.”

Speaking of women, Farkas said she has received words of encouragement from Hillary Clinton for whom she helped fundraise in 2008, and again in 2016, “joining a group of other Chappaqua women at that time. “I spoke with her recently about this race… she had a number of pieces of concrete advice; her last was my favorite, and that was: ‘Have fun.’ She also said, ‘call me anytime’ when I offered to keep in touch!”

Addressing Today’s Antisemitism

As I was working on shaping this story, antisemitism had passed a boiling point–with brutal and lethal attacks on Hasidic and ‘visibly” Jewish people, in particular in Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Jersey City and Monsey with memories of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting still searing through Jewish and public consciousness. How are we going to heal this country, I asked Farkas. How do we take this deep division developed over these last three years and bring this country back together? How would you address antisemitism, I asked.

Farkas said that knowledge of the Holocaust was “ingrained in me,” despite that her parents weren’t Jewish, she said her grandparents had friends growing up who were Jewish who were terribly affected… It was a horrible time period in Hungary’s history. Coming out of that, my parents wanted us to understand how horrible humans could be to each other and have an awareness so we could do everything to prevent it.”

Farkas explained that her family history shaped her world view and she geared her education choices toward preventing atrocities. The genocide in Bosnia, she related, was one of her doctoral topics. “I’ve been wanted to stop hate from the beginning of my life.

Taking on Trump

“But now I’m also disgusted by what Trump has done,” she continued. “He says he’s proud of his daughter and Jewish son in law, but he is aiding and abetting anti-Semitism, aiding and abetting ‘otherism’ and hatred of African Americans, the LGBTQ and Muslim communities.”

Farkas said she spoke at a Jewish Federation of Peace lecture series in Pennsylvania. She recalled that the series was named after a prominent survivor, Leo Camp, who had survived Auschwitz. “We have to remember so that it doesn’t happen again,” Farkas said. Referring to a recent article about another survivor, she added: “This man, who didn’t even want to speak to his immediate family about his experience, is now so alarmed by what is happening that he is speaking out publicly as much as possible. I know many of the survivors who are very old doing just that.”

In our discussion about antisemitism, Farkas noted that she is “absolutely opposed to the BDS Movement.

“I think it’s bad for Israel. It is bad for U.S./Israeli relations. At best, it’s misguided. When it comes to Israel, yes, we need a two-state solution. Israel has the right to remain a Jewish state and I believe the Palestinians should have their own state as well. We need to remain shoulder to shoulder with Israel on security. I’ve worked on that in the Pentagon…” She said that “giving Israel the “qualitative military edge in defense means giving Israel the ability to deter all the other bad actors in the area from taking military action against Israel.”

She stated that Trump has “done more to put Israel at risk, to diminish protections than any other President in my lifetime. Politically, it also concerns me that the Israeli government has enabled Trump and others to make support a partisan issue when it has always been a bipartisan issue. Some people–and Trump is at the forefront of this–are changing the bipartisan support. He says ridiculous things like only he supports Israel, only the Republicans support Israel… There’s Nita Lowey, there’s Senator Levin, and many others.”

Mandating Education to Fight Hate

Farkas said that we also can’t always assume negative intentions to those making criticisms of Israel any more than of any other country. “That said, we do have to educate. There are younger people coming into Congress who have probably never traveled to Israel. Our commitment to Israel isn’t just political and military–it is moral.“

“This is why if you have people not educated in the history–and even don’t know how we in America did nothing and turned Jews away during the Holocaust… we now have a moral responsibility to Israel and to the Jewish people. In Congress, I would rectify this lack in education. I also view it as a broader issue than Israel and antisemitism. I’m against all ‘isms.’”

Time was almost up. Early in the interview, Farkas had shared her motivation in breaking barriers: “I’m a Doer. Even though I can be a Thinker, I’m a Doer.” I asked her for a final thought. “Although I grew up here in Chappaqua, we did struggle. But we got by because of its excellent education system.

I feel I want to protect that for future generations–that political freedom, that economic opportunity. I will fight for this district. From day one, I will be able to deliver. Because I’ve already legislated at the Federal level.”

For more information, please visit evelynforny.com

10 Takeaways from a Conversation with our State Assemblyman David Buchwald on his Candidacy for Congress

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David and Lara Buchwald
Photo By Sarah Merians Boutique Photography, courtesy of David Buchwald

In keeping with our Top Ten theme, here are ten key takeaways gleaned from my interview with David Buchwald, shortly after our 41 year-old legislator (Assembly District 93) announced his candidacy in October for the 17th Congressional district held by Nita Lowey for the last 31 years. After he was among the first to enter the race*: the interview took place over a 45-minute session seated at his dining room table in White Plains.

1. He is very enthusiastic about his candidacy and enjoys multiple corners of support. “I’m feeling excited because a lot of people approached me and said I’d be the right person to succeed Nita Lowey! Moving forward, it will be a pleasure to be able to fight for Westchester and Rockland Counties. We need a government in Washington that’s much more effective than it has been the last few years. That’s an important task that I’m up for.”

Upon deciding, David made his first call to his wife Lara, an attorney/litigator on the board for the Legal Aid Society. “She was very supportive. I couldn’t be in this line of work without a good support network.”

Outside his family, there’s no shortage of support or perception that Buchwald has earned this candidacy. Prior to his stint in the State Assembly, Buchwald served in local government, as a member of the White Plains Common Council, where he represented the entire city population of 57,000. He has also worked in support of municipalities throughout the State as a member of the Local Governments Committee of the New York State Assembly.

Since announcing, grassroots activists have already begun rallying on his behalf, and numerous and enthusiastic endorsements have been forthcoming including those from White Plains Mayor Tom Roach, North Castle Town Mayor Michael Michael Schiliro, Mount Kisco Mayor Gina Picinich, Rye Town Supervisor Gary Zuckerman, and New Castle Town Supervisor-Elect Ivy Pool.

Said Schiliro: “Throughout his career, Assemblyman Buchwald has been a responsive and trusted ally, as we’ve worked together to save taxpayers money, improve our libraries, and serve the people of North Castle I know he will be ready to undo the damage done at the federal level. David will be a leader we can count on in Congress.”

Pool expressed her pride in endorsing Buchwald commenting to me that “David is a tireless advocate on local issues, while also championing our shared values. He is smart, creative, and industrious, and I know he will continue to work hard on behalf of his constituents as our Congressman. David is a worthy successor to Congresswoman Nita Lowey who has been a friend to New Castle, and an inspiration to so many.”

David Buchwald with Amelia and Anna
PHOTO BY Grace Bennett/InsidePress

2. His two adorable preschoolers, together with Lara, too, are the lights of his life; plus, they make him cognizant of enhancing quality of life for all of his constituents. At the time of the interview, Anna, 4, and Amelia, 2 were outside playing with the family nanny. Post our conversation, I fell hard for their infectious smiles and unsolicited hugs.

“I love seeing life through their eyes… Also, If you are trying to create a brighter future for them, it means a brighter future for everyone. There may be things Lara and I can do individually for them, but there are things–like climate change–that we need to do together for everyone…

“Hopefully every child who grows up here in the Hudson Valley has access to all the amazing things in this area. One of the big challenges for any representative in this area is maintaining affordability for families. He hopes to see their children “stick around and come back after college.

Robust employers are looking to relocate where young professionals live, he noted, adding that he would promote the county’s transit system to attract those employers. “I used to live two blocks from White Plains train station. There’s not many places outside New York City that you can live without a car!”

He called Lara his “Number 1 advisor. She makes sure I stay level-headed. I like to think I don’t get too full of myself; she’s someone I draw inspiration from–an accomplished professional in her own right, and a passionate advocate for legal representation.”

3. He plans to hit the ground running and keep his door open. As he nears a 10-year anniversary of public service, Buchwald encourages residents to look closely at his record. “No issue is too small. My door is always open–if a constituent wants to connect with me, we always try to make that happen quickly.”

He said that he believes his constituents have viewed him as “always present, always paying attention…. I think that’s crucial to establish for this congressional race. Traffic willing, part of my goal in the campaign is to be everywhere my schedule allows.”

4. He expressed a commitment to building on the work and skills he has already brought to the table. “We will continue to fight for the environment, for a woman’s right to choose, and will make sure we bring resources to help those who are struggling to make ends meet…. I will put forward my vantage point as a tax attorney by trade to try to significantly improve and do right by those undermined by a Republican Congress and Trump’s SALT reduction. He said adjustments need to be made in recognition that the cost of living here is higher.

5. He will continue to wage battle against the gun violence epidemic. “It’s one of my main issues and what I ran on. I will try to bring my record of success in New York State to bear at the Federal level. The first vote I cast as a State Assemblyman was for the New York SAFE Act* which I co-sponsored. I have no doubt it has saved lives in New York.

He said he backed it up by a series of measures including expanding background checks and preventing “ghost guns…”  “Common sense safety measures have been stymied despite that most Americans support them. We’re getting to the point where New York State can only control so much because so much is tied to out of state…”

6. He aims to make it harder for any top government official in New York, including Trump, to hide their tax returns. Buchwald noted that he gained particular notoriety for a successful push, he explained, to adopt a law allowing the sharing of the New York State tax returns of top government officials, a law which Donald Trump is now suing to block.

He elaborated: “The law says New York State has a copy of tax returns of every filer in the state and that Trump as a New York state resident files his income tax returns. We already share those returns with the IRS, with tax departments in dozens of other states, so we said: “Let’s have that same sort of cooperation with our federal counterparts in Congress. So we passed my bill, and it’s now law, and Trump is suing to overturn that law. A New York motion to dismiss the case is pending…. I’ve always believed that open transparent government can make for better decision making.”

7. He will fight to protect a woman’s right to choose. “No matter what happens at the Supreme Court level, women in our region can have confidence that their rights will be protected. But, at the Federal level: there is an ongoing battle over basic principles that we’ve assumed for decades won’t have government interference–that we won’t make access to healthcare dependent on financial wherewithal. It’s very disheartening to think that means equates with health care; it’s antithetical to the right of a woman to consult with a doctor and make up her own mind.”

8. He will speak out against racism, hate and anti-Semitism. “I think Trump has tried to govern by division and the great thing about the United States is that we are a country that at our best brings people together from so many different backgrounds, and that creates a society that is stronger than any one group of individuals can create on their own. We have a lot of work to do to bring the country together.” He said he’d like to see a government “that does not use the Justice Department to undermine freedoms, or the Department of Homeland Security to tear homes apart. We need to ensure we have leaders who lead by example.”

“My role as an elected official now, and hopefully in the future, is to bring people together. We have great towns and cities with shared experiences that can be built on. If you try to pit one part of a community against another, that turns very dangerous very quickly. We’re seeing that with racism, with anti-Semitism… So, that’s part of why I’ve spoken up at any opportunity to denounce hatred and say that a threat to any one individual or community is a threat to all.”

9. As has been Nita Lowey’s long established commitment, he too will support Israel. “I’m a strong supporter of Israel and a progressive. To me, those things go hand in hand. We have to support our friends around the world who stand for those values we support as Americans. That includes democracy and basic notions of tolerance. Israel is a country that welcomes refugees. It used to be that America was also known for that. My wife and I serve on a refugee committee at our synagogue to help sponsor a family where the father/husband served as an interpreter for our troops overseas. A legal immigrant is what a refugee is: admitted under the law. To see Trump cutting back on legal immigration strikes me as going against the core of what our country should be about.

“It’s important for the United States to push for peace and stability in the Middle East and support the ability of Israel and Palestinians and other Arab neighbors to work through long established issues. Those who would seek to have the United States abandon their best ally in the region undermine the best aspects of Progressivism which recognizes the innate worth of people being able to make self-determining decisions.”

10. His Judaism shapes his general outlook and encourages him to fight against corruption. “I am cognizant that my religion teaches me to be humble in light of the fact that there are things in this world we can’t control. And that’s certainly true of campaigns. But if you put your best foot forward and determine you’re in it for the right reasons, there are people who will back you up. I find that very gratifying. I couldn’t have gone to Albany and affected change there without having people who have my back. I had to fight people who wanted to maintain the status quo and was lucky to have constituents who sent me there precisely to shake things up, namely, to strip corrupt officials of their pensions.* They said it couldn’t be done, and now it’s the law of the land. You can only engage when you have a sense that there’s a purpose. I like to think my religion supports that. My grandfather was a rabbi. I like to think he’d be proud of that.”

*Editor’s Note: This article conveys highlights of a conversation with our hometown legislator. Buchwald is a single candidate in the race with a number of new candidates vying for the spot too since the time of this writing. For additional information about any of Buchwald’s legislation mentioned here, or about his new campaign, from his perspective too, please visit DavidBuchwaldforCongress.com.