Over 150 people ventured outside their homes on a cold, blustery winter morning. They came out in force to show their strong support for Brooklyn native David Greenfield’s candidacy for the New York City Council.
Greenfield’s inaugural fund-raising event for his City Council run was hosted by Paulette and Morris Bailey. It was extremely successful, with Greenfield raising much needed funds for his race.
Greenfield hopes to succeed Councilman Simcha Felder in the 44th Council District. Felder, who will be leaving office in 2009 and will be pursuing citywide office, is enthusiastically supporting Greenfield to fill his council seat. The 44th Council District covers most of the Sephardic community, including Midwood, Bensonhurst and Boro Park.
Greenfield is the Executive Vice President of the Sephardic Community Federation (SCF), the umbrella governmental relations and public policy organization of the Sephardic community. In that role, he works every single day with public officials at every level of government to improve the lives of not just the Sephardic community, but the entire Jewish community. He is also an experienced attorney who is an acclaimed community advocate.
His early momentum has made him the frontrunner to win the race. His opening event drew community leaders, religious leaders, and business leaders from throughout New York City, plus more than a half-dozen prominent elected officials who endorsed him and pledged their support to him. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilmen Simcha Felder and Domenic Recchia, Assemblymen Vito Lopez and Alan Maisel, Senators Carl Kruger and Marty Golden proudly stood with Greenfield and spoke about how wonderful it would be for the community to have a leader like him in the City Council.
“I am humbled at the incredible reception that my candidacy has received from the community at this early stage of the campaign,” said Greenfield. “This wide-spread support that I am receiving has given my campaign incredible momentum as we move forward on this exciting journey.”
Brooklyn’s Jewish community filled the room at the event as leaders from the Sephardic, Ashkenaz, and Hasidic communities all came together to support Greenfield. Some of the many Sephardic community leaders at the event included Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, Morris Bailey, Joe Cayre, Stanley Chera, Sam Sutton, Haim Dabah, David Hidary and Ronald Tawil.
In his remarks to the large crowd, Greenfield quoted from Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot who said, “while it is not our responsibility to solve the problem, we must still work towards solving it.”
He went on to say that we can accomplish much for our community by working with government. However, it is important that we not be deterred by naysayers who tell us that we cannot get things done. Greenfield explained that each issue must be approached with the mindset that even the small things that we succeed in doing along the way will get us one step closer to achieving our overall goal on behalf of the community.
He then discussed the inroads that he and his colleagues have made in the ongoing effort to provide yeshivah parents, who pay tuition, with financial relief. Greenfield played an integral role last year in securing a perpetual $600 million tax credit for parents of school-age children, as well as securing $45 million in new funding this year for private schools. He also discussed the need to address the lack of affordable housing in our community for both young families and seniors. He expressed his hakarat hatov (appreciating the good) for the older generation that worked on our behalf and explained that we need to be sure that seniors have every need met.
Finally, Greenfield pledged to carry on Councilman Felder’s legacy by focusing on the quality of life issues that are so important to our community. Reducing crime, keeping our families safe, easing traffic congestion, and keeping our streets clean are issues that he said he intends to address in the City Council.
Before joining SCF, Greenfield served as Deputy Director of Finance to Senator Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign. Prior to that, he served as Chief of Staff to Assemblyman Dov Hikind. He is a proud life-long resident of Brooklyn where he happily resides with his wife Dina and their infant son, Avraham.
