Mayor Lindsay Tours Jewish Neighborhood; Mazel Tovs, L’chaims Exchanged

In keeping with his practice of visiting neighborhoods, Mayor John Lindsay look a whirlwind tour yesterday of this city’s largest Jewish neighborhood, the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. Accompanied by one of his chief aides, Sid Davidoff, and an aide from neighborhood stabilization programs, Rabbi Samuel Schrage, Lindsay began this “walking tour” with a visit to the Beth Jacob School where he was greeted by girls who chanted “Hevaynu Shalom Aleichem” and presented him with a bouquet of flowers. He then continued his walk, having been joined by some 100 Hassidim, along teeming 13th Avenue where shopkeepers greeted him with gifts of fruit. Lindsay’s next stop was Yeshiva Be’er Shemuel, where he was warmly received by a crowd of more than 300 people, including 50 rabbis. Lindsay, obviously pleased with the warm reception, praised the Hassidic community for its development of educational resources for their community and “for the stability they bring to all neighborhoods of our city.”

The tour culminated in the private chambers of Grand Rabbi Halberstam, the Bobover Rebbe, who poured Haig and Haig in silver goblets and offered the Mayor and his party a traditional “l’chaim” along with his blessings. As Hassidim looked on, Lindsay offered his personal mazel tov” to the white-bearded rabbi on the engagement of his daughter. When one of the Hassidim offered the Mayor “mazel tov on his new party affiliation,” the Grand Rabbi interjected that to him “it does not matter which party you belong to, I like you as a person, and give you my support and blessings for reaching higher office.” In 1682 when Lindsay ran for his second term as Mayor on the Liberal-Independent line, Borough Park gave him little support, causing him to lose that area by a margin of more than 3-1. When asked about this outpouring of support now, one rabbi commented that “he has matured and we understand him better now.” Lindsay attracted national attention last week when he announced that he and his wife Mary had changed party registration from Republican to Democratic.