{"id":10646,"date":"2015-01-28T23:07:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T23:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=10646"},"modified":"2015-01-29T22:24:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T22:24:44","slug":"sheldon-silvers-fall-signals-end-of-a-jewish-era-in-new-york-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=10646","title":{"rendered":"Is the era of Jewish power in New York politics over with the fall of Speaker Sheldon Silver?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sheldon Silver’s Fall Signals End of a (Jewish) Era in New York Politics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Josh Nathan-Kazis
\nThe Jewish Daily Forward<\/p>\n

\"w-sheldonsilver-12315\"<\/a><\/p>\n

New York State\u2019s most powerful Jewish powerbroker has fallen.<\/p>\n

The city awoke Thursday morning to a political world turned inside out. Sheldon Silver, among the two or three most powerful men in state politics since 1994, surrendered to FBI agents in the early hours of the morning at a federal building in Foley Square, just blocks from the Lower East Side district he dominated for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I\u2019ll be vindicated,\u201d Silver said as he entered FBI custody, according to the\u00a0New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

A New York State Assembly member from the Lower East Side since 1977, Silver has been the speaker of the assembly since 1994.<\/p>\n

Silver\u2019s fall, on what are expected to be corruption charges related to undisclosed payments from a law firm, comes as the Lower East Side old boys network he ruled continues to self-immolate.<\/p>\n

\"SCREENSHOT\/CBS<\/a>

SCREENSHOT\/CBS — Sheldon Silver with Willie Rapfogel<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Silver was a member of a tight-knit coterie of Jewish political operators who came up together in the co-op developments on Grand Street. Many had working class roots, belonged to the Bialystoker Synagogue on Willett Street, and developed power together through the same few Jewish institutions.<\/p>\n

Now, that Lower East Side crew is falling to pieces. William Rapfogel, Silver\u2019s close ally, is in state prison after pleading guilty to embezzling millions as executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. Silver was a key benefactor of the Met Council, and William Rapfogel\u2019s wife Judy is Silver\u2019s chief of staff. Heshy Jacob, the traditional third member of Rapfogel and Silver\u2019s Lower East Side power troika, was traveling in Israel and said he was unaware of Silver\u2019s arrest when reached via telephone.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the roles he, Rapfogel and Silver played on the Lower East Side in an interview with the Forward in 2013, Jacob was forthright about the old guard\u2019s power: \u201c\u201cWe put in time and effort for the people,\u201d Jacob said at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we simply are despots.\u201d<\/p>\n

That power is now evaporating, as is the influence it wielded in Albany.<\/p>\n

According to a New York Times report, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s charges against Silver will relate to payments from a law firm called Goldberg & Iryami that specializes in tax certioari. Jay Arthur Goldberg, who leads the firm, grew up on the Lower East Side with Silver. His firm represents the Grand Street co-op buildings where Silver and Rapfogel lived. Some of those buildings are managed by Jacob.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheldon Silver’s Fall Signals End of a (Jewish) Era in New York Politics By Josh Nathan-Kazis The Jewish Daily Forward New York State\u2019s most powerful Jewish powerbroker has fallen. The city awoke Thursday morning to a political world turned inside … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}