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B’rov Am Hadras Melech

The time has come for the state with the largest Jewish representation in the country to make our...

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Messaging is possibly the most important factor into swaying the public to one side of a political issue. Even if one side is clearly in the right, it can be defeated by a good message that counters the narrative just by its effective use of rhetoric. This is obvious. Messaging matters. It’s why the Biden administration is packaging its new “American Jobs Plan” as an infrastructure plan. While there are many infrastructure-related items in it, the bulk of the cost goes to things that historically have not been considered “infrastructure.” They are simply trying to change the definition of “infrastructure” to incorporate a bunch of other agenda items because infrastructure is something that tests well with both Democrats and Republicans.

It seems like forever ago, but think back to a time before COVID. The biggest scourge facing the Jewish community was a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. The major attacks at the end of 2019 resulted in the deaths of several people. There was a march against anti-Semitism across the Brooklyn Bridge. President Trump signed a law protecting Jews on college campuses. Once COVID began, we started dealing with a whole new crisis.

 We are now three months into the largest vaccination campaign in history, both on a national and global scale. And since we live in a time where we can’t seem to agree on anything – even how to rescue humanity from a global pandemic – there have predictably been a lot of opinions about how we should “deal” with those who choose to not get the COVID vaccine.

 Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing two major allegations that have the potential to be the catalysts to remove him from office. However, there is an obvious difference between how the two stories are being covered, and that difference will determine the future of New York State.