Ami Magazine Feature Article on Jack Hidary

8/22/2019 Ami Magazine Feature Article on Jack Hidary

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BY YOssi KrauszwitH NesaNel gaNtz


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54 A M i M A g A z i n e / / J U L Y 3 1 , 2 0 1 3 / / 2 4 A V 5 7 7 3

he outside o 85Delancey Street, on the Lower East Side, looked less than impres-sive. A three-story grayish building, it looked like a good placeor a local business, maybe a small-time accountant or insurancebroker, to have ocesnot as the headquarters or the large-scale enterprise we had come to see: the campaign or the uturemayor o the most amous city in the world. Looking up at thesecond foor, where we were heading, we could see a collection orolled carpets in one window; apparently there was a carpet storesomewhere up there.

Inside the oyer, we ound an elevator in the style o old-timetenement New York, complete with foor buttons that slightlychinged when you ully depressed them and a door that openedand closed in the unsteady manner o a Bowery bum. The tightspace inside the elevator was a claustrophobes nightmare.

And then the door opened and surprisingly, we walked outinto a modern oce space, with an exposed ceiling, brushed steelxtures, neo-pop art and stylishly contemporary urniture. Ouramazement at the activity we ound matched our reaction to thedcor. Workers and volunteers rushed rom one modular ocespace to the next. A group coordinating signatures sat huddled ina corner room. And a number o advisors sat around a conerencetable in a center meeting room with the man wed come to see, Jack

Hidary, who recently entered the race or mayor o New York.The New York mayoral race has become something o a carni-

val sideshow this year, with scandals and over-the-top personali-ties dominating news cycles. But its also the rst election in yearswith a eeling o a choice. Michael Bloomberg won the last threeelections, and dominated the last two. With term limits rmlyback in place, Bloombergs no longer a contender, and the eld isopen again in a way it hasnt really been since Rudolph Giulianisrst term.

What makes Hidary most intriguing to the Jewish communityis the act that, although he is not the only Jew in this race, hes

probably the candidate with the closest ties to the Orthodox community o anyone whos ever run or mayor o New York. Buwhat does that mean? And can he win?

tHe teCH guYJack Hidary is lithe and neat and he gives o a sense o concen

trated energy. That energy led one o us to ask, as we entered thconerence room, how much caeine hed had that morning.

I only once had caeine in my lie, he told us, and it was bmistake. I love chocolate-covered raisins. One day, or a holidagit, I got what I thought was chocolate-covered raisins. I starteeating them and my brother said, Stop eating that, Jack! Thatchocolate-covered espresso beans! And I didnt sleep or 72 hours

So the energy, it seems, is all natural.Hes expended that energy in his business dealings; that muc

is clear. A major player in everything rom inormation tech tenergy-ecient cars to Googles prize or the rst private company to send a robot to the moon, Hidary hasnt been sitting quetly. And though hes riendly enough that we elt easy asking himabout his caeine intake, hes also a hard-dealing executive.

Think o a Syrian Jewish businessman, and you may imagin

a real estate tycoon or a retail entrepreneur. Jack Hidary, thoughwhose amily is a mainstay o the Brooklyn and Deal SyrianSephardi communities, ollowed less o a stereotypical careepath. But like most o his communitys youth, born and raised iBrooklyn, he started inyeshivah.

I went to Yeshiva o Flatbush or K through 12, Hidary tolus, ater we settled around the conerence table. I elt that wanted to deepen my studies beyond that, so I did one year a

Yeshiva University ater that; I was a Max Stern Scholar there.As you know, Yeshiva o Flatbush is a great schoola ver

rigorous and intense school. And I also decided to do extra learning, so we had a special series oshiurim in my own communitat a beit midrash at 6 a.m. I would go there and learn with m

cousinswho are all our to ve years older than me. Then thewould drive me to high school.

His rst oray into business, he told us, laughing, came in hiown community.

Actually, my very rst business was selling sefarim in higschool ater Motzaei Shabbat. I set up my table in a strategic postion. As you were leaving beit knesset, I was positioned there anyou could buy some books. I would take orders then. And would deliver it and collect payment later.

But he ound another eld that interested him early on: computers.


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I was a real geek growing up. I loved computers. I got my rstcomputer, an IBM XT, and had an email address as o about 1981or 1982. At that time, I dont think there were more than a ewhundred thousand people on the Internet.

I went to camp in Skokie, Illinois, at the Hebrew TheologicalSeminary Camp. Its not really a camp. We learned Gemara hal

the day. Rabbi Chaim Twersky was our rosh yeshivah or the camp.We learned Gemara rom about 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. We had a lunchbreak and then we did computer science. At 5:30 p.m. wed takea sotball break or 30 minutes, so we could call it a camp. Weenjoyed it very much. It was great.

The summer o my junior year, I went to Columbia Universityto study computer science and I ell in love with Columbia andcomputers and the whole thing. Ater my year o Judaic studies inYU, I went to Columbiaor our years.

I got my ellowship inneuroscience. Since Ivebeen a kid I was alwaysinterested in the brainhow it works, etc. Thebrain is one o the mostamazing things youllever see in the worldbecause its an organ withabout 100 billion neu-rons. Its just an amazingorgan which has so manyoperations. So I decidedto study the brain, andI got this ellowship to

study brain scanningimaging.

We have a new tech-nology called unctionalMRI, which is more than just a picture like a CT scan; its actuallylike a movie o the brain. You put someone in and say, Move yournger, and you can see which part o the brain makes the ngermove. Thats used or studying strokes now and other things likethat.

Hidary moved airly quickly rom the geekiness o tech to busi-ness applications.

So I did our years there. Then I had the basic idea or myrst company, which was very simple: Techies were like cobblers

children, who have no shoes. They were building stu or banks,insurance companies, architecture, e-commerce and everyoneelse, but no ones building stu or techies. So I decided to builda company dedicated to the needs o techies. That became Earth-

Web. That was my rst company.EarthWeb provided Internet support systems or tech pro-

essionals. Soon aterward, Hidary, at the head o EarthWeb,acquired Dice.com, a tech job website. He took the companypublic and the combined company eventually became one o theastest growing IT companies.

Hidary has been heavily involved in clean-transportation issues

since then. He worked on clean-car initiatives across the countrincluding in New York City, which led to an increase in highgasmileage vehicles used as taxis.

He described that experience: In 2005, I realized the taxi drivers were having a hard time because they have to pay or expensive gas. And they were orced by the law in New York City t

buy Crown Victoriaswhich get 11 miles a gallon. I championea new program with David Yasskywho was a councilman athat timewhich we got passed 50-0 by the city council to allowmany kinds o taxis, including high-mpg cars. Its better or aiconditions in New York City, and also its better or the taxi drivers. It actually aects all New Yorkers because i drivers didnt gethe ability to use those cars, taxi rates would go up. I championethat as a private citizen. We got it passed. And its been a very suc

cessul program or envronment and energy.

He was a co-architeco the national Cash oClunkers program i2009, which took lowgas-mileage cars o thstreets and gave peoplmoney to buy new cars.

He also sits on thboard o trustees o thX Prize, which rewardhigh-stakes inventiowith a cash prize and wainvolved in the development o the AutomotivX Prize, which gave

cash prize to teams thadeveloped commerciallviable 100-mpg cars.

Hes also worked iother areas that he considers public service, like micronanceThats where low-income individuals who want to start a business and cant get loans rom banks because banks are lookinor credit history. Its a catch-22. They cant get the loan to starthe business and cant start the business to get the credit history.worked a lot with an organization called Trickle Up and anotheorganization called Accion. Both these organizations are involvein micro-undinggiving grants and loans to these individuals thelp them start their companies.

During the interview, Hidary pointed to both his businesexperiences and his experiences with public service to show thahed do well in City Hall.

Guess what, he said in response to a question about his experience. Bloomberg didnt have one day o political experience thday he became Mayor. Not one.

Jew fOr maYOrDespite hisyeshivah background, Jack Hidary describes himse

merely as a cultural Jew.I identiy very much with the culture and history o Judaism.

Jack Hidary with campaign staffers


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think its antastic. Im very proud o that.Still, he maintains strong connections to the Jewish commu-

nity. I live in Manhattan, where Im aliated with the SaraSynagogue. My amily is mostly in Flatbush, on Avenue S. Wereconnected to a number o synagogues, including the SephardicSynagogue, Shaarei Zion and others. His brother is a rabbi at

Shearith Israel synagogue in Manhattan.The Sephardic community has grown tremendously in terms

o numbersthe amilies are very large. My own amily is prob-ably now in excess o 450 people. The amily is also prolic inits activities. I dont think theres a school in the community thatdoesnt have one o our amily membersHidary or Beydainvolved on the board, active, or president o the school

Gladys Kassen, my cousin, is now president o the SephardicCenter. Thats on the Beyda side. On the Hidary side, the presi-dent o the mikveh is my uncle. My uncle is one o the pillarso Mir Yeshiva. And o course, in our own schools, Yeshiva oFlatbush, Magen David were very activeJack I. Hidary, Jack A.Hidary, Bernie Hidary

We asked him whether he saw his connections to the Jewishcommunity as positive or him in the race.

I think its a positive. I dont think its a negative. The beautyo New York City is that people are proud o whatever culturetheyre in and they want you to be proud o your culture.

I just spoke to the Malian community. Theyre proud o theirculture and they like the act that Im proud o my culture. I toldthem about our community center on Ocean Parkway and Ave.S, and they said, We want a center like that! Yes, its a Jewishcenter, but it transcends that because every community wantsthe same thing. They want amilies coming togetherLook at

the Latino community. They have parades all the time. Theyrmulti-generational. They want community centers to bring theamilies together.

The rst year o my lie, we lived in my grandmothers houseWe lived in a two-story house on Ocean Parkway, with my uncand aunt on top and us on the bottom. Look at Latino culture

Its very similar to that. Each o these communities is very stronand proud o its heritage and they want you to be proud o youheritage as well. I think thats a huge positive. What people dnot want is bland vanilla blah, blah, blah. They want somethinstrong and passionate because it takes passion to run New YorCity. It takes re in the belly.

I think a religious background is a positive. I think peoplhave a sense o tradition, a sense o history, a sense o belonging, sense o accounting, a sense o accountability. Its clear that there


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a crisis o integrity in this election now. I think having the amily-oriented, tradi-tional background I have is a positive.

On a practical level, the number o Jewish issues we were able to pin himdown on was ew. He didnt yet have a position on metzitzah bpeh. His positionon same-gender marriage was supportive, though he pointed out that he saw noviable candidate who opposed it, in any case.

One position he did take with regards to the community was one that no othercandidate has taken: As part o a larger educational agenda, hes willing to pushorward school vouchers.

Im the only candidate who is in avor o vouchers, which I support withthe provision that schools that get vouchers need to hire union teachers. Why?Because thats the only way to get vouchers done. Voucher without that proviso ispie in the sky. But i you go to the UFT [United Federation o Teachers] and sayyou can have 25,000 more active teachers right now, o course they would want it.Its a practical way to get it done; plus youll get qualied, trained, state-certiedteachers inyeshivot.

Theres something called PDProessional Development or Teachers. Thatcosts between $2,000 to $5,000 per teacher. So I want to invest a lot o moneyinto these UFT teachers so they have the skills they need or the uture. Now wecan deliver these great, trained teachers to theyeshivot as well.

Its good or the UFT, its good or theyeshivot. And the parents get a voucher othousands o dollars that will greatly reduce the burden.

Hidary also said that he would advocate or tax breaks or private education.Though he is not married and has no kids (Were working on that, he told us),he said that he understands the stress o providing tuition.

I personally experienced seeing my brotherswho each have our kidsandothers around me trying to support a amily and send many kids toyeshivah. Itsa huge burden.

Hes been making the rounds o the various Jewish communities in recentweeks. Its clear that, whatever policies he chooses, Hidary at least understandswhere thefrum community is coming rom. Ater enduring recent battles with

Mayor Bloomberg and absorbing some o his less sensitive comments aboutOrthodox Jews, a mayor who has some sympathy or them may be a draw ormanyfrum voters.

CaN He wiN?Part o the hubbub going on in the campaign oces was sta overseeing the

street petitioning to get Hidarys name on the ballot. Running as an independent,he wasnt acing a primary challenge. But it still seemed like he was acing some

juggernauts with a small sta.We spoke or a ew minutes about his strategy.We have a lot o ways o reaching people that we didnt have our years ago.

Twelve years ago, when Bloomberg ran, he had to send a video cassette to everyhome in New York City. We dont have to do that anymore. We have the ability to

reach out and connect with millions o voters very eciently.The other campaigns you see going with 1,000 volunteers running around,

knocking randomly at peoples doors, bothering them at dinnerwere not doingthat. Were reaching people ar more ecientlywhen theyre interested inresearching the issues, when they go online to read about the issues, thats wherewere with them. This is a ar more targeted and ecient approach.

Were starting at the right time. This is the right time or us to enter. Its thetime we can come in and make a very big splash. People have already seen all theother candidates. And thats why we made such a big splash. Why were we in TheNew York Times, the Daily News, on TV, online, everywhere? Because its excitingor people to have a new choice.


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But, we insisted, isnt name recognition everything? Candi-dates with ugly personal records were doing well in their citywideraces, apparently because voters knew them. How was he goingto break into the pack?

Because o my team o experts Ill get name recognition. JoeTrippi is amous or bringing the Internet to politics. Wed metTrippi, a amed Democratic consultant, while we were waiting

or the interview with Hidary to begin. Trippi seemed almost shy,apparently more candidate-promoting than sel-promoting.

Hes the rst one to have done that, Hidary said, and hesdone it many times since. He ran the Howard Dean campaign inthe 2008 election [whichhad great momentumuntil Deans inamousrant].

Then I used my techexperience to the peoplein our voter le individu-ally. We have direct waysto reach them as individ-uals. I can use the Inter-net to get my message tothem. This way o reach-ing millions o peoplewithin weeks means wellget that name out there.

Obviously well alsodo TV. Joe Trippi is anexpert. What he did withJerry Brown was amaz-ing. He used new tech-niques or his TV spots.

One thing that sepa-rates me rom my com-petition is that I broughton a world-class team tohelp me with my cam-paign and to help run thecity. Thats what marksa CEOsomeone whorecognizes the best teamand wants them onboardto really help matters."

In other words: Iadmit I dont know

everything, but Ill nd the right people who do, one o us com-mented.

Bingo!Hidary explained that hes playing a long game.This eective way will get us very high name recognition, cer-

tainly by October 4. And three-quarters o New Yorkers maketheir decisions by October 15. So thats when it really comesdown to tachlis. By then well have high name identication. Weare guaranteed a slot on November 5.

The press is very intrigued by my candidacy. Why? Why isCNBC and all these big outlets interested? Because people have

been looking or a choice.The choice will be super-clear. On November 5, youll hav

two candidates who want to go back to machine, party politicsThe last time we had that was in the 70s, when we basically haDetroit. Detroit today is a cautionary tale. Youll have these candidates who want to take us back. Or us. We will be there withgreat campaign, massive name ID, engaged with the voters.

Partially, Hidary is hoping or the primary ght to weaken whoever emerges.

The Democrats will go down rom seven candidates to oneTheyll have a bruising, battering primary process. Ater th

primary theyll have runo. By the time someone gets out there theyhave only one montto run in the generacampaign. The Republicans will go througthe same process. Anwell be down to a handul o candidates. At thapoint, it will be a verclear choice betweetwo or three candidatesNew Yorkers will havto choose. My name wibe in all the articles. Thpress will want to examine all the ew remainincandidates and presenthose choices to the city

And at that time well se

what happens.Whether his choice o

campaign issues is stronenough is debatable. Heocusing on three elements: education, community and economidevelopment. Hes planning to oster start-upin the outer boroughby setting up incubatounds and other nancial assistance, some o

which can be done directly through the mayors oce. Thoskind o projects may attract some people; its hard to know howmany, though.

One major actor in Hidarys avor has only recently becomdiscussed as a campaign issue: New York Citys coming $2 billiodecit. Most o the candidates have proposed budgets that woulworsen that. Hidary claims that he can get away without that.

Machine politics means increased decitbecause theyvalready promised commitments to the special interests anhigher taxes. And by the way were already almost at the capTheres only $200 million let o additional taxes one could raise

(L to R) Yossi Krausz, Jack Hidary, Nesanel Gantz


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Were almost at the ceiling. And that means theyll haveto lower services. Theyll have to cut cops, teachers,remen, hospitals, all the citys services. Voters canchoose going back to that type o machine politics thatdoesnt work. I think thats a stark choice. And weregoing to lay that case out over the coming months.

I have to make sure we have the money in the

budget. New York City has a $72 billion budget. Wealready have $105 billion o debt today. We pay $4.6billion in debt service. I we start racking up decits o$8-10 billion, which is the program o the other can-didates running, then we will need more debt servicebecause S & P will lower our credit rating and therellbe more interest payments.

That theme is one that he can use well with singleissues, like crime. When we asked him how hed avoidtaking the city back to the dark days o the crime-rid-den 70s, he invoked the citys scal situation.

In the 70s, we didnt have enough money to payor cops.

The number-one barometer o how were doing oncrime is i we have enough cops. We wont have enoughcops i we ollow the policies o the other candidates.The other candidates want to spend $8-9 billion dol-lars on various special interests they have ties to. Thatmeans less money or cops. Thats why Im running asan independent.

We already had to decrease rom 40,000 cops to34,000 cops because o the nancial crisis o the pastve to six years. Thats partly why stop-and-risk wentupbecause there are ewer cops on the street. Whenwe had 40,000 cops we had a lot o community polic-

ing. In my own community, we had a lot o liaisons tothe police. They engaged with us. Now that there areewer cops its more dicult. You cant spread them outas much and they need to use other tactics.

Challenging the other candidates on the scal crisismay indeed be Hidarys best game plan.

Our biggest challenge in this campaign is not theother candidates. Our biggest challenge is that we reallywant the voting public to become aware o the impend-ing scal crisis that we have and services that will becut. I people realize that, we win. I people dont, itmay not happen. Thats the crux o this campaign. Ourmission is to share these concerns with NYC residents.

As we ended the interview, his sta was hurryinghim out the door to an appointment. As he says, he stillhas a ew months time to get in ront o New Yorkers.But to beat the press or the party candidates, hell haveto get hustling.

For the frum community, choosing Hidary mayinvolve a dierent calculation than the rest o the city.Would it, ater the Bloomberg years, be a good idea toget someone in the oce o mayor who knows us welland respects the community? And do we think JackHidary can win?

Ami Magazine Feature Article on Jack Hidary

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