New York City Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Joel Eisdorfer, a hassidic (ultra Orthodox) Jew and political activist, to serve as his senior advisor. A member of the mayor's administration confirmed the appointment to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday evening.
Eisdorfer is the first hassidic Jewish senior advisor to Mayor Adams and the first hassidic Jew to be appointed to the position of advisor to City Hall.
“I am so proud to serve as senior advisor to Mayor Adams, helping to advise the mayor on Jewish affairs and small business recovery efforts," Eisdorfer said. "Mayor Adams has said that he’s building a team that looks like the city it serves – and I am committed to working with him and the entire administration to Get Stuff Done.”
Eisdorfer, a Borough Park resident, previously served as a board member on the Borough Park Jewish Community Council, served on Brooklyn’s Community Board 12 for nearly two decades, was a community liaison at the New York State Senate for over seven years, and was a member of then-Borough President Adams’ senior staff, Israeli news source Hamodia reported.
Eisdorfer is the third Orthodox Jew appointed to the Adams administration’s senior staff, including Menashe Shapiro as deputy chief of staff and Fred Kreizman as Commissioner of the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit.
Adams has long had a strong base of support within New York City’s Orthodox Jewish communities. In the crowded primary, Adams was a favorite of Orthodox groups in Brooklyn, along with Andrew Yang. Though he did not win a majority of the vote in heavily hassidic Borough Park in the November general election, Adams mentioned that community in his victory speech.
“It doesn’t matter if you are in Borough Park in the hassidic community, if you’re in Flatbush in the Korean community, if you’re in Sunset Park in the Chinese community, if you’re in Rockaway, if you’re out in Queens in the Dominican community, Washington Heights – all of you have the power to fuel us,” Adams said in his speech the night of the election.