Out of public eye, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota has been meeting with representatives of major Jewish organizations and community leaders of various Hasidic sects over the past few weeks.

Since press members were not let in to cover and the attendees were even more reluctant to speak on or off the record, YWN had found it difficult to report on those meetings, despite the fact that these leaders or heads of institutions represent a significant amount of the Orthodox Jewish electorate.

“As of now, how the polls look, there’s no chance we can publicly endorse Mr. Lhota,” one prominent Hasidic community leader in Williamsburg told YWN, as we waited outside a Lhota meeting with the Zali sect of Satmar at the offices of UJO, last week. “On Metzitzah B’peh [Lhota] is the best.”

Our source added, however, that the political wing of the community is waiting for Mr. de Blasio to clarify his position and return with a specific solution over the issue, before issuing a public endorsement.

“It was a great meeting. We had an open and frank discussion about the issues for the community. I’m looking forward to continue to work with everyone in the community,” Mr. Lhota told YWN as he emerged out of the hour-long meeting.

Mr. Lhota also met with the two sides of Bobov and the Rabbinical Council of Queens.

At a meeting with the Board of Trustees and members of Agudath Israel of America, on Monday, Mr. Lhota managed to impress attendees with his stance on the issue of Metztizah B’peh and his support of school-vouchers.

Michael Fragin, Mr. Lhota’s Jewish Liaison, told Nachum Segal on Wednesday night radio that the meeting with Agudah was off the record, but “let me just say, there was a lot of clapping.”

“@JoeLhota at #agudathisrael mtg says:”If I could create a school voucher, I would!”,” Yehiel M Kalish, Agudah’s national director of government affairs, tweeted.

@JoeLhota at #agudathisrael mtg says: “If I could create a school voucher, I would!” @ChaskelBennett @michaelfragin pic.twitter.com/G9nMlmGzDG

— Yehiel M Kalish (@ymkalish) October 10, 2013

“We asked if Jewish leaders would be permitted to have input in drafting the language of the information sheet conveying the Department of Health’s concerns,” Mr. Yerachmiel Simins, who was present at the meeting, told Yated Ne’eman newspaper.

“Mr. Lhota said he would be amenable to that. There is the sense that he’s sensitive to the needs of the religious community,” Simins added, “not only in relation to bris milah, but also educational issues such as school vouchers and other concerns.”

According to the paper, Mr. de Blasio declined to meet with delegates from the Jewish groups supporting the lawsuit, saying he was too busy to meet before the election.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)