Taking the stage at the Park Slope Armory YMCA, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio was cheered, among others, by many supporters and ‘machers’ of the Jewish community.

As a matter of fact, they all took credit for his victory.

“He won his home town of Park Slope, Borough Park and Kensington and has mentioned publicly many times that he would not have been elected without the support of the Jewish community,” Yeruchem Silber told a local blog.

“Bill de Blasio’s election is, in many ways, a victory for the Jewish community in general and a homecoming for the Borough Park community which is part of the geographic area which he represented in the City Council,” Ezra Friedlander, CEO of The Friedlander Group, was quoted. “The fact that the mayor of New York City is very well versed with all our issues and well acquainted with so many leaders and average citizens means that a briefing paper and meetings to explain what our needs are will be unnecessary, a fact that is of immeasurable value and importance to our community.”

Another blog post written by a close aide to Rabbi Moshe Dovid Neiderman, a leader of of the Zalis sect, claimed the Zalis (early supporters of Bill Thompson) are the largest solid bloc vote and the only ones in the Orthodox community delivering a resounding victory for “Bil deBalsio” (aka Bill de Blasio). “On Tuedsay (Tuesday – jk), of all the Orthodox neighborhoods, Mr. de Blasio had the best showing by far in Williamsburg’s Hasidic areas,” he declared.

Rabbi Yitzchok Fleischer, the founder and executive director of Bikur Cholim D’Bobov and a well known friend of de Blasio’s, expressed delight at the election results, telling Times of Israel, de Blasio had “helped us [the Bobov sect] out, and I think he will continue doing whatever he can for us according to the law.”

Fleischer noted that it was de Blasio, as the Bobov community’s local councilman from 2002-2009, “that originally got the [yeshiva] vouchers for us.”

But while Mr. de Blasio won the overall Jewish vote, he did not receive the overwhelming support of the Orthodox Jewish community. “The Jewish vote in particular tells a “tale of two cities,” David Pollock, director of government relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, told The Jerusalem Post.

In the NY Times definition of Borough Park – the largest gathering of Orthodox Jewish voters – Mr. Lhota edged out Mr. de Blasio by 3 points (49-46), the smallest margin of victory for a Republican candidate in the past two decades.

One may rather look to Mr. de Blasio’s Jewish aides – Avi Fink and Pinny Ringel – and philanthropist Ari Noe as the real winners of Mr. de Blasio’s victory. They were not seen in all of the picture, but were standing at his side from the very beginning when Mr. de Blasio was considered a long shot candidate. “As de Blasio said last night, he appreciates the votes from the Jewish community,” Mr. Noe, who is also a close friend of the mayor-elect, told a local blog.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)