Rockland County, NY -The newly appointed Director of Jewish Outreach for New York State’s Republican party has resigned from his position after just eight days in office, calling himself a distraction to the party.
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“My appointment as Director of Jewish Outreach has been a distraction for the NYGOP. As such I am resigning my duties,” tweeted Yossi Gestetner at 2:19 this afternoon.
Less than five hours later, Gestetner’s blog, GestetnerUpdates.com gave a full account for his abrupt resignation, which included his concerns about New York State Senate republican majority leader Dean Skelos’ support of Democrat Simcha Felder in the upcoming November election for the “Super Jewish Senate Seat” and criticism of his sometimes controversial defense of Orthodoxy and Chasidic life.
According to a report by The Jewish Channel, Gestetner’s resignation came less than thirty minutes after Josh Rubin, a reporter for NY1, asked State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox about an investigation of Gestetner by The Jewish Channel, which conducted an hour long on-camera interview with Gestetner. During that interview, Gestetner discussed several issues that may put him at odds with both the Republican party and many of New York State’s 1.6 million Jewish residents, which include his being a spokesman at a fundraiser to benefit an alleged child molester, his controversial stance on referring suspected cases of child abuse to a rabbi before alerting the authorities, his views on government assistance programs and his work for Torah True Jews Against Zionism, an anti-Israel organization that states that Zionism is contrary to Torah Judaism.
Describing himself as someone who attempts “to give the Orthodox and Chasidic community a fair and balanced chance in the court of public opinion,” the outspoken Gestetner told VIN News that many things he has said have been distorted, taken out context and even been presented untruthfully, although he admits that he sometimes comes off as “strong and in your face.”
“Since the GOP decided to retain me one week ago, they have been subject to criticism and complaints about my appointment,” Gestetner told VIN News. “I didn’t come here to cause trouble. I came here to bring the GOP closer to the Jewish community, but if I am creating a problem, the responsible thing to do is to submit my resignation. I am not G-d’s gift to the universe that the GOP needs to be busy with me four hours a day.”
Gestetner was quick to point out that he was not suggesting that either Felder or Skelos were responsible for the negative campaign against him, but rather he suspects it was Skelos’ political aids who were hoping to remove him from office because he has publicly stated that he does not support Felder in the upcoming election.
Yossi ! You did the right move, the GOP senate will eat their own cake come november when all of us will vote the way we feel , not like some people will tell us what to do!
The problem I have with Felder is simple ! Beside of being a nice guy and making jokes he did not work on the major problems in our community.
I will hit on 3 major issues facing the community !
1) Jobs – and job training for our breadwinners when they come out of yeshiva
2) Affordable housing so we should be able to live in our community
3) Education – that is that we should have school vouchers
All this issues are older then 10 years and simcha did not do anything about this , he let our middle class community go down , of course he did a lot of good things in his district office and a lot of non profit org. But this money should be a side bonus not his accomplishments and the voucher he did bring were never school vouchers he brought the welfare and low income !
Last but not least ! Simcha quit on us when he got a better paying job ! Why should we hire him now back after he proved himself that he does noting on the major issues
If the story with yossi is true then we should all expose it
This is good news. I understand over 40,000 emails were written to protest his being appointed. It didn’t help he called blacks “schwartzes” on one of his blogs.
Seems like he gave lot of excuses and blamed others. Bad idea
Everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, right?
Don’t know him except for I’ve read on VIN but I am impressed by his eloquent communication and his intelligible comments. He also seems to recognize that he comes from a place that does not resonate particularly well with mainstream orthodox jewry. Let’s face it – his chassidishe outlook on many issues is considered extreme by other sects and so his representation as Director of Jewish Outreach for the state’s Republican party is not a balanced one. He made the right move.
Don’t worry yossi, one door closes another door opens, no one can take away your talent!
yossi
as a resident of rockland county I have had the pleasure of hearing you speak your true words of wisdom i honestly feel we lost a powerful voice of justice truth and honesty, its a true shame that a few people with there own agendas would go out of there way to quiet down shush up and close down every link we have to the outside media and the out side world instead of doing something to slow down and answer to the constant attacks that the jewish people are liable to as of late, from the new york post etc, they quiet down one of the only voices we still had,
yossi, all thats left to say is that you still have a strong support system behind you a solid fan base and chazak v’amatz keep up your great work !!!!!
I’ve heard the Republican Party is seeking to recruit Rav Yehuda Levin, shlita, as Yossi G’s replacement as liason to the heimeshe kehilla. He is more mainstream on economic and social issues than Gestetner, and his opposition to gay marriage under most circumstances aligns him with GOP policy.
So when it comes down to it, a bigot as mentioned above really does not get the satisfaction of a public job. Sounds about right to the best of us I think. Good luck in the next station in life!
The Democrats are laughing at the amateurs that are running the NY Republicans who have zero situational awareness and political savvy and continue to make same mistakes by associating with controversial clowns that only draw negativity.
Thank goodness they booted him. The GOP needs to understand who they should hire. Preferably, somebody who is educated, pays taxes, and is pro Israel.