Are the Republican Party and Orthodox Jews drifting apart in Brooklyn ? — Leading Orthodox Republican sought out a Democrat Social Conservative, Erick Salgado, as his best mayoral choice for Orthodox community

Brooklyn Republican and Orthodox Jewish activist, Joseph Hayon has stated that   —  “...the Republican Party failed the Orthodox Jewish community ... [in allowing gay marriage to pass the New York State Senate] Dean Skelos has openly violated Republicans’ values which are also the values of the Orthodox Jewish community....”  

On a Youtube video introducing Erick Delgado to a group of Orthodox Rabbis in Brooklyn, Hayon gave the above quoted material as one of his reasons to support the socially conservative minister now running for mayor, Democrat Erick Salgado. The other main reason for Hayon’s seeking out Salgado as his candidate for mayor is the fact that every candidate seeking the GOP line for mayor were also supporters of gay marriage (See “Joseph Hayon: NY Republican Party Has Failed The Orthodox Jewish Community” posted by Jacob Kornbluh, 4/13/13 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Vt2FQpeEo]).

Hayon specifically rejects the expressed positions of Conservative leaders Mike Long and Gerard Kassar, who have maintained that mayoral candidates’ positions on social positions simply don’t matter.

When confronted with the points raised by RNC Chairman Reince Preibus that the Republican party had to be more open to gay rights and to become ethnically diverse, Hayon counters that certain members in the leadership of the Republican Party do not see diversity as a narrow slogan or a principle that would exclude social conservatives like Orthodox Jews. "Didn't both Preibus and Ed Cox visit the socially conservative pastor A.R. Bernard as part of their new move to be more diverse ?"

Hayon then points out that late in 2011 Republican State Chairman Edward Cox did much the same thing when he wrote an Op. Ed. in a prominent Jewish paper. Going to the link provided by Hayon showed that  Cox wrote, “If Democrats continue to assail Israel, promote social policy contrary to Jewish law and attempt to remake the socioeconomic system that allowed Jews to flourish here, Jewish Americans may well find a new home in the Republican Party.” ( See “Why Jews should vote Republican” by Ed Cox, 11/4-10/11, Jewish Tribune /Op. Ed., Long Island Jewish World  [http://www.nygop.org/page/9]). At that time, Cox made specific  note of  the ultra-conservative social teachings of Orthodox Judaism as follows: “Orthodox Jews, those who shape their lives around Jewish law and religious tradition, oppose the politically correct liberal positions on many social issues precisely because they conflict with Jewish law, which forbids homosexual relationships and permits abortion only to protect the life of the mother.”

Joseph Hayon adds this to what Cox said in 2011,  “Nothing has changed in the last two years in the Orthodox Jewish Community about any of what Chairman Cox said. If their has been any change at all, it’s with Republicans like Dean Skelos, who didn’t govern and continues not to govern with any interest in morality.”

Even though he is now openly supporting a Democratic candidate for mayor, Joseph Hayon has maintained his good but open-ended relations with NYS Republican Chairman Cox and Kings County GOP Leader Craig Eaton. In addition, Hayon points out that he obviously is not the only Republican or Conservative not supporting any of the Republicans now running for mayor. He again mentions State GOP Chairman Ed Cox, who even after candidates like enrolled Republicans Joseph Lhota and John Catsimatidis were openly campaigning for mayor, continued to openly court the noted social conservative, the Pastor A.R. Bernard, to run as a Republican candidate for mayor.

What would Hayon do if the Reverend Bernard entered the GOP Primary ?   “Easy, I would work for both of them, A.R. Bernard in the Republican Primary and Erick Salgado in the Democratic Primary.”