Weiner Says He Would Increase Ties With Religious Groups

Chastising Democrats for failing to build relationships with religious groups, Anthony D. Weiner, a Democratic candidate for mayor, said yesterday that if elected he would increase the role of "faith-based" organizations in providing city services.

Mr. Weiner said Democrats should unabashedly use the term closely associated with President Bush and Republicans in Congress, who he said had used the debate over religious values in government to divide the country.

"Instead of recoiling from this word simply because President Bush has co-opted it and bastardized the term, we should seize the opportunity when it presents itself," Mr. Weiner said at a speech at the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University.

Mr. Weiner, a congressman who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, including heavily Jewish areas, said he would push for several measures to tie the city more closely to religious groups, including one to create a "nonprofit czar" to coordinate the work of religious institutions and nonprofit organizations in combating poverty, drug abuse, hunger and homelessness.

Mr. Weiner advocated changes in zoning regulations and tax incentives to make housing more affordable for large families, singling out Orthodox Jews, an important constituency for his campaign, as an example. Mr. Weiner reiterated a proposal made over the weekend to expand security at yeshivas, suggesting that installing cameras in them and increasing police patrols might help thwart terrorist attacks on them.

He said the city should play a greater role in supporting and coordinating the work of church-based groups that supply health care for the elderly and the poor. And he criticized Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for what he considered a lackluster effort to support families whose children were affected by the announced closing of 26 Roman Catholic schools in the city earlier this year.

"If General Electric or a major company said we are going to move and take hundreds of thousands of jobs, they would move heaven and earth to try to get them to stay," Mr. Weiner said. "Frankly, the city didn't lift a finger to try to preserve these institutions, and they arguably are much more important."

Mr. Weiner did not detail costs for his plan or indicate where the money for such things as the nonprofit czar would come from. Aides later said the work religious groups did would offset additional costs and might ultimately save the city money.

Still, he is the only candidate to announce a focused policy advocating closer ties between the city and religious institutions, though his opponents suggested he was promoting words over deeds.

Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg's re-election campaign, said the city already had an active relationship with faith-based organizations.

"From affordable housing to senior centers to schools to school nurses, Mike Bloomberg has already opened dozens of new partnerships with faith-based groups across New York City, with many more on the way in the second term," Mr. Loeser said in a statement. It listed 18 examples in which the city and organizations affiliated with churches or religious groups formed partnerships to develop housing and schools.

Mr. Weiner voted against legislation a few years ago that would have increased the role of faith-based organizations in federal programs because Republicans refused to remove a clause that barred the organizations from proselytizing or practicing religious or sexual orientation discrimination.

At a mayoral forum yesterday at the Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, two of the four Democrats - Mr. Weiner and the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller - were no-shows.

Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, showed up, but left early, as did Mr. Weiner's and Mr. Miller's representatives. By the end of the hourlong forum, sponsored by the center's Golden Age Club, the only candidate left was C. Virginia Fields, the Manhattan borough president, who called for more affordable housing and expanded services for the elderly.

Barbara Gilbert, at 68 one of the club's younger members, was disappointed. "I was interested in Weiner, but he wasn't here to answer questions," she said. "He lost half of a vote."

Manny Fernandez contributed reporting for this article.