Introduction

Thank you.

I’m honored to be here at the Bronfman Center speaking to NYU’s Hillel. I want to thank Cindy Greenberg, director of the Center, for making today possible.

Part of what has animated me through this campaign is that I, like many Democrats, feel frustrated that we have lost three consecutive campaigns for mayor.

Part of the problem is that we’ve been too locked into the orthodoxy of the oppositionalism. Just because the Republicans say something, we swing into, “not now, not ever” mode.

More troubling is that we haven’t been creative in the ways we solve problems.

As recent polls have shown, voters aren’t yet tuned into this election. It is incumbent on us to ensure that when they do, they find a Democratic party that gets it.

I’m proud that I have won the issues primary. The New York Times called me the aggressive wonk of the campaign, and I have released a book of more than 40 ideas, entitled “Real Solutions” which you can find on my website, www.anthonyweiner.com.

But today I want to talk about something that is primarily a Democratic idea: how City Hall can work with the faith community.

Working with the Faith Community

Let me make clear that when President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress refer to faith-based initiatives, he means something very different from what I’m talking about.

Republicans preach the politics of faith, but practice the politics of division. They claim to be the champions of family values, but they have abandoned the spirit of giving that animates the faithful of all religions. Faith should never be used to divide an electorate or play a political game.

I serve on the Judiciary Committee, and I’ve seen Republicans use references to faith to hide their true motivation: to proselytize. Just recently, my colleague John Hostettler got up on the House floor to excoriate Democrats for waging a "long war on Christianity in America" and of "denigrating and demonizing Christians."

I was among those on the Committee who made clear that no federal funds should be used by organizations to discriminate against people of other religions and backgrounds. Even the President’s own director of faith-based initiatives, John DiIulio, quit in frustration when he saw the Bush administration’s true motives.

When I talk about working with the religious community, I talk about the many programs that, frankly, the charitable sector has learned to do much better than we in government have done. And in my administration, we are going to embrace cooperative efforts between City Hall and charitable organizations.

Programs to Build On

Today, if you go to the Bronx you will find a miraculous program called Bronx Health REACH, run by the Institute for Urban Family Health. A few years ago, the Institute received a federal grant to set up a program to address the increased incidence of heart disease and diabetes in communities of color. Using their grant, they have set up Bronx Health REACH, which coordinates the work of 14 churches, lead by the Cosmopolitan Church of Lord Jesus, NYU, healthcare organizations, and housing companies to educate resident in the community about how to stay health and find treatment.

That is exactly the sort of program that the City of New York should be doing more to promote. Bronx Health REACH uses public dollars much more effectively than any government institution could do on its own – because it works through churches which stand as the back bone of the community.

Elsewhere, some of City’s religious institutions are at the forefront of efforts to find innovative ways to take care of the frail elderly. PACE – Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly – offer comprehensive care to old people who would otherwise be forced to live in institutional settings. With significant costs savings from life in a nursing home, our aging parents can get health care, therapy, medicine, transportation, and other services while still living at home.

But the religious institutions setting PACEs up throughout the City are burdened by bureaucratic red tape. They have to get waivers from multiple agencies. They cannot find real estate that can accommodate the programming they provide. They cannot get word out to the families that might take advantage of the program. That needs to change, and it will when I am mayor.

When I worked for Chuck Schumer, we established the Nehemiah Housing Opportunity Grant Prrogam, which provided modest federal and state subsidies to a variety of East Brooklyn churches to build low income housing for the working poor. The grants were inspired by the story of Nehemiah, who as the governor of Judea, rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, and instituted social reforms to serve the poor. But eventually Republicans, eager to cut funding for the poor, were successful in killing the program. Government should expand this type of initiative.

Finally, as I said at a town hall I convened yesterday in Forest Hills, it is time we re-double our efforts to secure yeshivas and other Jewish institutions in New York. It was just a few years ago that the FBI warned that Jewish schools might be the target of a terrorist attack using tanker trucks. And in light of the horrors this last month in London and Egypt, we must do more to ensure that religious institutions have the protection they need.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler and I worked hard to secure more than $6 million dollars in the federal budget for New York City non-profits, including yeshivas and synagogues. But we can do more. Yeshivas can’t use the funding to pay for security guards. That should be changed. Hundred if not thousands of dollars for applicant organizations have to spend doing vulnerability assessments before Albany will provide funding. Those costs should be borne, in part, by the government.

These are all examples of creative solutions that haven’t lead to bigger government, but have lead to better service. We should build upon all of them.

Proactively Reaching Out

It’s not enough for us to sit on the sidelines. We need to be active partners.

Recently, the Catholic Diocese announced that it was going to have to close 26 Catholic elementary and middles schools in Brooklyn and Queens. Up to 7,000 children were going to have to find new schools for the fall – many of whom will be forced into our already overcrowded public schools.

City Hall, far from seeing this as a crisis, indicated that they welcomed the closures. They hoped that they would be able to buy the school buildings at basement prices for the Department of Education.

In my administration, City Hall will approach Catholic school closures differently. I will bring the City’s religious leaders, philanthropic beacons, business executives, and academic experts together to save our Catholic schools – institutions which have provided a hand up to generations of New Yorkers. More should be done to forestall another round of closures.

Next, it is also time that we address the housing crisis afflicting some of the Orthodox communities living in Brooklyn. Today, housing prices are astronomical, and it’s becoming nearly impossible for big families to find housing that can comfortably accommodate a gaggle of growing children. The City is doing very little to respond.

When I am mayor, I will reach out aggressively to work with leaders of the Jewish community to find ways to spur developers to build apartments that can accommodate large households. I will look into zoning regulations and tax incentives that ensure that growing religious communities can afford to live the five boroughs.

Finally, we should look at the issue of hunger as an example of what is happening in New York, and how it can be improved. Last year, 500,000 children in New York went to a soup kitchen for a meal. Food pantries are run out of church basements in all five boroughs. The Full Gospel Assembly, in Crown Heights, for example, not only feeds the hungry, but hosts job fairs, and provides child care, and offers scholarships to residents of central Brooklyn.

Organizations like the Full Gospel Choir deserve to have partners in City Hall ready and willing to work on their behalf. In my administration, I will set up a non-profit “czar” that will reach out to faith-based organizations and help them to navigate through the red tape that so often confronts those trying to do work with the City. I will not allow groups working with the City to use public dollars to proselytize, but I also refuse to stand in the way of good-faith efforts to feed hungry children.

Conclusion

Throughout this campaign, I’ve tried to argue that the Democratic party needs to do things slightly differently. But we must never forget that what makes us Democrats is that we fundamentally believe in Tikkun Olam. Whether you are of the Jewish faith like I am, or you belong to another religion, you share in the belief that those who have a little more, should do a little more.
And we are not doing everything that we can.

If we can do more to serve the poor, the needy, the hungry, homeless and sick by partnering with the organizations throughout the five boroughs that share our mission, we should join hands for the greater good.

At the end of my eight years as mayor of this City, we will have delivered more services, more efficiently, to the New Yorkers who need us most.

And it will have been a mitzvah.

Thank you for your attention.