Four Significant Jewish Elected Officials Take Local Office

Election Day 2025 ushered in four Jewish elected officials who run the gamut of both the Jewish community and local government.

An Orthodox Jew, Justin Brasch, was elected mayor of White Plains, the county seat of Westchester County. Brasch, 60, is a member of the Modern Orthodox synagogues Hebrew Institute of White Plains and the Young Israel of White Plains. Brasch is married and has three children. He attended Hunter College High School and Williams College, and studied at Oxford University during his junior year. He also graduated from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Probably the most significant election result for the Jewish community was that Julie Menin, 58, was chosen unanimously by her colleagues to be the first Jewish speaker of the 51-member New York City Council. This occurred at the same time that New York City voters chose Zohran Mamdani, 34, as mayor of the five boroughs. Menin is being touted as a counterbalance to Mamdani’s anti-Zionist agenda in the Big Apple. She is the fourth woman to be selected as speaker in the more than 200-year history of the lawmaking body.

“We live in a day with the first Muslim mayor of New York City and now the first Jewish speaker of the Council serving at the same time,” Menin said as part of her acceptance speech as speaker.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, offered a special take on Menin’s married name as he began his invocation. He described how the name also has a biological meaning: “In medical terms, the word ‘menin’ is a protein that suppresses disease,” he said. “We need more Menin to stop the spread of this disease of hatred of the other, whoever the other may be,” Potasnik said. “As Cardinal Dolan said to me recently, antisemitism is anti-Christianity, is anti-Islam, and you can reverse that equation any way you want.”

Menin is considered a centrist Democrat. Her City Council district encompasses the Upper East Side, East Harlem, Yorkville, Midtown East, Carnegie Hill, Sutton Place, Roosevelt Island, and the Lenox Hill neighborhoods of Manhattan.

She is the daughter of Holocaust survivors Agnes and Robert Jacobs. Her mother was a painter and her father a radiologist. Menin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Columbia University and received her Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law. She lived in the Watergate complex and was a resident at the time of the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s.

Upstate, in Albany County, two different towns elected Jewish candidates, one a veteran official and the other newly minted.

Adam Greenberg, 58, was reelected to a third full four-year term as a board member in the town of New Scotland. He is a private business owner and entrepreneur who operates Greenberg Construction and Farm. He is married with three grown children. As a secular Jew, he told The Jewish Press, he “does not affiliate with any congregation.”

As for his plans for the next four years, Greenberg said, “My eyes will be on the $8.5 million budget seeking economic resilience and affordability.”

He said, “There is a major barn that needs renovation along the rail trail that will be used as an event space once the makeover is complete.”

Another project he will be focused on regarding natural resources is water allocation to area towns. “I plan to move along some of the recommendations made in the town’s recently adopted Natural Resource Inventory, while also pursuing grant opportunities for a townwide water study. Linking multiple water systems for efficiency and cost-savings will be a priority for me,” he said.

In a four-person race in the town of 9,096 people, Greenberg was the top vote-getter, with 1,686 votes. “I view your votes as not just a reflection of your belief in me, but a testament to the job the New Scotland Town Board has done over the past few years, as well as a clear rejection of the chaos we’re witnessing at the federal level,” Greenberg said. “As I step forward with the responsibility you’ve entrusted to me, I want you to know that I will not cease working hard for the betterment of our town. I am honored to serve and am confident that we can continue to make New Scotland a place that reflects our shared values and our hopes for the future.”

Meanwhile, Colonie elected Joel Weingarten, 54, a healthcare provider, to the town board. Weingarten has worked as a registered nurse and as an infection preventionist. He said he has a data-driven approach, guided by his mantra “Prove your life,” emphasizing evidence-based decision-making in healthcare and beyond. His approach to leadership and service is rooted in accountability, integrity, and collaboration, he said.

At his swearing-in, Weingarten chose to use the Tanach as his Bible, held by his wife, Tammy, and son, Isaac, at his side. Jewish Assemblyman Phil Steck (D - Colonie) officiated at the swearing-in. Weingarten is the second Jewish male lawmaker to serve on the Colonie Town Board. A Jewish woman, Joan Friedman, was the first Jew to serve on the board.