Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Attends the Boro Park Jewish Community Council’s Ribbon Cutting

September 25, 2019

Mayor Bill de Blasio: I am so honored to be here with you. The only thing I’m upset about is you said to introduce to the community – I don’t think I need to be introduced to my own community.

[Applause]

So, almost 20 years ago I started to know this community of Borough Park and I very quickly fell in love with it and felt a deep sense of connection to the people of this community. And that has continued for 20 years now. And I am so appreciative because everything that I have done in public life, the Borough Park community was part of making it happen. So, I want you to know how much I always think about this community, how much I appreciate this community. And you know the point that was made earlier about [inaudible] and this community’s extraordinary devotion to each other, to charity, to making sure that everyone is taken care of is something very, very beautiful, something that was very moving to me from the beginning.

And I want to say to everyone here, this is a great thing to celebrate today. Everyone involved in the JCC, I want to congratulate you for what you have achieved. This is a very important moment for this community. This was a very small organization once and it has grown and grown with generation after generation adding to it, and now this incredible headquarters – it’s absolutely beautiful. Let’s congratulate everyone at the JCC for this moment.

[Applause]

And a thank you to all the elected officials who have supported this and who are here today. And, look, I just want to say one thing that’s important. The services that the JCC provides, there are people who need this help and this is the very best place to get it. And there are so many people who struggle to navigate all the challenges of life but when they walk into the Boro Park JCC everything becomes easy and the help is there and the friendship is there and the support is there.

And that is important for everyone but it’s very particularly important when it comes to those Holocaust survivors who we have to be there for every single day, who remind us by their presence of the power of faith and of the good in this world overcoming the bad. They also remind us that we have to be vigilant against anti-Semitism because it’s something we have to fight every single day in this city, in this country, all over the world.

[Applause]

And I commit to you always, this city will be there for the Jewish community. The NYPD – let’s thank the NYPD. They are always there for us.

[Applause]

So, this opening today is yet another reminder of the strength of the community, the resiliency of the community, a reminder that those who sought to crush this community, they were the great losers of history. They were the ones that were wrong and this community today is stronger than ever, and that’s something to be proud of.

[Applause]

And everyone, I want to wish you a blessed New Year full of your wishes coming true, a prosperous New Year, a safe New Year. Let this be a great New Year for this whole community, for this whole city. Shanah Tova to all.

[Applause]

I have to say one more thing. I have to give special credit because my schedule was very, very full today but I have a conscience, he’s my brother – my brother from another mother, we say. And Yitzchok Fleischer was the one who said, you got to get to our neighborhood right now. So, here I am.

[Applause]