Allan Appel Photo
Rabbi Eli Greer, High Holiday shofar, and candidate Kerekes.
Jeffrey Kerekes discovered his Jewish roots — the Jewish grassroots, that is, not his personal family lineage — as he took his post-primary mayoral campaign along with a traditional Rosh Hashanah apples and honey greeting to Tower One/Tower East.
Accompanied to the towers Tuesday by supporter Rabbi Eli Greer, who helped arrange the visit and himself came bearing the traditional shofar (or ram’s horn) to wake people up, Kerekes said the holiday, which marks the onset of the Jewish new year, “is about fresh beginnings, where we are, where we are going, what we do citywide at the polls in November.”
Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown Wednesday.
The towers are a Jewish-community-run though non-denominational senior living complex off Church Street South.
After a second-place finish behind John DeStefano in the Sept. 13 Democratic Party mayoral primary, Kerekes is aiming to reignite an independent candidacy for the November election, most recently by appealing to African-American voters at a press conference in Newhallville.
Asked if his Tuesday night appearance at the largely Jewish Tower One was part of a pattern of an evolving ethnic strategy, Kerekes demurred.
He said he had been to Tower One at least twice during the campaign and he was back visiting friends.
“I did well here with votes, lots of absentee ballots,” he said.
Asked what issue appeals to the Tower One voters, he said, “A lot of people feel it’s time for a change.”
Mayor DeStefano made an election campaign stop here, too, before the primary. Click here to read about that.
Harold Levitz wishes Kerekes “a shoyna tovah.”
The first hand Kerekes shook at the Towers Tuesday belonged to Harold Levitz, a nine-and-a-half-year resident, who offered him a new year’s greeting in rapid Yiddish-inflected Hebrew.
Kerekes joked he might be taking some Yiddish language courses next week.
It was dinner hour. When the several hundred elderly eaters paused, Kerekes was introduced by Rabbi Greer as a man who is, like the shofar, a “blast of truth.” He called Kerekes a man of integrity who is not part of “the old-time political machine.”
When Kerekes spoke, he employed no Yiddish or Hebrew, but instead his stump speech about taxes, crime, and educational failures. “Three things that have gone up after two decades need a moment of truth. They need a blast of truth,” he said.
Greer had contemplated demonstrating the blowing of the shofar, then decided against it. He did not want to surprise the eaters with a potentially choke-inducing “tekiyah,” as one of the several loud sounds of the shofar is called.
Instead Kerekes concluded with a wish for a “prosperous and sweet new year.”
Dimow with Greer.
Longtime Tower One resident and New Haven activist Joe Dimow in particular was upset that Kerekes and Greer took advantage, without sufficient notice, of what he termed a captive audience.
“Blast is a good word. You blast them with a message when they’re trapped,” he said.
Describing himself as Jewish but not religious, Dimow pointed out that many people at Tower One are not Jewish (although many are, and the complex is sponsored by Jewish organizations). In any event, such a campaign pitch wrapped in traditional holiday greeting had not occurred before, Dimow said. Certainly not without notice.
What did Dimow think of Mayor DeStefano’s appearance at Tower One to offer congrats on the “blessing” of Tower One’s new elevator?
“There was notification for that,” Dimow said.
As to the point that there were non-Jews among the listeners of the “blast of truth,” Greer pointed out to Dimow, “On Rosh Hashanah we pray [not just for Jews but] for the whole world.”
Sure, replied Dimow, but “if I come to dinner, I get a lecture! I object to delivering any kind of speech over dinner without written warning.”
The discussion ended in a handshake with Greer reminding Dimow that he and Kerekes had the official OK of Tower One staff to be there.
Harold Levitz said he hadn’t voted in many years for anyone and wasn’t intending to start now. Dimow said he was undecided, but the blast of truth inclined him more towards the incumbent.
Resident Terry Berger chimed in with a challenge to Dimow as she partook of Kerekes’ apples and honey: “You want DeStefano to come in again?”
“We have a secret ballot,” Dimow replied.
Kerekes seemed to have solidified support at least with Berger.
He said he intends to return several times more to Tower One before the Nov. 8 election.
There are many Jewish holidays between now and then.