Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs
The
video, John Lindsay's
Re-election and Getting the Jewish Vote, documents Mayor
Lindsay’s uphill climb in his 1969 reelection campaign after losing the
Republican primary to State Senator John Marchi, forcing him to run with the
backing of only the Liberal Party. The Democratic Party nominee Comptroller
Mario Procaccino failed to attract broad Democratic support because of his
conservative views and verbal gaffes, but Lindsay desperately needed support
from Jewish voters to win.
Israeli
Prime Minister Golda Meir's trip to the U.S. in September proved the right
opportunity for Lindsay to regain his standing with the Jewish community in
Brooklyn and Queens. In this video, Jay Kriegel, Lindsay Chief of Staff, and Sid
Davidoff, Mayoral Assistant, recount how the city came to build a sukkah, a
structure of branches and leaves which Jews traditionally eat in during the
harvest festival Sukkoth, in the Brooklyn Museum parking lot as the site for a
formal dinner in Meir's honor. This event captured the city's attention and
helped Lindsay win reelection.
The
sukkah and the Meir visit helped Lindsay increase his support among liberal Jews
who could not pull the lever for Procaccino. In the general election, Lindsay
and Procaccino split the Jewish vote with Lindsay getting support from more
liberal, better educated, and affluent Jews and Procaccino doing better among
working and lower middle class Jews in the outer
boroughs.
