UES And UWS Jews Are Different, Advocates Tell Redistricting Judge

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — As residents beg a judge not to merge the Upper East and Upper West sides into a single congressional district, one group has come up with a novel argument against the change: Jews on the East and West sides are too different from each other.

"While both the East Side and the West Side support synagogues and Jewish schools of national stature, East Side Jews can be clearly differentiated from West Side Jews," reads a letter sent Tuesday to Steuben County Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister by leaders of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

The letter is among hundreds of public comments sent to the judge, who on Friday will decide whether to accept the draft maps released earlier this week by court-designated special master Jonathan Cervas.

Among the many startling changes in Cervas' district lines was the merger of the Upper West and Upper East sides into a single 12th District, setting up an August primary election between veteran lawmakers Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler — and creating uncomfortable ties between Manhattanites who had long seen themselves as distinct from their neighbors across the park.

A sizable fraction of the comments submitted to the court thus far have focused on the proposed District 12 — including the Jewish Community Relations Council's letter, which argues that the East and West sides should be considered distinct "communities of interest" in need of their own representatives in Congress.

"Rarely do the East Side Jews belong to synagogues located on the West Side, or vice versa," wrote the group's president, Cheryl Fishbein, and CEO, Gideon Taylor. "To a great extent, seldom do Jewish parents on the West Side send their children to Jewish schools on the East Side or the other way around."

Religious differences aside, other residents have taken it upon themselves to condemn the proposed 12th District in more general terms.

"I live in Yorkville on the Upper East Side, and I frequently travel up and down Manhattan from East Harlem to the Lower East Side, because that's where the subways and buses go!" one Upper East Side woman wrote to the court on Wednesday.

"Only rarely do I cross the Park to the West Side, because there is no crosstown subway, and only a few, notoriously lame buses," she added.

Another woman living on Central Park West kept things short and direct in her correspondence with the judge.

"I am angry and appalled by the damage done to Jerry Nadler's district," she wrote. "My representation has been compromised."

Back on the Upper East Side, a woman called the decision to lump the two neighborhoods together "seriously wrong, disruptive, and insulting."

"These neighborhoods have nothing to do with each other. They are not even connected by subway. They have completely different personalities and concerns," she wrote. "I'm appalled that someone would think they should count as one district. They are practically rivals. As a voter from the UES, I object."

Many of the letter-writers may end up disappointed: Given that the court only has a few days to review the maps, many expect they will change little, if at all, before final approval on Friday, as City & State reported.

If the maps do hold, the Aug. 23 showdown between Nadler and Maloney would be set, as would other controversial elements of the new maps, such as the splitting of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn into two separate districts and the divvying up of several Hudson Valley cities that had previously been united.

Related coverage:

• UWS Merged With UES In New Congressional Map, Setting Up Primary Clash
• NY Congressional Redistricting Draft Maps Drop