At a Seneca Club Dinner, the Kosher Table Pines for Hillary

Brooklyn’s Hasidic community was well represented last night at the Polonaise Terrace in Greenpoint, where the Seneca Club – the borough’s oldest Democratic organization — held its 109th annual dinner dance. During an awards ceremony, I sat at the kosher table and talked to some of the attendees about presidential politics.

“It’s sad that Hillary’s not in the race anymore,” said Simcha Eichenstein, the associate director of political and governmental services at The Friedlander Group. “She was the best remaining candidate of the final three. But when it comes to our issues, Obama could be very good.”

He went on to list Obama’s presidential qualities and the liberal policies that Eichenstein said put Obama in line with Democrats in Hasidic community, pausing only briefly to express a familiar reservation: “He could have more of a stance on Israel.”

“I wish I could vote for Hillary,” he concluded.

Another Hasidic attendee, who didn’t want to be named, said, “As Democrats, we now have to be unified behind the Democratic candidate, but it’s not so good because [Clinton] is a senator from our neighborhood. We felt that she had a better understanding of our needs.”

Better, he explained, than others: “We have more access to her than we do Schumer.”