Jews In Law Enforcement
There are few, if any, observant Jews among the ranks of the New York State Police. One reason, says Rabbi Bernard Freilich, 63, clergy and unpaid liaison to the superintendent of the state police, is because with a force of 8,000 police and law enforcement civilians statewide there are not enough personnel for that type of flexibility.
“There are a certain number of troopers at a certain time in a certain location and there aren’t so many troopers where their commander can say you can go home and someone else will fill in,” Freilich said on “The Jewish View,” a television program taped in Albany. “I don’t know of anyone who is shomer Shabbos who will be able to work for a police force across the state and be assured that they will never work on a Shabbos. It’s very hard.
“To tell a state trooper or any other police agency across the entire state that you’re not going to be working on Shabbos, that’s impossible. That’s why there aren’t more Jewish troopers because it’s just not feasible to be shomer Shabbos and we cannot promise them.”
It seems law enforcement agencies prefer having an observant Jew on staff, paid or volunteer. Case in point is Simcha Bernath, a coordinator for the Boro Park Shomrim and liaison to the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. He attended the New York State Police graduation earlier this month with Freilich when 200 troopers were added to the long grey line.
“The New York State Police operates much like a family does,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told the graduates. “It shares benefits and it shares burdens and it feels one for another. Your role as troopers over the next 20 years is going to be a different job and a different role than has ever been performed before. We have terrorism that is evolving upon us every day. We have cyber security threats that we didn’t have before. These are the conditions that you need to protect society from.
“To be a police officer in this world is not easy,” Cuomo continued. “It is a world that is in many ways in a state of unrest with conflicts, with political opinions, with an unease about the relationship between the police and the community. So you’re not taking an easy path, and you knew that when you first signed up for the job.”
Alvin Kass, rabbi emeritus of the East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn, now a resident of the Upper West Side of Manhattan and chief chaplain of the New York City Police Department, told a gathering in Albany of the NYC Police Benevolent Association that New York City police officers are “the light of the law enforcement profession. They understand that in a world too often consumed by self-absorption they have the opportunity to put blankets of warmth, protection, safety and security over others. Amidst our vicissitudes all of us are so grateful to have this PBA, which for 120 years has answered the call of every police officer.”
The Iran Nuclear Arms Deal
Gov. Cuomo, not one to shy away from espousing personal opinions on foreign policy matters, told The Jewish Press, “We have a divided delegation on the Iran vote. Everyone says the votes have now been identified. I do think Chuck Schumer identified the key issue – which is the question, Can you verify the agreement? The agreement makes sense if you can verify it. If you can answer that question, then yes, but that is the question.”
While Cuomo maintains that Schumer got it right, the implication is that New York’s junior United States Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, got it wrong.