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Some Brooklyn lawmakers say the court-ordered redraw of congressional maps discriminates against the borough’s Orthodox Jewish community and are urging the state judge overseeing the gerrymandering case to place all Jewish neighborhoods into one district.

“We are writing to share with you our deeply held belief the congressional lines, as currently drawn, are discriminatory against Orthodox Jews, a community of interest, per the New York State Constitution,” Councilman Kalman Yeger and Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein said in the letter to state Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister.

“The Orthodox Jews have been chopped up into five districts! Don’t chop us up! Don’t sprinkle us around! We matter,” Eichenstein also told The Post on Thursday.

“Is this a coincidence? This is discrimination against Orthodox Jews and it’s outrageous.”


  Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein called the redraw “discrimination.” Paul Martinka for NY Post Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein called the redraw “discrimination.” Paul Martinka for NY Post

The New York Democratic Party’s redistricting debacle has worsened by the day and the claim of discrimination against the Jewish community comes a day after Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres accused fellow Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney — who is also chairman of the House Democratic Congressional Committee — of racism following reports that allies of the Hudson Valley Democrat suggested incumbent black Rep. Mondaire Jones is not ideologically suited to represent his newly redrawn district.

Maloney plans to primary Jones after his home was drawn out of his current 18th Congressional District.

McAllister is expected to approve revised congressional maps drawn by his appointed special master Patrick Cervantes on Friday after the courts tossed out the Democratic Party’s partisan gerrymandering as unconstitutional — what critics dubbed the “Hochulmander” because Gov. Kathy Hochul approved them.


  Councilman Kalman Yeger told The Post that the redraw “doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.” Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post Councilman Kalman Yeger told The Post that the redraw “doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.” Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post

The lawmakers complained that the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods of Borough Park, Midwood and Flatbush are divided into two congressional districts, the 9th and 10th, under the redrawn lines.

One reason is that even the revised 10th District proposed by Cervantes has the district stretching from southern Brooklyn all the way to Lower Manhattan and Greenwich Village.

“That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever,” Yeger told The Post while explaining the appeal to the judge for changes.

“We are requesting the 10th Congressional District  proposed by the Court and Special Master be expanded slightly to include the remaining parts of the Borough Park, Midwood and Flatbush neighborhoods. The proposed maps include parts of these neighborhoods in the proposed 9th Congressional District,” the lawmakers told the judge in the letter.

If that can’t be done, they request alternatively that the entirety of Borough Park be placed in the currently proposed 9th District.

“For the past 10 years, our community has been represented by five Congressional Districts. In that time, our community has grown significantly above the city average. This growth includes more than 75,000 children and 75 Yeshivas (schools),” the lawmakers said.

“But this growth has also resulted in family members a block away and even across the street having different representatives in Congress, language barriers, uncertainty where to go for constituent services, and challenges addressing community issues such as education, housing, healthcare, and public safety.”

“We ask that the final maps you approve unify this Community of Interest, fix the problem we have had for the past 10 years and avoid these challenges for another 10 years,” Eichenstein and Yeger said.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Community Relations Council also sent a letter urging the judge to keep the East Side and West Side of Manhattan in separate congressional districts instead of folding them into a new 12th Congressional District, which would pit Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney against each other in a Democratic primary. Westsider Nadler and Eastsider Maloney have represented their respective neighborhoods for 30 years in Congress.

“It is hard for a non-New Yorker to understand how different the East Side and West Side are. Every level of New York politics and government respects that geographic/urban planning distinction: City Community Planning Boards, Police Precincts, School Boards, City Council, State Senate, State Assembly and Congress. Even New York State Judicial Districts are drawn respecting East Side and West Side boundaries. All of these districts clearly reflect the distinct communities of interest,” JCRC president Cheryl Fishbein and COE Gideon Taylor told the judge.

“The Special Master’s map ignores that and would yield the biggest geographic/tectonic shift in New York politics since the opening of Central Park before the Civil War,” they said.

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