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Queens Deputy Boro Prez Steps Down After Disparaging Tweets About Israel

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By: Hellen Zaboulani

On Sunday evening, a new a deputy borough president was named by Donovan Richards. By Monday, however, the freshly appointed top staffer withdrew from the position. “For professional and personal reasons, Michael Hurwitz will not be moving forward at this time with the Queens Borough President’s Office as Deputy Borough President as originally announced,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said in a statement on Monday.

As reported by the NY Post, Hurwitz stepped down just hours after facing criticism over old tweets, which were considered critical of Israeli policies and lobbying efforts. Hurwitz, who is an attorney and social worker and works at the non-profit GrowNYC, had been appointed to begin his post next month. The shared tweets which resurfaced to Hurwitz’s determinant included one from 2019, in which he defended Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s contentious comments on the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “#IlanOmar (sic) speaks the truth, that AIPAC $$ influences votes in [Congress],” Hurwitz had tweeted.

In another tweet from 2018, Hurwitz had responded to a post from right-wing Israeli politician Naftali Bennett who had said he was coming to visit in support following the mass shooting in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. Hurwitz had replied that Bennett was not welcome in the US, and called him a “cancer to Judaism”. By Monday night, Hurwitz’s account had been made private, but the Queens Daily Eagle posted screenshots of the tweets.

The tweets reportedly drew scrutiny from some members of Queen’s large Orthodox Jewish community. Speaking to the Eagle, Hurwitz said he was a “proud Jew” and a “lifelong Zionist”. He said that he and Richards “agreed that now is not the best time personally and professionally for me to join as was announced.” But he noted, “I’m excited to do good work in Queens and will continue to do that”.

“I love the state of Israel and I love that I’m raising my children Jewish in Queens,” said Hurwitz, noting that he spent some time in Israel during high school and college and had even trained at one point in the Israeli Army. Hurwitz conceded that Twitter isn’t the best place to discuss sensitive topics such as Israel-US relations or the Israel-Palestine conflict. “This is one of the most complex issues out there,” he told the Eagle. “To try to put it into 250 characters or less was naïve.”

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