At a Manhattan tribute to 96-year-old Auschwitz survivor Jerry Wartski, New York gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman warned that growing hostility toward Jews and Israel poses a danger far beyond the Jewish community.
“I tell my Christian friends, the Jews are the appetizer," Blakeman told the gathering. “You’re the main course."
Rabbi Dr. Joseph Frager hosted the tribute on Sunday, July 12, at Sen Sakana, the kosher Japanese-Peruvian restaurant in Midtown Manhattan owned by Jerry Wartski and managed by his son, Allen. Wartski is a longtime Israel advocate and honorary president of the Israel Justice Organization. Frager serves as the organization’s chairman.
The gathering honored a man whose life spans the destruction of European Jewry, the rebuilding of a Jewish family in America, and a late-in-life decision to speak publicly as antisemitism again became more visible. It also gave Blakeman, the Nassau County Executive and Republican and Conservative nominee for governor, an opportunity to explain why he entered the statewide race.
Born in Osjaków, Poland, in 1930, Wartski was nine when Nazi Germany invaded. During one Nazi selection, the young Wartski stood on loose bricks to make himself appear taller and old enough for forced labor. The split-second decision saved his life as children and elderly Jews were separated for deportation and murder.
Wartski was later deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where his mother was murdered in the gas chambers. He survived starvation, forced labor, and a death march, while his father died during the final months of the war. Wartski was ultimately liberated in Germany.
He arrived in the United States in 1949, built a successful career in Manhattan real estate, and raised a family. For decades, Wartski concentrated on the life ahead of him and rarely discussed the camps, even with his own children.
That silence began to lift as the number of surviving witnesses dwindled.
In a 2024 Donald Trump campaign advertisement, Wartski rolled up his sleeve to display the prisoner number tattooed on his arm, rejected comparisons between Trump and Adolf Hitler, and called Trump a mensch. Wartski later attended Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden and condemned comparisons between that gathering and the 1939 Nazi rally at the old Madison Square Garden.
“You didn’t take what was bitterness and what was the worst of the worst and dwell on it," Blakeman told Wartski. “You went on, you built something, and you stand for something."
Frager, a New York gastroenterologist for more than four decades, introduced communal leaders including author Uri Kaufman and Rabbi Michael Melnicke, a veteran healthcare executive, IJO board member, and ambassador-at-large for Grenada.
Melnicke helped establish a permanent Jewish presence on the Caribbean island and delivered the benediction at Trump’s 2024 rally at Nassau Coliseum. Frager praised Melnicke as someone who represents not only the Gerer community, but the broader Orthodox community and klal Yisrael.
Frager also joked about Kaufman serving as Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s translator during their visits to Israel.
Blakeman began on a personal note, speaking about his three-decade friendship with Frager.
“The only negative thing about him is every time I go to shul and I’m about to get into my zone, he says, ‘So, what do the polls say?’"
Blakeman also recognized his neighbors, Batya and Daniel Kestenbaum, noting that Batya shares both a Hebrew name and a military connection with his late mother.
“Batya was my mother’s Hebrew name," Blakeman said. “They share something else in common. Batya is a United States Army veteran, as was my mother. Thank you for your service to America."
Blakeman, Nassau County’s first Jewish county executive, is challenging Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and has received President Trump’s endorsement. He used the gathering to answer the question he said he hears throughout the state: Why leave the comfort of county government to seek a far more difficult statewide office?
“I wanted nothing to do with running for governor," Blakeman said. “I was happy being County Executive. My county is larger than eight states."
His thinking began to change after his decisive reelection in Nassau County. Blakeman recalled receiving a congratulatory call from Trump at about 1:00 a.m. According to Blakeman, Trump had expected bad news from Nassau and expressed surprise upon learning the size of the victory.
Calls from business leaders, religious figures, elected officials, and community leaders urging him to run followed the next day.
His wife, Segal, suggested that he travel around New York and hear directly from residents before deciding. That meant canceling a planned vacation to Turks and Caicos.
“She wasn’t too happy about that," he joked.
Blakeman said his travels revealed a consistent mood.
“I found that people were miserable," he recalled. “Every corner of the state, people were miserable under Kathy Hochul."
Referring to the demands of a “24/7" campaign, Blakeman added a Jewish qualification.
“I told my rabbi, ‘I meant 24/6.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll give you a waiver on this one.’"
Although Blakeman discussed taxes, crime, energy, and regulation, he repeatedly returned to what he called Hochul’s “unholy alliance" with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Blakeman pointed to the mutual political support between Hochul and Mamdani and argued that their partnership had placed the state’s relationship with Israel, the security of its Jewish community, and the freedom of religious New Yorkers at the center of the gubernatorial contest.
Turning directly to antisemitism, Blakeman said the political atmosphere carried echoes of an earlier and darker period.
He cited Mamdani’s ties to activists who use the slogan “from the river to the sea," presenting the phrase as evidence of hostility toward Israel. Blakeman also pointed to Mamdani’s absence from the installation of New York’s new archbishop and to the cancellation of a Puerto Rican heritage breakfast involving Christian clergy, which Blakeman said he later sponsored himself.
Blakeman also cited a city map that, according to him, included “Little Palestine" while omitting Little Italy and Little Odessa.
“It’s not just the Jews," Blakeman said. “He has a bias against Christians."
Blakeman argued that attacks on Jews and Israel rarely remain confined to the Jewish community.
“I tell my Christian friends, the Jews are the appetizer," he warned. “You’re the main course."
He also criticized Mamdani’s economic philosophy, accusing the mayor of embracing collectivism rather than the individual opportunity that Blakeman said built American prosperity.
“He talks about collectivism," Blakeman said. “That’s not socialism. That’s communism."
Blakeman accused Hochul and Mamdani of offering New Yorkers little more than “shared misery." He mocked promises of fare-free buses and criticized Mamdani’s proposal for city-supported supermarkets, arguing that taxpayer-funded stores would compete unfairly with privately operated bodegas and supermarkets whose owners had invested their savings and worked long hours to build their businesses.
He condensed the rest of his statewide case into a warning that New York was becoming less affordable, less safe, and less welcoming to families and businesses.
Blakeman cited a ranking that placed New York 50th in the nation for economic outlook.
“It’s a national embarrassment," he said. “The once-great Empire State-our outlook is number 50 out of 50 states. It’s a disgrace."
He argued that high taxes and heavy regulation were driving businesses, investors, and middle-class families out of New York.
“It hurts the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician, the waiter, the waitress, the bartender, the dry cleaner, the dog walker-you name it," Blakeman said. “When these high-net-worth individuals who are being chased out of our state leave, they take all that wealth with them, and it hurts everybody, especially the middle class."
Blakeman claimed that New York utility rates were roughly 70 percent above the national average and that only a fraction of a typical bill reflected the energy itself. He criticized snow-covered solar panels, offshore wind projects, and state restrictions on natural gas, calling for expanded natural-gas development in New York’s Southern Tier.
Standing inside a working kosher restaurant, he brought the energy argument directly to Wartski.
“Jerry, you’ve got gas stoves here," Blakeman said. “Every restaurant has a gas stove. Most homes have a gas stove. Kathy Hochul wants to take that away from you."
On public safety, Blakeman criticized cashless bail, Raise the Age, and the HALT Act, calling Hochul the nation’s most “pro-criminal governor."
He contrasted the state’s direction with his administration in Nassau County, saying the county had hired more than 900 law-enforcement professionals, received seven bond-rating upgrades, and recorded four consecutive budget surpluses without raising county property taxes.
“People in Nassau County are happy," he said. “But people in this state want opportunity."
Looking around the restaurant, Blakeman pointed to the young employees serving the gathering. He recalled holding similar jobs while growing up and described them as stepping-stones toward a future rather than permanent economic destinations.
He also accused progressive officials of weakening parental authority and traditional family life. Blakeman objected to policies allowing biological males into girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms and to bureaucratic language replacing the words mother and father.
“The Ten Commandments say, ‘Honor thy father and mother,’ not gestating and non-gestating parents," he said.
Blakeman then turned to the electoral path ahead.
He cited a poll conducted by co/efficient for the Coalition to Protect Nassau Taxpayers showing him trailing Hochul by six points, 47 percent to 41 percent, with 12 percent undecided.
“If I’m six points behind now, we’re going to win this thing," Blakeman told the gathering.
His campaign has also submitted more than 66,000 signatures seeking an independent Vote Affordable ballot line, exceeding the 45,000-signature threshold. Blakeman said the additional line would give voters who would not consider voting on the Republican or Conservative lines another way to support his candidacy.
He said he hoped to assemble a coalition of Republicans, conservatives, independents, religious voters, business owners, and what he called “common-sense Democrats."
Blakeman planned to meet afterward with Democrats in Brooklyn who, according to his account, were troubled by their party’s direction.
“We never thought we would say this, but you’re our last hope," he recalled them telling him. “You’re the guy who could save the Democratic Party."
With Wartski seated nearby, Blakeman closed by returning to the future New Yorkers would leave their children and grandchildren.
“This battle is not for us," he said. “It’s for our children and our grandchildren. What kind of world are we going to leave them?"
“Todah rabbah," Blakeman concluded. “May Hashem bless you all, and may Hashem bless the United States of America."