Author: Rabbi Naftali Miller
National Director of Development, Agudath Israel of America
I still remember walking into the Capitol building on my first visit to Albany. The building was majestic and quiet. Every footstep echoed on the marble floors. I entered the chamber with 75 others to partake in a session. The room was quiet. The Speaker of the House turned to Avrohom Weinstock and said “Make your case.” Absolute silence. Then clink. Clink. Clink. He slowly and deliberately dropped 2 quarters and a dime on the table. “That’s the reimbursement our yeshivos are receiving for the cost of students’ immunization record-keeping,” he said.
An administrator of a Satmar school had called the Agudah, suspecting that the reimbursement for immunization records that schools are required to keep was lower than it should have been. Devorah Zakai, director of the yeshiva services division for 35 years and known for her encyclopedic knowledge, found the 1984 law which mandated a 60¢ reimbursement per student. And how much does the record-keeping actually cost our yeshivos? The Agudah surveyed 67 schools and discovered that the actual rate was $29.77 per immunization. Thus the sixty cent exhibition. B”H, the Agudah’s tireless advocacy was met with success, and yeshivos received the contested funds. We’ll never let our yeshivos be nickeled and dimed.
There’s power in numbers. We need to raise ours, to lend political clout to our advocates, faithfully lobbying our causes in the halls of power. We need to count in order to matter.
Join the Agudah’s Machatzis HaShekel Campaign as echod min haminuyim; join the ranks so the Agudah can continue championing our values and fighting for the klal and the yochid.
Yasher Koach.
Rabbi Naftali Miller
Dec 12, 2018,
Emblem Health, which insures most of New York City’s municipal workers, has entered into a settlement with the state attorney general after being accused of denying sex change surgery coverage to transgender clients..
But the AG’s office found the insurer based the denials on “misleading and deceptive information” tied to outdated guidelines and concluded the rejections violated state law.
As part of the settlement, Emblem agreed to pay full restitution to members who paid out of pocket for the procedures, as well as a $250,000 fine.
“My office will continue to protect the rights of transgender New Yorkers and ensure they’re treated with the fairness and dignity they deserve.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to insurance companies in 2014 warning they could not deny gender reassignment surgery like hormone therapy and mammoplasty.
He said coverage for psychological disorders such as ”gender dysphoria” was mandatory under the law.
Thu, Jan 24, 2019
NY Gov. Cuomo Slammed for ‘Ghoulish’ Abortion Law
June 18, 2019
New York’s current surrogacy laws permit a woman to carry a child for another parent, but they don’t allow her to be paid for doing it. And at the time of birth, the law recognizes the gestational carrier as the legal mother. Governor Cuomo seeks to change both of these laws
Womb rental is akin to nine months of prolonged prostitution, and manufacturing children for sale.
New York’s motive for legalizing surrogacy is to avoid insulting the LGBTQIAP+ community. Along with infertile couples, they are the primary beneficiaries of womb rental. So opposition to surrogacy is called homophobic. That, however, is merely a convenient way to insist that women’s bodies should be on the commercial market
Fri, Sep 6, 2019
Cuomo denies having anything to do with the machinations—” But Cuomo is adept at sending signals, and it’s impossible to believe it would have happened if the governor had objected. The Senate play fit with Cuomo’s core big-picture political vision—that Albany is now a model of bipartisanship—and the structure quickly paid dividends.
“You think they’ve got Felder?” Cuomo said, according to Senate Republicans. “I have the rabbis who Felder reports to! You think you have Klein? I’ll get Klein to be a Democrat again! You are in power only so long as you can move progressive measures.” .
Mar 8, 2020,
Governor Cuomo stated that he will sign an assisted suicide bill into law
New York Assembly Bill A2694 and Senate Bill S3947 where introduced as the Medical Aid in Dying Act.
As Margaret Dore, the President of Choice is an Illusion stated in her article: New York: Reject Medical Aid in Dying Act:
“Aid in Dying” is a euphemism for euthanasia.[3] The Act, however, purports to prohibit euthanasia
Are you kidding me ? Shulls were functioning normally for months before 11/25.
Is this the best you can come up with?
Agent Emmes