I was surprised and saddened to see that a candidate for Village of Great Neck trustee has supported hate in the past. Sam Yellis wants to lead our village, but he previously endorsed a candidate for Library trustee who openly espoused bigotry.
In these very pages in the Great Neck News, David Zielenziger wrote that if Pedram Bral were re-elected, “the village will ultimately become the Long Island equivalent of Kiryas Joel [a village within the town of Monroe in Orange County, N.Y. where the majority of its residents are Yiddish-speaking Hasidic Jews]. That can’t happen here.” He referred to Dr. Bral as “the puppet of his religious taskmasters.”
Zielenziger, who sends regular emails to a private list, has evidently written far worse. In a LinkedIn article that is still available online, Zielenziger wrote a screed about Great Neck being “taken over by Iranians.” Writers have told the News about other invective that Zielenziger leveled against the Persian and Orthodox communities in Great Neck.
To Sam Yellis, this is all just fine. Yellis endorsed Zielenziger when he ran for library trustee in 2018. He obviously knew Zielenziger’s feelings, having written that he had known him for over 15 years.
He wrote: “I have come to know him as someone who cares. He cares about what is best for the village, for the library, for us all.” As for a vision for Great Neck, Yellis approvingly wrote that Zielenziger “spends his life informing us and working at bettering life on this peninsula.” And now David Zielenzinger is supporting Sam Yellis.
Sam Yellis should never be in a position of leadership in Great Neck Village. I will vote for Bart Sobel and Eli Kashi instead.
David Kahen
Great Neck