But as a self-declared progressive de Blasio’s views on most issues are assuredly far from mine. And yet twice in this space I have lauded his actions as mayor and suggested that the Orthodox Jewish community publicly express appreciation to him. In both cases this non-Jewish lefty did far better by our community than did his Jewish centrist predecessor Michael Bloomberg.

When the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2014 that New York City had a right to refuse religious groups access to public school space for services Mayor de Blasio made clear he would not exercise that prerogative choosing instead to continue the practice of granting off-hours use of public school facilities to some 80 houses of worship. He said he stood by his “belief that a faith organization playing by the same rules as any community nonprofit deserves access…. They play a very very important role in terms of providing social services and other important community services and I think they deserve that right.”

And a year later when Mr. de Blasio rescinded the Bloomberg administration’s regulation requiring mohelim to procure parental consent for metzizah b’peh I wrote that his action could be described using two of his favorite adjectives “historic” and “transcendent.” It was historic I observed “because governments don’t easily or often concede of their own accord that policies they’ve vociferously promoted for years are counterproductive and require immediate reversal.” It will be recalled that Bloomberg had characterized his own constituents who opposed the regulation as “10 000 guys in black hats outside [my] office screaming.”

Mayor de Blasio’s turnabout was transcendent too “because the mayor chose to rise above the petty politicized fray spurning the agenda-driven scientifically suspect stance of his own health department and instead putting his constituents’ well-being first by adopting the far sounder approach of Rockland County’s health department” of testing mohelim to conclusively determine the source of the virus affecting a sick baby.

I agreed in other words with the view of longtime community activist Avi Schick in a New York Daily News op-ed that while “[c]ynics may chalk up the administration’s plan to politics... [t]hey would be wrong to overlook prudence principle and public health all of which strongly support the city’s action.”

As Jacob Kornbluh reported last week in our magazine the mayor has also restored funding for after-school child care vouchers adjusted the Universal Pre-K program to accommodate yeshivos and signed legislation reimbursing nonpublic schools for security-related costs. On the foreign affairs front writes Kornbluh he’s “been outspoken on support for Israel opposition to the BDS movement and the need to act globally against a rise in anti-Semitism.”

Yet despite all this he writes that with the mayor up for reelection this fall many Orthodox Jews “may withhold their support because of some of his unkept promises.” Such as? Only one is cited: Mr. de Blasio had promised in 2013 to visit the Orthodox Jewish community “100 times” during the first three years of his term yet ended up visiting Boro Park only a handful of times mostly for private purposes. These people are kidding right?

Then there’s State Senator Simcha Felder who recently went head to head with the mayor in Albany over the latter’s plan to impose a five-cent fee on plastic shopping bags in order to get people to bring reusable bags on shopping trips. The tax was widely opposed in the Orthodox community and went down to eventual defeat in Albany. Mr. Felder says that whatever good the mayor has done for our community “he was forced to do or did it for other reasons.” I wonder how Mr. Felder is able to bear spending his time in Albany.

Our community’s political activists regularly stress how important it is to vote in elections in order to influence the positions and votes of elected officials by showing we care. But if we’re going to treat a mayor this way ignoring all the good he’s done and the support he’s shown and all because it wasn’t for the “right reasons” or because he visited Boro Park three times instead of a hundred then all the election day turnout in the world won’t matter because politicians will distrust and ignore us and for good reason.

If you can’t bring yourself to actually thank the man at least don’t throw rhetorical stones at him. Because as Avi Schick astutely observed de Blasio sets an

important example... of a liberal Democrat working constructively with religious communities. For too long the relationship between progressives and religious communities has been one of mutual distrust. De Blasio’s action... signals to Democrats nationwide that they must engage with faith communities.

Nothing I’ve written here is intended as a political endorsement of Bill de Blasio. But neither do I endorse Senator Felder’s critique of him as “an opportunist who doesn’t deliver for the community.” An opportunist the mayor may be (although Felder ought to know from his line of work that that’s just a synonym for politician) but he most certainly has delivered for our community.

He just prefers making his deliveries using reusable bags.

SEE YA LATER ALLIGATOR? This column prides itself on keeping its readers well informed and thus an apology is in order for not announcing several weeks ago that February 9 was approaching. It’s a date of special significance for our many New York readers because according to Michael Miscione Manhattan’s official borough historian it is none other than Alligators in the Sewers Day. It’s a special day paying homage to the enduring urban myth that the hundreds of miles of the city’s subterranean sewer system are home to untold numbers of those slithering beasts.

The selection of the 9th of February for this important commemoration was not haphazard: That’s the day on which New York’s sewer system once actually did cough up one of these critters. According to a newspaper report from February 1935 — back when men were men and crocs were crocs not would-be slippers — an East Harlem teen named Salvatore Condulucci came upon a living breathing alligator as he shoveled snow into a manhole.

Sal and his friends looped a rope around the neck of the eight-foot 125-pound reptile and pulled it above ground but when it snapped at them they killed it. That the alligators-in-the-sewers hoax got its start with a true episode is a good illustration of Chazal’s dictum cited by Rashi (Bamidbar 13:27) that no falsehood can endure unless it has a truthful beginning.

The New York Times reports that at an event marking this year’s Alligators in the Sewers Day Mr. Miscione speculated that the alligator might have been shipped north from Florida through the mail; he even displayed 1930s ads offering mail-order baby alligators. Indeed he said current United States Postal Service regulations permit shipping alligators by mail provided they are “not exceeding 20 inches in length.” Note to readers: If you do try this at home please please put on sufficient postage; the last thing we need is a crocodile that hasn’t eaten in days being returned to sender.

The Times notes that although the 1935 incident “fueled speculation about a wider population of alligators in the sewer this has been widely debunked by experts.” How exactly one goes about debunking the non-existence of such a phenomenon I don’t know but I suppose that’s what “experts” are for. If I know my American universities there’s a professor somewhere who wrote his PhD thesis on the topic. I just hope it didn’t require too much field work.

Personally I’m still not entirely convinced that there isn’t something to this “myth” and I encourage our readers to stay alert to suspicious activity in and around New York’s manholes. I can guarantee that if you do witness one of these creatures emerging from below you will have earned a distinctive title: Gator eid.

To contact Eytan Kobre directly please email Kobre@Mishpacha.com