Important News Regarding Services for Williamsburg NYCHA Housing Residents

Important Meeting to Take Place on Wednesday, September 18 to discuss the Plan for Williams Plaza and Independence



 Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s September 13, 2019 edition



All residents of Williams Plaza and Independence should participate in the upcoming meeting regarding transferring the building management.



Brooklyn, NY –On Wednesday, September 18, an important meeting will take place for the residents of Williams Plaza and Independence. The meeting is being called to share the upcoming plans for the developments’ management, which will be transferred to a private management company.  The meeting will take place at PS 16 on Wilson Street.  The new management company will be in charge of renovating the units and will improve overall conditions for the residents.



Lawyers to Assist Residents with Lease Changes



 Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s September 13, 2019 edition



Brooklyn, NY –Lawyers will be available to assist residents with lease changes on Monday, September 23 between  10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the Williams Plaza community room on 323 Robin Street. Additionally, the will be available to assist on Thursday, September 26 from 3 -7 p.m. at the Taylor White office at 626 White Place.

These sessions will offer the opportunity for residents to get legal services and guidance with  any of their housing issues.





Police Officers and Hatzolah Members Honored 


Brooklyn, NY –The police officers who were injured in the line of duty when responding to a call that got out of hand on Sunday,  August 18 were honored along with the Hatzolah volunteers who responded at the scene to assist the injured officers. 

Very Successful Health and Community Resources Back to School Fair Held for NYCHA Residents in Williamsburg

Huge Participation at the Williams Plaza Health and Community Resources Back to School Fair Held for NYCHA Residents in Williamsburg




 Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s September 13, 2019 edition




Eleven hundred quality backpacks filled with school supplies for the new school year distributed for children in attendance.

Brooklyn, NY –Gregory Russ, Chairman for NYCHA was greatly impressed with the extraordinary services provided for the residents when he participated in the Williams Plaza Health and Community Resources Back to School Fair on Wednesday, September 4. The fair was also attended by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Assemblywoman Joe Lentil, and representatives from the governor and mayor’s offices as well as representatives of State Senator Salazer. During the event, important information about available health and social services was distributed to participants.

Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s September 13, 2019 edition



Brooklyn, NY –A Health and Community Resources Back to School Fair took place last week on Wednesday, September 11 for residents of the three housing developments in the center Williamsburg area: Williams Plaza, Taylor White, and Independence. Throughout the event, important information on services was distributed to the residents while children received quality backpacks filled with school supplies to use for the new school year.

Among the participants who met with Rabbi David Niederman, UJO Executive Director and President, were  NYCHA CEO, Gregory Russ and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez as well as the devoted Assemblyman Joe Lentol. State  Senator Salazer made a raffle which was won by two children

The participants warmly welcomed Mr. Lincoln Restler, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor D’Blasio and a representative from Governor Cuomo's DHCR office. 



Huge Participation at the Williams Plaza Health and Community Resources Back to School Fair Held for NYCHA Residents in Williamsburg



 Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s September 13, 2019 edition



Eleven hundred quality backpacks filled with school supplies for the new school year distributed for children in attendance.

Brooklyn, NY –Gregory Russ, Chairman for NYCHA was greatly impressed with the extraordinary services provided for the residents when he participated in the Williams Plaza Health and Community Resources Back to School Fair on Wednesday, September 4. The fair was also attended by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Assemblywoman Joe Lentil, and representatives from the governor and mayor’s offices as well as representatives of State Senator Salazer. During the event, important information about available health and social services was distributed to participants.

Mayor de Blasio Opens New Office for Hate Crimes Prevention Months Before City Council Deadline

UJO thanks the Mayor for opening the office to combat hate crimes including anti-Semitism. Thank you to Councilman Chaim Deutsch for passing the law to establish the office and to Speaker Corey Johnson for supporting it.



Brooklyn, NY – Mayor Bill de Blasio officially launched the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) months ahead of the official deadline. Earlier this year the City Council passed, and the Mayor signed into law, legislation to establish the OPHC. Embedded in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the OPHC will take a holistic approach to preventing hate crimes, developing and coordinating community-driven prevention strategies to address biases fueling anti-Semitism and other such crimes, and fostering healing for victims and their communities. Headed by Deborah Lauter, the new Executive Director of the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, the new office will coordinate city efforts to prevent and respond to hate crimes through an interagency committee, which includes the NYPD, City Commission on Human Rights, Department of Education, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

OPHC will work to address the underlying factors driving hate crimes of all types, and against all targeted communities, through proactive outreach to community groups and coordinated intervention efforts among government agencies to deploy resources before incidents occur. 

“There is a surge of hate crimes in the city," says Rabbi David Niederman, President of the UJO of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, "and many of those crimes are directed at Orthodox Jews living in Williamsburg, Borough Park, Crown Heights, and other large Orthodox communities. More needs to be done so Jews can freely walk the streets without being afraid of being attacked and terrorized because of their faith. Opening the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes well ahead of schedule is a very positive step and demonstrates the Mayor’s commitment to addressing this growing problem immediately. We look forward to working with the office under the leadership of its Executive Director Deborah Lauter.” 

UJO publicly thanks Councilman Chaim Deutsch, Chairman of the Jewish Caucus who passed the law in City Council to establish and fund the new office for Hate Crimes Prevention. UJO also extends thanks to Speaker Corey Johnson for spoking up in support of the office and coming down to Williamsburg after a series of anti-Semitic attacks in the area to call, together with UJO, for the establishment of this office.

UJO Intervenes for Residents Regarding Mail Delivery Issue

Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s Friday, September 6, 2019 edition.


Hundreds of residents at 51 Ross Street are suffering from the suspension of their mail delivery. UJO has intervened on the residents behalf and continues to work with the housing management and USPS to allow mail delivery to be reinstated. 

Brooklyn, NY – Williamsburg residents at 51 Ross Street, which is a part of the Taylor White and Independence Project, have been without regular mail delivery service for over two weeks. The lack of mail delivery is due to the building’s inoperable postal service door resulting in the USPS being unable to complete delivery to the building’s residents.

Upon hearing of the untenable situation, UJO intervened. UJO contacted resident management, the postal service and elected officials including Councilmember Velazquez about resolving the issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime mail was made available for pickup at the post office. Initially, residents were only able to pick up their mail on Wednesdays and Saturdays. This provided a severely limited window of opportunity for Sabbath observers. Making the necessary arrangements to pick up the mail with only one day as an option for them was especially hard for seniors and homebound individuals. This resulted in concern over the chance of missing critical letters which might lead to the discontinuation of important social service benefits. Velazquez responded by securing an additional day for pickup of the mail at the post office. 

Unfortunately, due to continued baffling bureaucracy and miscommunication, as of the moment of this writing, the door has yet to be repaired. After UJO’s intervention, the broken door was replaced. The new door though was missing the unique lock for the postal worker to use his key to open it and deliver residents’ mail. Although the USPS did come down to install their unique lock in the new door, they were unable to complete their mission as the new door did not have the hole to insert the lock into. As a result, UJO has been in touch with the New York City Housing Authority to request they cut necessary hole to facilitate the installation of the lock.

In the name of the building’s residents, UJO expresses appreciation to Councilmember Velazquez for her responsiveness and direct invention in this matter. UJO remains hopeful that the mailing situation will be resolved within the upcoming week. 

Statement by Rabbi David Niederman, President of the UJO of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn regarding the End of the Measles Outbreak in the City and Williamsburg

September 3, 2019

For Immediate Release:

Statement by Rabbi David Niederman, President of the UJO of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn regarding the End of the Measles Outbreak in the City and Williamsburg

This is wonderful news for back to school time; hopefully, childcare centers and schools will be allowed to focus on educating their children while ensuring they remain up-to-date with immunizations.

“We thank all Williamsburg parents, schools, day care centers and healthcare professionals for their hard work that stemmed this outbreak. The community took this issue seriously, and thanks Hashem that we succeeded to bring an end to the spread of the infection. We also commend the NYC Department of Health, the de Blasio administration and various other partners that we worked with during the past months to bring this outbreak to an end,” said Rabbi David Niederman, President of the UJO of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn.

“Now, it is time for some reflection and taking the lessons going forward. First and foremost, we reiterate our call to parents to ensure that their children are up-to-date with all their immunizations. Today it was measles – one of the most contagious infections - tomorrow it may be an even more serious infection. We are a heavily concentrated neighborhood, and a large number of small children, and we all want to protect the children and their families. We know that the overwhelming majority of parents don’t need that reminder, but with the hectic schedules, it’s important to reiterate the importance of timely immunizations,” Rabbi Niederman continued.

“Finally, this declaration is coming right during the Back-to-School season. We hope that will restore order to Williamsburg yeshivas and childcare centers. During the past half year, schools and child care centers were subjected to repeated, erroneous and redundant DOHMH inspections by numerous inspectors asking for the same paper records, literally on a daily basis. Yeshivas and childcare centers were closed unjustly. Many times, it was because of new rules, that they were not notified of, or for differing interpretation by individual inspectors. Childcare centers, school administrators and their staff were bogged down to respond to record requests. There are many examples and complaints of unwarranted school closures. We hope that the end of the outbreak, will also bring an end to unreasonable actions. There is an efficient way to do inspections, without paralyzing a childcare and school system educating tens of thousands of children, and without forcing hardworking parents to stay home to care for their children, due to the closures of their kindergartens.

"We met the Commissioner and shared a list of issues, and we hope that they will be rectified and addressed, so that childcare centers can return to provide quality early childhood services and schools can go back to teaching, while also ensuring that their children are fully immunized,” Rabbi Niederman concluded.