Assemblyman Dov Hikind 48th Assembly District (Part of Kings County)
Assemblyman Dov Hikind is currently serving his 9th term as the representative for the 48th Assembly District, an area that encompasses Boro Park, Dyker Heights, Kensington and sections of Flatbush. He was elected to office in 1982. The son of Frieda and Mayer Hikind, both survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, he has been married to Shoshana for 24 years and is the father of three children. Dov is a man whose entire life has been dedicated to Jewish and human rights causes beginning in the 1970's, when he played a leading role in the movements to free Syrian and Soviet Jewry.
For more than 25 years, Assemblyman Hikind's steadfast commitment to speaking out honestly on issues, regardless of who agrees with him and despite personal or political repercussions, has earned him a reputation for integrity and independence. Even those who disagree with him respect him for his ethical approach to leadership and politics.
A spokesman against discrimination of any kind, Assemblyman Hikind chaired the Assembly's Subcommittee on Human Rights and published an in-depth study of the effects of the quota system and reverse discrimination on education, business and the civil service. He led the fight against Professor Leonard Jeffries' reappointment to the chairmanship of CUNY's African American Studies Department, raising the issue to the forefront of public awareness. He traveled to Bitburg, Germany, to protest President Ronald Reagan's visit to the graves of Nazi war criminals and to Austria to protest the presidency of Kurt Waldheim after Waldheim's Nazi past was uncovered.
When Democratic presidential hopeful Jerry Brown won the Connecticut primary in 1992, Dov publicly denounced Brown's choice of Jesse Jackson as running mate on the grounds that Jackson was an anathema to the Jewish community who embraced rabid anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan. His reproof was covered in the national media and Brown lost the New York primary, effectively eliminating him as a contender. At the onset of the Gulf War, Dov flew to Israel in a demonstration of solidarity, arriving just in time to don a gas-mask and witness the first SCUD bombardments.
After the Crown Heights riots in 1991, which left residents unprotected for three days of unrestrained violence, Assemblyman Hikind joined forces with other Jewish leaders and elected officials to address issues stemming from the violence. He called for an independent investigation into the breakdown of the chain of command at City Hall and a federal civil rights investigation into the murder of Australian Jewish scholar Yankel Rosenbaum. Dov's perseverance paid off in 1997, when a federal court found two individuals guilty of violating Yankel Rosenbaum's civil rights.
Dov became known internationally when, along with another elected official and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he was targeted for assassination by a terrorist group that was planning to bomb major public buildings and bridges in New York City. The members of the group, who were apprehended and convicted, were eventually linked to the condemned terrorists responsible for the World Trade Center bombing.
In 1999, Assemblyman Hikind founded the United New York Democratic Club, a political action group dedicated to bipartisan support of candidates in major city and state races who are committed to quality of life concerns and promoting greater unity and understanding within New York's diverse communities.
Dov Hikind is known as a man of principle for his non-partisan politics. Although a proud democrat, he has, at times, supported republicans whom he felt would better serve the needs of all New Yorkers.
