By Gus Saltonstall
Stephanie Ruskay, a rabbi and a dean at the Jewish Theological Seminary, has announced her campaign to succeed Micah Lasher in Assembly District 69, which covers the northern portion of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights.
Ruskay, a first time candidate, describes herself as a public school mom, rabbi, tenant, and community organizer.
“With the radical rightwing agenda coming out of Washington, New Yorkers are under attack,” Ruskay said in a press release announcing her candidacy. “We need a fighter in the Assembly who can stand up to Trump and protect our city. I’m humbled that so many community leaders have urged me to step up and run for this seat and I’m excited to engage with voters to hear their concerns and share my vision for a safer, more affordable West Side.”
The seat is open after Lasher, who was elected to the position in 2024, announced earlier this fall that he would be running to succeed Rep. Jerrold Nadler in New York’s 12th Congressional District, after the longtime Upper West Side leader said he would not be seeking reelection.
Before Lasher held the position, Daniel O’Donnell led the district in the Assembly for more than 20 years.
Eli Northrup was the first person to announce his candidacy in October to replace Lasher in Assembly District 69. He finished second in the Democratic primary for the same Upper West Side and Morningside Heights Assembly seat in 2024.
Ruskay spent part of her childhood on the Upper West Side, specifically growing up in a Mitchell Lama building on West 97th Street. For the last 10 years, she has served at the Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights, and also serves as the Executive Director of the Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice.
Ruskay, who officially entered the race earlier in November, did so with an endorsement from former Manhattan Borough President and Upper West Side Councilmember Ruth Messinger.
“I have seen Stephanie act powerfully to achieve change within various local Jewish and non-profit institutions, and I am certain she will bring a strong voice and an insightful presence to Albany and work for change on our behalf,” Messinger said in a press release. “I strongly endorse Stephanie Ruskay and hope she becomes the first woman to serve the 69th Assembly District in 50 years.”
The Democratic primary for Assembly District 69 will take place on June 23, 2026.
You can find out more about Ruskay’s campaign — HERE.
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Please keep religion out of government. Thanks!
Sheesh. How is she imposing religion in government? Are only atheists and agnostics allowed to run for public office? Many religious people firmly support and fight for clear separation of church and state.
There is an obvious difference between a religious official running for office, and someone who practices religion
Not necessarily. I don’t know this candidate and have no opinion on her candidacy but it says she’s the dean at an academic institution and works at its center for ethics and justice. Her religious ordination is probably one of several academic qualifications.
I thought separation of church and state also meant that we allow people to observe their faith even if we don’t share that faith. As long as they don’t have that faith bleed into public policy in unconstitutional ways. I think people trained as clergy might be more sensitive to the lines that need to be drawn. There are many more nonclergy people who violate those guidelines every day.
I looked at her website. She is rehashing an old, tired “progressive” agenda.
The UWS needs new thinking and new ideas.
I looked, too. Affordable housing, fostering public education, funding healthcare, increasing public safety, lowering rising prices, supporting unions, and opposing Trump’s anti-immigrant jihad — which of these specifically do you oppose (not that I couldn’t guess), and what are your own priorities?
Idly wondering if she’s related to Ruskay’s Restaurant, of blessed memory. It was a wonderful neighborhood place to fall into back in the day. On Columbus Avenue in the 70s, it was a place for good, rationally-priced food, live music, and interesting conversation.
She is not related to the restaurant.
Can the officials for the UWS just focus on the UWS? I don’t need to hear anything about Trump. It is not up to our local officials to do anything with Trump. Focus on our damn neighborhood and make it better. Enough. Let’s vote for someone that will do their damn job and focus on our local issues. Trump is not causing people to defecate in the street in broad daylight, harass bystanders, punch women in the head or slash a tourist. All has happened on the UWS the last few years. If you run for this position, do your damn job for the UWS.
The expanding affordability crisis, due in substantial part to Trump’s perpetual rage-tariffs; the growing availability of guns and drugs* as DHS pursues such loftier goals as detaining, deporting, or just plain murdering children and grandmas, more than occasionally including full-fledged U.S. citizens, especially those with unsanctioned skin tone; Trump’s rampant, flagrant culture of sheer lawlessness; Trump’s evisceration of government agencies, firing hundreds of thousands of workers; Trump’s ongoing attacks on social services — none of these factors could POSSIBLY have any bearing whatsoever on the offenses you cite or anything similar, could they, Frustrated?
Fortunately, at least Trump has backed down from cutting federal aid to NYC or sending the paramilitary marching in (cf. Chicago, LA, etc.), thanks to his new bromance with our mayor-elect, Mamdani.
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* https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/us/politics/drug-arrests-gun-seizures-homeland-security-immigration.html
Well, yes and no. Trump cutting all kinds of funding for healthcare, food, infrastructure, transportation, heat, research is not helping New Yorkers in the least.
NYC has a $113 billion budget. Where has any funding been cut?
How about withholding $18 billion for the Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway projects?
Half your neighborhood is dual citizenship.
Ugh. Another ultra leftist liberal.
Yeah, right-wing dictatorships just don’t get any respect these days.
Stephanie Ruskay would do a great job of representing the district in the NY State Assembly! She is a truly fine person, and exactly what is needed in these troubled times.
Troubled? How?
Start here: https://www.memeorandum.com/
Sadly messenger’s endorsement no longer means anything since she endorsed Lasher who is funded by big real estate interests. Note Danny O’Donnell who set the standard for public service in that job, did not endorse Lasher.
She sounds great! We need common sense!
What would help with affordability is cutting taxes for people who schlep into work every day. And I understand that on the upper west side it’s all about Trump. All the time. But can she contemplate empty storefronts, taxes, crime. day to day life. For just a few minutes