Friday, July 17, 2026

Outreach.

John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1578 Third Avenue, PMB 188
New York, New York 10128 USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
https://www.tormey.org
 
Friday, July 17, 2026
 
VIA FAX: 1-518-650-9401, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
yoel.lefkowitz@ag.ny.gov
Mr. Yoely (Joel) Lefkowitz
Director of Jewish Outreach and Intergovernmental Affairs
Office of the New York State Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, New York 12224-0341 USA
 
VIA FAX: 1-914-422-8706, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
ylefkowitz@gmail.com
Mr. Yoely (Joel) Lefkowitz
Director of Jewish Outreach and Intergovernmental Affairs
Office of the New York State Attorney General
28 Liberty Street, Floor 16
New York, New York 10005 USA
 
Re:      
Antisemitism Within The Piermont Democratic Committee (PDC)
The Village Of Piermont, New York – Rockland County, New York
Ms. Marthe Schulwolf, A Recently-Re-Elected PDC Member
 
Dear Mr. Lefkowitz:
 
I was just apprised of your name and title when reading a July 13, 2026 post by “Monsey Scoop” on social media:
I would have written to you earlier if I had earlier known of your job title and responsibilities. [The July 13, 2026 “Monsey Scoop” post can be seen at the above-linked Facebook page, and here, and its appurtenant photos can be seen further below]:
The purpose of this letter to you is to make sure that you are aware of antisemitic comments made on public record by a village official in Piermont in Rockland County, New York. Her name is Marthe Schulwolf and she was, astoundingly, just re-elected to the Piermont Democratic Committee (PDC) but a short few days after her antisemitic rant transcribed and video-linked below. 
Attached you will please find a copy of the Wednesday, June 10, 2026 letter pre-dating Ms. Schulwolf’s re-election, which I previously submitted to Attorney General James, Ms. Brower, and Ms. Vernon regarding the matter. The June 10 letter contains the transcript and video-link, and was assigned NYSAG Complaint Number #1-1281771102 in interim reply. 

Thank you for the work that you do.
 
Respectfully submitted,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.
- - - - - 

Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1578 Third Avenue, PMB 188
New York, New York 10128 USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
https://www.tormey.org
 
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
 
VIA FAX: 1-914-422-8706, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
nysag@ag.ny.gov
Letitia James, Attorney General
Office of the New York State Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, New York 12224-0341 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
anna.brower@ag.ny.gov
Anna Brower, Chief Of Staff
Office of the New York State Attorney General
28 Liberty Street, Floor 16
New York, New York 10005 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
Aida.Vernon@ag.ny.gov
Aida Vernon, Esq. - Assistant Attorney General
Public Integrity Bureau
28 Liberty Street, Floor 16
New York, New York 10005 USA
 
Re:
Anti-Semitism Within The Piermont Democratic Committee (PDC)
The Village of Piermont, New York – Rockland County, New York
Ms. Marthe Schulwolf, PDC Member And PDC Candidate For Re-Election
 
Dear Ms. Vernon, Chief of Staff Brower, and Attorney General James:
 
As I believe each of you will recall, I am an attorney and reside in the Town of Orangetown, New York. As I believe you will also recall, I have contacted you in the past with disquieting findings regarding the Village of Piermont, located in the Town of Orangetown and Rockland County, New York. My understanding is that Village of Piermont government is still under New York State Comptroller Audit and law-enforcement investigation relating to Piermont’s finances, as of this day. Yet this new discovery came as a surprise. I will explain.
 
Below-linked is a full transcript (“Transcript”) of the Piermont Democratic Committee (PDC) Candidate Forum called “Meet the Committee Candidates”, held last Thursday, June 4, 2026 (the “Forum”):
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2026/06/full-pdc-transcript-thursday-june-4.html
 
The video of the so-transcribed Forum is found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eya_AhJads
 
The Forum was held because, for the first time in memory of many Piermont residents, there is a contested choice between 7 PDC candidates for 4 openings on the PDC.
 
When reviewing the Transcript, I was appalled to discover blatantly anti-Semitic remarks made by one Marthe Schulwolf. Marthe Schulwolf is a current member of the Piermont Democratic Committee and is seeking to remain on the PDC. Although some other remarks in the Transcript you will find to be ageist, sexist, and otherwise offensive - here is Marthe Schulwolf’s specific hate-speech in question and the reason for my letter to you today:
 
“Marthe Schulwolf: … But let me just say this. At the town and county level, what hurts us, what sometimes kills us… is that we have a severe... distortion in Rockland County politics. We have the town of Ramapo, and… also Haverstraw to a degree, where you have the Ultra-Orthodox voting blocs. Register as Democrats, they put Democrats in the County Legislature so they can control the majority and be the majority, and then they vote, exclusively, to a like 90, 95% for Trump and Lawler. And they also are, of course… very authoritarian, structured, cultish societies that do what the rabbis tell them to do. Their values are far more in tune with the Republican Party. They don’t believe in gender or racial equality. And the fact that they control the local… they have taken over the Rockland County Democratic Party. We have worked very hard in Orangetown, and we hope that this Fall we can take it back. They did get one of their people to become the Democratic Commissioner of Elections. Hopefully she’s following the law. She is the daughter of the…
 
[Moderator] Chris Sanders. Time.
 
Marthe Schulwolf. Ramapo Chair…
 
[Moderator] Chris Sanders. Time, Marthe.
 
Marthe Schulwolf. …who is an ultra-Orthodox.
 
[Moderator] Chris Sanders. Thank you.
 
Marthe Schulwolf. Severe problem.”
 
[Bold-face emphasis added]. Piermont Democratic Committee (PDC) Candidate Forum:
“Meet the Committee Candidates” (June 4, 2026)
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2026/06/full-pdc-transcript-thursday-june-4.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eya_AhJads
Time-Code: [01:04:06,960 et seq.]
 
I know not what Marthe Schulwolf’s own religious, ethnic, or cultural background may be, but it does not matter here. She spoke as a member of the Piermont Democratic Committee, ostensibly for your own Democratic Party generally, and as a candidate for renewed public office as a public official in New York State. Even in the heat of a contested election, Marthe Schulwolf had absolutely no right to willfully and intentionally disparage the “Ultra-Orthodox”[her words] as “cultish societies that do what the rabbis tell them to do”, and “who don’t believe in gender or racial equality”. Her reference to “one of their people” was similarly repugnant and wholly dissonant with respect to traditional Democratic Party principles. I am surprised that not one Piermont resident in the room stopped Marthe Schulwolf, or apparently even sought to stop her, as she was making these loathsome comments. Perhaps they were all too shocked by the comments to do so.
 
In any event, Marthe Schulwolf had no right to demean, degrade, and disparage an entire group of people, an entire class of people – my own neighbors in Rockland County - particularly for the purposes of her own self-serving political benefit. Her intolerant comments made in that setting violate the U.S. Constitution, the New York State Constitution, and, I have to believe, federal and state civil rights laws as well.
 
250 years ago this country was founded by those seeking free exercise of religion. I was born the son of two New York City artists in show business who remained life-long Democrats, and raised me in the spirit of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. My father was U.S. Army crypto and intel. JFK was his Commander-in-Chief. Years later, JFK Jr. and I became schoolmates in Manhattan. The Democratic Party that I grew up knowing, always purported to stand for equality and non-discrimination. Those values should be restored in 2026. I am asking that your office of the New York State Attorney General please commence an investigation of the so-called “Piermont Democratic Committee” and an investigation of Ms. Marthe Schulwolf individually, given Ms. Schulwolf’s wholly-wrongful and repulsive remarks publicly made as a member of the Piermont Democratic Committee.
 
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
 
Respectfully submitted,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.









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