Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) was honored by Van Cortlandt Jewish Center on Sunday, Dec. 19, as part of a “Celebration of Appreciation” event held at the center in the Van Cortlandt Village section of the Bronx.

The assemblyman, who is Jewish, was elected to the New York State Assembly to represent the 81st Assembly District on February 15, 1994, and has been the elected assemblyman since then. The district broadly covers the Northwest Bronx section of the borough and includes Van Cortlandt Village where the the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center (VCJC) is located.

It was the second such rally protesting the assemblyman’s legislation in the last month on public school vaccination mandates. The assemblyman later responded at length to the protest, affirming people’s right to protest but denouncing the anti-Semitic imagery displayed at the rally.

Meanwhile, the VCJC event garnered a smaller than usual audience, with some taking the decision to play it safe, connecting virtually out of an abundance of caution amid the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising case rates of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which was recently confirmed as being the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S.

The center’s representatives said they were pleased to be able to show their appreciation for what they described as all of the work the assemblyman had done for VCJC and the community over the years. Stuart Harris, president of VCJC, said, “I am happy that we’re finally able to honor Assemblyman Dinowitz after the year we’ve had, due to COVID.”

He added, “He is a man that deserves to be honored, and I’m sorry we had to put it off last year.”