Ari Kagan

Ari Kagan (born in 1967) is an American politician who is a member of the New York City Council from the 47th district. Elected in November 2021, he assumed office on January 1, 2022.

Early life and education

Kagan was born in Minsk in 1967. His parents were survivors of the Holocaust. His paternal grandmother Sofiya was killed in the Minsk Ghetto in 1942 while his father Mikhail survived.

After graduating Secondary School No. 20 in Minsk, in February 1984, he was admitted to the Journalism Department at Lvov Military Political College, from which he graduated in 1988.

In 1991, Kagan left the Soviet Army and the Soviet Communist party. He said he "became disillusioned with the Soviet-Communist ideology". He immigrated to the United States with his family in May 1993. In the U.S., he attended Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and graduated with a degree in Business Administration, Marketing and Advertising in 1999.

Career

Journalism

As a journalist, he worked in the Independent Baltic Newspaper, Byelorussian Entrepreneur and other commercial papers in Latvia and Belarus.

In Brooklyn, Kagan worked as a writer for the Russian-language newspapers ''Yevreiski Mir'' and ''Vecherniy New York''. He also presented a weekly television program on the Brooklyn-based ''Russian Television Network of America'' (RTN).

Democratic Party politics

In 2012, he was elected as a Democratic District Leader in the 45th New York State Assembly District and founded the local moderate political club ''Bay Democrats'' in 2014.
In December 2022, Kagan switched parties from Democratic to Republican in December 2022, giving up his District Leader post.

Work for Elected Officials

Kagan worked as a community liaison for Comptrollers John Liu and Scott Stringer, as an assistant to Congressman Michael McMahon and later as Director of District Operations to Council Member Mark Treyger, before succeeding Treyger in the City Council.

City Council

In November 2021, he was elected to the New York City Council, succeeding Mark Treyger and successfully defeating multiple Democratic opponents as well as Republican opponent.

After switching his party affiliation to Republican due to his strong disagreements with Democrats on public safety and many other issues, Kagan joined Republican minority conference in City Council. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams suggested Kagan may lose his position as Chair of the Council's Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts. "Voters sent Council member Kagan to the Council as a member of the majority conference and this drastic about-face seriously calls into question his commitment to the policy priorities of our conference that will impact his committee roles, particularly his chairmanship given the fact that he is joining a party that denies climate change," Adams said. Kagan resigned from the Committee Chairmanship shortly after, telling the Daily News that "I resigned rather than to wait until being expelled by the Council leadership." In 2023, he will run for the re-election as Republican in his 47th Council District against another Councilman Justin Brannan who is a Democrat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kagan, Ari
Living people
Baruch College alumni
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Jewish American people in New York (state) politics
Politicians from New York City
Politicians from Brooklyn
New York (state) Democrats
21st-century American Jews
Politicians from Minsk
1967 births