New York City's 44th City Council district is one of 51 districts in the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...

. It has been represented by Democrat

Simcha Felder Simcha Felder is an American politician from the state of New York and a member of the New York City Council. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Felder represented the New York City's 44th City Council district, 44th district in the ...

since a special election in 2025. He previously represented the district between 2002 and 2010.

Geography

District 44 is based in the heavily

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

neighborhood of Borough Park in southwestern

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, also covering Ocean Parkway and parts of

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

and

Midwood Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and by the Brooklyn College campus of the City ...

. The district overlaps with Brooklyn

Community Boards Community Boards is a community based mediation program, established in 1976, in San Francisco, California, United States by Raymond Shonholtz. The program utilizes volunteers from the neighbourhoods of the city, who work with people involved in ...

11, 12, 14, and 15, and with New York's 9th, 10th, and 11th congressional districts. It also overlaps with the 17th and 22nd districts of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

, and with the 44th, 45th, 47th, 48th, and 49th districts of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

Members representing the district

Recent election results

2025 special

Following Kalman Yeger's resignation to serve in the New York State Assembly, a special election was triggered for this seat. Like all municipal special elections in New York City, the race is officially nonpartisan, with all candidates running on ballot lines of their own creation. Following Ballot Question 1's approval in 2019, special elections will also utilize

ranked-choice voting Ranked-choice voting may be used as a synonym for: * Ranked voting, a term used for any voting system in which voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference * Instant-runoff voting (IRV), a specific ranked voting system with single-wi ...

2023 (redistricting)

Due to redistricting and the 2020 changes to the

New York City Charter The New York City Charter is the municipal charter of New York City. As part of the 1898 consolidation of New York City, the New York State Legislature enacted a charter for the consolidated city (Laws of 1897, chapter 378, effective January 1, ...

, councilmembers elected during the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and 2023 City Council elections will serve two-year terms, with full four-year terms resuming after the 2025 New York City Council elections.

2021

In 2019, voters in New York City approved Ballot Question 1, which implemented

in all local elections. Under the new system, voters have the option to rank up to five candidates for every local office. Voters whose first-choice candidates fare poorly will have their votes redistributed to other candidates in their ranking until one candidate surpasses the 50 percent threshold. If one candidate surpasses 50 percent in first-choice votes, then ranked-choice tabulations will not occur.

2017

In 2017, Councilman David Greenfield left the Council in order to lead the

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) is a New York City-based non-profit social services organization. It offers many services to help hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need. History The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Po ...

. Because his departure occurred after the filing deadline for his seat, local political leaders – among them Greenfield himself – could bypass a regular primary election and instead choose the Democratic nominee for the seat. The chosen candidate was Kalman Yeger, who had previously been set to run against Councilman

Chaim Deutsch Chaim M. Deutsch (born April 15, 1969) is an American politician who served as a New York City Council Member for the New York City's 48th City Council district, 48th district from 2014 to 2021. He is a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat. ...

in a neighboring district. The process was roundly criticized by good government groups, and eventually drew an unsuccessful general election challenge from Yoni Hikind, the son of then-Assemblyman

Dov Hikind Dov Bernard Hikind (born June 30, 1950) is an American politician, activist, and radio talk show host in the state of New York. Hikind served as a Democratic New York State Assemblyman representing Brooklyn's Assembly district 48 for 35 years ...

2013

References

{{New York City Council New York City Council districts