Why is Ritchie Torres Like That?
The congressman from the country’s poorest district is a jingoistic reactionary. But his district isn’t only the poorest, it’s also among the most unequal.
(Ritchie Torres attends the Israeli American Council National Summit on December 11, 2021. Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images.)
Many people are wondering why Ritchie Torres – the congressman from New York’s fifteenth district – is so obsessed with Israel, seemingly to the exclusion of all other issues impacting his constituents. Torres has been an outspoken supporter of the Jewish State for his entire political career, but his rhetoric took on a new dimension following the Hamas attacks of October 7th, 2023. Since then, he’s become notorious for his pro-Israel bombast on social media: proclaiming his ideological commitment to Zionism, cheering on the Gaza genocide, and lobbing accusations of anti-Semitism at any and all critics of Israel’s actions. Depending on the news cycle, the pace of Torres’ pro-Israel posting can reach several dozen times per day.
The fact that a congressman from the poorest district in the country – where the median household income is around $45,000, and where almost one in three residents lives in poverty – has developed such a fixation on a niche foreign policy topic strikes many people as odd, particularly on the left. In October 2023, the writer Adam Johnson observed that:
“In public statements since coming into office in Jan. 2021, Torres has mentioned ‘Israel’ 337 times and ‘poverty’ 143 times. On his official website there are 202 mentions of Israel and 77 mentions of poverty. On Twitter there are 73 tweets about Israel and 12 about poverty. On Facebook, there are 62 mentions of Israel and 54 mentions of poverty.
In theory, one can care about Israel…and poverty at the same time. But in Torres’ case the disproportionate focus on the latter in his public comments indicates someone who views his job as shoring up the US arms industry and unquestioned subjugation of the Palestinians more than materially reducing extreme poverty in his own district.”
Some have suggested that one explanation for Torres’ behavior is that he represents Riverdale, a neighborhood in the northwest corner of the Bronx. Local sources estimate that there are around 20,000 Jewish people living in the area, more than a quarter of whom are Orthodox. Riverdale’s Jewish residents have long shaped its identity, and it’s home to a great number of Jewish schools, businesses, and cultural institutions. After October 7th, the neighborhood saw large demonstrations in support of Israel, with reporters noting that many residents have relatives there, including active servicemembers in its armed forces.
But others have pointed out that Torres’ pro-Israel bona fides long predate his time as Riverdale’s representative – in fact, they may be the reason why he represents it in the first place. When Torres was elected to Congress in 2020, New York’s fifteenth district encompassed only the South Bronx and was among the most geographically compact in the country. But it took on a far more peculiar shape after redistricting two years later, snaking northwest to absorb Riverdale and the adjacent neighborhoods of Fieldston and Spuyten Duyvil.1 As Jewish Insider reported at the time, many leaders in the community welcomed the change, as their relationship with Jamaal Bowman – their former representative – was fraught owing to his occasional criticisms of Israel. For his part, Torres gushed: “Combating antisemitism and advocating for an abiding American-Israeli relationship have long been passions of mine. To have the opportunity to represent Riverdale…feels like a marriage made in heaven.”
In all likelihood, New York’s powers that be brokered a deal: Riverdale got a representative it was more comfortable with, Torres got a constituency he’s long admired, and Bowman got somewhat less pressure to toe the line on Israel – not that it helped him very much in the end. As for why Torres is so committed to Israel in the first place, I take him at his word that after studying the issue he came to genuinely believe in the merits of his position, even if I personally find it abominable. However, this doesn’t mean Riverdale has had no effect on him at all. Because while his passion for Israel hasn’t changed in years, the same can’t be said for the rest of his worldview.
As a member of the New York City Council, Torres cultivated a progressive reputation with his support for defunding the police and border security agencies, not to mention mass amnesty for undocumented immigrants. As recently as 2022, he backed a litany of left-wing priorities while courting endorsements from community groups, including decriminalizing sex work, establishing safe consumption sites for drug users, and refusing donations from law enforcement unions. But Torres has executed a remarkably swift rebrand over the past two years, and he’s now gearing up to challenge Kathy Hochul from the right in the upcoming Democratic gubernatorial primary. In recent months he’s blasted Hochul over her record on public safety, voted to deport undocumented immigrants accused of nonviolent offenses, and lamented the tax and regulatory burdens allegedly hamstringing New York’s economy.
Now, it’s certainly possible that Torres’ transformation is nothing more than opportunism. There’s no shortage of Democrats looking to blame the recent failures of their party on progressive excess, and Torres may believe that he can ride that sentiment into the governor’s mansion. Still, if you’ve ever taken a walk through Riverdale and its environs, it’s hard to escape the feeling that Torres is in fact genuinely advocating for his constituents – albeit a very particular subset of them. That’s because the most relevant fact about the area’s residents isn’t their religious identity, but their class position. To see what I mean, let’s take a look at some of the real estate on offer in the area.
This Riverdale property listed by Sotheby’s last year eventually sold for $7,000,000. Amenities in this 12,000 square foot mansion include “an elevator, a palatial indoor swimming pool, six-car garage, separate one-bedroom guest house, garden shed, gazebo, and pergola, all elegantly sited on over 1.5 acres of private, secluded, and professionally landscaped grounds.”
(Photos via Zillow.)
Here's a Fieldston property that’s been covered extensively in the local press. Built in 1928 by the shipping magnate Clement Acton Griscom, Jr. and his wife Genevieve, the house was intended to serve as a palace for Jesus Christ following his return to Earth (the Griscoms were members of a millenarian cult that believed the second coming was imminent and that Jesus would rule from the Bronx.) The property last sold in 2017 for $6,250,000.
(Photos via Zillow.)
Villa Charlotte Brontë is a famous complex consisting of seventeen apartments in Spuyten Duyvil. Perched on the bluffs overlooking the Hudson River, this fairytale property is presided over by a totalitarian co-op board, and it’s exceedingly rare for a unit to come on the market. When they do, they can sell for well over $1,000,000.
(Photos by Zoe Wetherall for the New York Post and Frankie Alduino for Curbed.)
For a more holistic view of this part of the Bronx, check out this drone footage taken by the Corcoran Group to advertise some of their listings in the area. It’s also worth having a look at this recent YouTube video by local creator Josh on the Ground – “The Secret Multi-Millionaires of the Bronx” – which examines the tension between these tony enclaves and the working-class Kingsbridge neighborhood immediately adjacent to them. Secret multimillionaires are no doubt a minority in New York’s fifteenth district, but that’s never stopped them from exercising disproportionate influence over their representatives.
As in many areas of New York City, tedious debate rages over the precise demarcation of neighborhood boundaries, and some consider Fieldston and Spuyten Duyvil to be subsections of a greater Riverdale.