Campaigning to be Woodburgh’s next mayor

There will be a new mayor of Woodsburgh for the first time since 1994 as Deputy Mayor Ed Mukamal and Trustee Lee Israel campaign to lead the quaint village of nearly 800 residents.

Susan Schlaff, the current mayor, is not running for re-election. Election Day is June 18. The mayoral term is two years.

Mukamal, 66, a lifelong resident of Woodsburgh, graduated from Hewlett High School before receiving his bachelor’s in engineering science from Stony Brook University. He then attended New York University’s College of Dentistry. His dentistry offices are located in Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan and on Irving Place in Woodmere. “I’m the best qualified person for the job and I’ve been around a long time,” Mukamal said.

Saying that he doesn’t plan to serve more than two terms, Mukamal said the village needs a transitional mayor, not someone who will hold the position for a long time. “Our village is in transition as the demographics have changed tremendously since 20 years ago,” said Mukamal, referring to the community’s increasing Orthodox Jewish population.

He served as the village’s police commissioner in 1978, and became a trustee four years later, then deputy mayor in 1989. Mukamal is also involved at his synagogue, the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst, is in his second year on the board at The Pankey Institute, a not-for-profit institute for dentists in Key Biscayne, Fla. and served on the board of The Woodmere Club for the past 15 years. “I’ve been involved in the passage of almost every law since 1982,” he said. “My knowledge of the village spans to when we had a constable and our own police force. I’m also very familiar with all the personalities involved in the village.”

Israel, 44, has lived in Woodsburgh for 13 years and in the Five Towns for more than two decades. He has been involved at the Woodmere Club, serving as a trustee and president for the past two years, and a trustee, treasurer and currently rear commodore of the Woodmere Bay Yacht Club. He has served as the village’s commissioner of roads, treasurer, police commissioner.