On a Tuesday morning in March, 22 girls from Ahavas Bais Yaakov of Monsey stepped off a coach bus at the New York State Capitol. By the end of the day, they had sat in on a live Senate session, eaten lunch in a reserved Capitol room where several elected officials stopped by, received a tour of the Senate chambers, and been introduced from the floor by their district’s senator as the session opened.

It was not a typical school trip.

The man behind it is Shmulie Hartstein, an askan from Monsey who has been building a civic engagement operation largely under the radar.

Through his organization Kol Yisroel, Hartstein has taken groups to Albany six times since January, with a seventh trip scheduled for Tuesday. He has developed a civics curriculum now running in at least two yeshivos, and has been pushing a state assembly bill to create a 100-foot buffer zone around houses of worship — a bill that has picked up 13 co-sponsors in the assembly, including members from districts that rarely intersect with frum community concerns.
“My goal when I started this was that if next year I could get yeshivas and schools to buy into the education part of it, that’s a win,” Hartstein said. “But baruch Hashem, it happened way sooner.”

The education component, which Hartstein considers the foundation of everything else, began in earnest this winter when he started teaching a civics course to 12th-grade girls at Ahavas Bais Yaakov. The curriculum covers local and state government, the legislative process in Albany, and the history of civic engagement in America.

The students came in knowing little about how government works — and left with something more than information.

“I explained to them that if their husbands want to go into klal work or elected office or any type of public service, a supportive wife makes a very strong husband,” he said. “The girls really got it.”
The March trip to Albany tested the theory. Senators and assembly members didn’t just greet the class — they engaged it. Senator Jessica Scarcella-Stanton of Staten Island told the girls they held “a very special place” in her heart.

Assembly Member Nily Rozic, who was born in Jerusalem and represents a district in Queens, urged several of the students to consider summer internships in political offices. Two of them expressed serious interest.

Then there was the moment in the Senate chamber. Senator Bill Weber, who represents Rockland County, introduced the class from the floor as the session opened. Every senator in the chamber applauded. The girls stood.
“It was a very special moment,” Hartstein said simply.

The second school now running the program is Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway, where Hartstein has hosted four classes. The guest lecturers have included former State Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and Maury Litwack of Jewish Voters Unite. On Monday, the class was addressed by Anthony D’Esposito, the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor and a former congressman. A third yeshiva, in Monsey, is now in conversations to join the program.

On Monday’s class, Hartstein said D’Esposito’s visit was a “great finale.”

“He spoke to the class his experience in the United States Congress; about the importance of advocacy, relationships, being a mentsch, and showing up. He spoke about his time in the NYPD and the boys asked him really good questions; it was great. He was there for an hour.”

The civics program is the part Hartstein talks about most, but the legislative piece has developed faster than he expected.

For months, Hartstein and his groups had been pressing Albany for legislation that would establish a 100-foot buffer zone around houses of worship — protecting houses of worship from protesters and harassment. The ask was considered a long shot. A competing bill already existed in the Senate, sponsored by Senator Sam Sutton, but it covered only 25 feet and was bundled with protections for health care clinics as well.

Hartstein kept showing up. January 20. February 4. Trip after trip to the office of Assemblyman George Alvarez, a Democrat from the Bronx’s 78th District who has no shuls in his constituency but carries a deep personal faith.

“We met with his chief of staff,” Hartstein recalled. “We didn’t even get to the member himself. But his chief of staff came back to him and said: these guys keep showing up. They mean it. It’s a good thing.”

On March 13 — five weeks after that February visit — Alvarez’s office called. The assemblyman was introducing a House of Worship Protection bill. No healthcare facilities. No 25-foot compromise. A clean, 100-foot buffer, the language Hartstein had been pushing for.
“This is a total House of Worship bill,” Hartstein said. “Straight what it is. It’s a prayer bill.”

Within days, Hartstein’s Albany trips shifted from relationship-building to co-sponsor recruitment. Within two weeks, the bill had picked up 13 assembly co-sponsors — stretching from District 4 on Long Island’s South Shore to District 127 in the Syracuse suburbs, including Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the Assembly Republican Assistant Minority Leader.

Assemblyman David Weprin, who represents Orthodox communities in Queens, is also on the bill.
“We have people from Schenectady, from Syracuse — regular people who were just compassionate to the cause,” Hartstein said. “People that the frum community would have never targeted.”

The assembly picture is now strong enough that Hartstein has stopped chasing additional co-sponsors there. The remaining obstacle is the Senate, where he needs a Democratic moderate willing to introduce a companion bill. Senator Sam Sutton, the author of the earlier 25-foot measure, has declined to shift his position. With roughly six weeks remaining in the legislative session, Hartstein’s group has lined up ten meetings with senators across the state for next week’s trip.

“You’re never going to get a progressive senator to put this bill in,” he said. “You’ve got to go to a moderate, and it’s got to be a Democrat, otherwise the bill doesn’t move. So we have many meetings. We’re very hopeful.”

Some of the most memorable encounters on these trips have had nothing to do with the buffer zone bill at all. On a recent visit, Hartstein’s group sat down with Assemblyman Al Stirpe, a veteran legislator from District 127 who represents farm towns in Onondaga County. Stirpe had questions about the bill, and the meeting was getting tense. Then he pivoted.
“He turns to the boys and says: How do you guys feel about supermarkets being able to sell liquor?” Hartstein recalled. “They all said, great idea, why not?”

What followed was a 15-minute back-and-forth on New York’s liquor licensing laws and the small business owners who depend on them. By the end, the boys had changed their minds. Stirpe came on to the buffer zone bill.

“This is a guy who’s probably never seen a yarmulke before in his life, just schmoozing with the boys about worldly affairs,” Hartstein said. “And this is what happens every time.”

The buffer zone bill in New York City — pushed by Council Speaker Julie Menin — was watered down under pressure from progressive groups before it could pass, ending up with no specific distance requirement at all.

“The DSA wing of the Democratic Party knows how to fight. They know how to stay focused on what they want,” Hartstein said. “The frum community knows how to give money. And what they don’t realize is that in today’s day and age, you have to show up for things to happen.” He called the city council’s toothless version “a joke and a loss.” The state bill, by contrast, would preempt any local weakening: under New York law, localities can pass stricter measures than the state, but cannot dilute them.

The activity has been expanding beyond what Hartstein originally planned. Men in their 40s, unaffiliated with any advocacy organization, have been calling to join upcoming trips. A large Orthodox summer camp has reached out about organizing a delegation to Washington.

“I never did Washington before,” he said. “So I have to see. But there’s a tremendous amount of momentum.”

The seventh Albany trip is Tuesday.