Elijah Reichlin-Melnick

After receiving his bachelor's degree, he spent two years as an elementary school teacher at Dwight Elementary School in New Haven, Connecticut. He later served on the Nyack Village Planning Board and was elected vice president of the Rockland County Young Democrats and chairman of the Nyack Democratic Committee. He was an active member of the Nyack NAACP and the Nyack Tree Committee. After leaving Dwight Elementary School, Reichlin-Melnick began working as a constituent service specialist and district representative for Congressman Eliot Engel and Congresswoman Nita Lowey until 2013. After working in Congress, Reichlin-Melnick completed his master's degree, he worked as the executive assistant for Orangetown, New York Town Supervisor Andy Stewart. He later worked as the legislative director for New York State Senator James Skoufis.^[1]

In April 2017, Reichlin-Melnick was appointed to the Nyack Village Board to fill a vacancy left by Doug Foster. On November 7, 2017, Reichlin-Melnick was elected to a two-year term on the Village Board and was subsequently re-elected on November 3, 2019.

On December 17, 2019, Reichlin-Melnick announced his candidacy for district 38 in the New York State Senate.^[2] On June 23, 2020, Reichlin-Melnick defeated Clarkstown Town Clerk Justin Sweet and Spring Valley Trustee Eudson Francois in the Democratic primary election.^[3] On November 3, 2020, he defeated Republican nominee Bill Weber.^[4] In 2022, Reichlin-Melnick was defeated by Weber in a rematch.^[5] Reichlin-Melnick and Weber faced off for a third time in 2024, and on November 5, 2024, Weber again defeated Reichlin-Melnick by nearly triple the margin of his 2022 victory.^[6]

Reichlin-Melnick's brother, Aaron, is an immigration policy expert and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.^[7]