Great Neck resident Anna M. Kaplan, an Iranian Jew who as a young child fled to the U.S. after the Iranian revolution, is running for District 4 Town of North Hempstead on the Democratic Party line for the seat being vacated by Councilwoman Maria-Christina Poons. If elected in November, Kaplan would be the first Persian American elected the town council.
“I am very proud to be the first Persian American nominated to that level,” Kaplan said. “Yes, I am Persian. I am American Persian. I am not running on that ticket. I am running under the umbrella of representing the people of District 4.”
Born in the small town of Tabriz, Iran, after the revolution the then 13-year-old Kaplan fled the country with her younger brother and headed for Chicago, where her four older brothers were already living. Due to the Iranian hostage crisis, it was seven or eight months before her parents could obtain the visas necessary to come to the U.S.
“We all basically left because we were fearful of our lives. They tried to send the younger generation out because they didn’t know how the new regime was going to react,” she said. “For a while I lived with an American family who took care of me, and then I got an apartment with my brother. It’s been a lot of moving in my life, yes.”
The 4th District includes the villages of Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, Munsey Park, North Hills, Great Neck, Great Neck Gardens, Kensington, Kings Point, Thomaston, and the unincorporated areas of Manhasset and Great Neck, including Great Neck Gardens and Allenwood.
Poons was first elected in 2007. The town board’s first Hispanic member, she had previously announced she would not seek re-election.
Kaplan is a member of the Town of North Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals and Great Neck Library Board of Trustees who has called Great Neck home for 21 years. She is a 17-year resident of the Village of Kensington.
“My intention is to work hard and really represent people of District 4, and I think I could do that given the chance,” said Kaplan, an attorney who has two children at Great Neck North Middle School. Kaplan has also been actively involved in her local civic association and PTA.
Kaplan feels privileged to run for office. In Iran, people did not even feel comfortable enough to vote, she said.
“America is a wonderful country and I would like to give back,” she said. “I feel blessed as an American to be given this opportunity.”
After attending Stern College for Women in New York City, she earned a law degree from Manhattan’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
“I think there needs to be more dialogue between people and the town, making sure peoples’ needs are met,” she said. “I would like everybody to know I will be there, and my door will be open to them.
Kaplan said her achievements include being part of a library board that in the last three years appointed a new library director, architect, and won approvals from the Town of North Hempstead BZA, from which she recused herself.
“I think Great Neck and the Town of North Hempstead is a great place to work and live,” she said. “We come here for the wonderful parks and the great schools.”
If elected, Kaplan said she would use her time in office to help maintain and improve the local community.
“I don’t have an interest,” she said. “I would just like to see what I can do for the benefit of the public. I’ve already met with all the other councils and hope to have a wonderful relationship in working with them.”
