Mayor Bloomberg announced this week the appointment of Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott to the newly created position of liaison to the city’s Jewish day schools.

During a meeting with more than 100 Orthodox Jewish leaders on Wednesday night, both Mr. Bloomberg and his Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, pledged their support for the city’s private schools, but neither endorsed private school vouchers.

Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, vice president for community affairs of Agudath Israel of America, which sponsored the meeting, called the creation of the new liaison position “nothing short of historic.”

At least 80,000 students are enrolled in the city’s more than 200 Jewish day schools.

As part of his new position, Mr. Walcott, who is the deputy mayor for education, will meet with school officials at least two times a year and be available as issues arise. In an interview with The New York Sun, Mr. Walcott called his new position “an outstanding opportunity” and said his exact role would evolve over time.

“I’m going to make sure we can get to the bottom of any outstanding concerns,” he said.

Jewish leaders submitted a request to the mayor’s office last month asking for a contact person to deal directly with Jewish day school problems.

“It’s important to be able to break through the bureaucracy and have a high level contact in the mayor’s office,” the executive vice president of Agudath Israel, David Zwiebel, said.

While the Jewish day schools are privately funded, they must go through the city to receive funding for day care and after school programs, special education students, and programs that put computers in the classroom.

Some religious parents have also clashed with the city over requirements for child immunization, an issue Mr. Walcott will also be asked to address.

Both mayoral candidates were invited to this week’s meeting, but because it is a nonprofit organization, the group will not offer an official endorsement.

Asked if the mayor was using his announcement to garner Jewish votes, Mr. Zwiebel said, “One would look at the calendar and draw one’s own conclusions.” But he added that the mayor has typically been responsive to the Orthodox community.

After the mayor left, Mr. Ferrer, who attended Catholic school in the Bronx and recently came under fire for trying to obfuscate his parochial schooling, said he would not support private school vouchers, an important issue in the Orthodox Jewish community.

“He did say that he was well aware of the difficulties that we’re facing in many of the city’s non-public schools, and he would do whatever it was within his power to help them,” Mr. Zwiebel recalled about Mr. Ferrer’s remarks.

Offering a concrete example of where he disagreed with the mayor, Mr. Ferrer said that, unlike the mayor, he would not have vetoed a bill passed by the City Council to fund more school nurses for private schools.