by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

August 6, 2009

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie met Monday with leaders of the state’s Orthodox community, appealing to their support for public funding for private education and efforts to protect Jewish institutions from terrorism.

Christie addressed and fielded questions from some 40 rabbis, synagogue presidents, day school officials, and other leaders at an hour-long event at Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David in West Orange.

Participants came from Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic, and Union counties.

The meeting was sponsored by the nonpartisan and tax-exempt Orthodox Union, which has invited Christie’s Democratic opponent, Gov. Jon Corzine, to a similar session.

“We are waiting to set a date,” said Howard Beigelman, deputy director of public policy at the OU. “He knows we want to do it. It’s up to him.”

In an interview a day after the meeting, Beigelman told NJ Jewish News that “the number one kitchen table issue for the Orthodox community is education. Christie very much supports a bipartisan bill to provide tax credits for parents who send their children to private and parochial schools. He said, ‘Every child deserves a good education, no matter what, and if they are in a failing school they deserve to be in a better school.’”

That message appealed to Jeffrey Lichtman, president of the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston.

Christie “mentioned that his own kids go to parochial school and he understood the financial challenges of families who send their kids to parochial school,” Lichtman said.

“I was impressed with him,” said Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, who hosted the meeting at his synagogue. “He certainly has his agenda as far as how he feels he could change the state. He responded very candidly and openly. First and foremost, our schools are in trouble financially and parents are suffering paying tuition.”

Zwickler said he was also concerned about potential attacks on Jewish buildings, especially after a thwarted bomb plot in May against two synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

“He was a U.S. attorney and he knows about threats in the past,” said Zwickler. “There were things of course he couldn’t tell us about, but in general, he spoke of the threats over the years. He felt if he were to become governor he would make them a priority.”

While Christie touched on a number of environmental and economic issues, the subjects of Israel and the July 23 arrests of Jewish community leaders in New Jersey on money-laundering charges were never mentioned.

All the participants interviewed said they are interested in meeting with the governor.

“I plan to attend the session with Corzine,” said Lichtman. “It is always important to hear both sides. Although the economy is not of any one person’s making, at the same time, under his stewardship, things have significantly deteriorated. It will be interesting to hear his take on that and what he plans to do about it. Certainly Christie spoke about things he plans to do.”

“We want to reach out to both Gov. Corzine and Chris Christie so that our community can get a sense of where our state is heading,” said Zwickler.

Although the Orthodox tend to vote for Republican candidates in higher percentages than other parts of the Jewish community, the rabbi said there are diverse voices within his community.

“I have a shul that is very mixed politically. We are a very mixed community. There is not a one-direction voting bloc. Every consumer should make an educated decision, and this kind of thing helps the leadership be able to understand what the major issues are and make sure our voices are heard by the politicians and that our community is taken seriously,” he said.

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