Now, that’s how you write a Jewish Press news brief! Old time close friend of our regular contributor Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Newark Mayor, Democrat Cory Booker, easily defeated his Republican opponent in Wednesday’s special election, and will serve the remainder of the term of late Senator Frank Lautenberg, who died in office in June at the age of 89. So, in a way, the seat remained Jewish.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Booker had 55 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Steve Lonegan, a Republican former mayor of Bogota, N.J., and state director of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, according to The Associated Press.

Of course, the freshman Senator will have to hit the ground running, since Lautenberg’s term will expire next year, and the champ will have to earn his title one more time.

Earlier this week, as part of their ongoing journey through the Holy Land, Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Mehmet Oz and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, aka “America’s Rabbi,” visited the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the ancient city of David in Jerusalem.

Dr Oz commented: “I love the fact that I’m here in Hebron, where it all began. It’s a very special place.”

“I’m told that Hebron means ‘connected’ in Hebrew,” the renowned surgeon who was introduced to American audiences on the Opra Winfrey show in 2004 added. “Being here connects us to the roots of our shared beliefs, the very spot were Abraham, the father of monotheism, is buried.”

The Dr. Oz Show, a daily television program focusing on medical issues and personal health was launched by Winfrey in 2009.

Boteach and Oz prayed for peace together from the book of Psalms, and lit candles at the holy site.

Following the prayer, Rabbi Boteach commented: “The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is one of the only places on earth where one can see both Jews and Muslims praying together at the same site. We pray for the day when we will all pray together as brothers, just as Dr. Oz and I have done today.”

On exiting the cave the Rabbi and the surgeon joined an impromptu Hora dance circle with the local residents and took photographs with some the Israeli soldiers stationed there.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and This World: The Jewish Values Network are hosting Dr. Mehmet Oz and his family on their first visit to Israel. The trip was initiated by Rabbi Shmuley, who crowned Oz and his wife “Champions of Jewish Values,” together with Elie Wiesel and Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.

Shmueley and Oz met on the Opra show.

Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker is leading the Democratic primary polls and if he wins, he is a shoo-in for a general election victory to replace Frank Lautenberg in the Senate.

Already touted as possible presidential candidate in the future, Booker’s interest in Jewish studies began approximately 20 years ago when he met a Chabad rabbi. A “chavrutah” Torah study partner is – who else? – Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

The Wall Street Journal noted Monday that his wide contacts with Jewish sources have helped him fill his campaign chest, even though Lautenberg’s family is far from thrilled with his candidacy and have endorsed one of his opponents, Rep. Frank Pallone.

Booker, a black Christian, usually appears at a Passover Seder, and he is so interested in Israel that he once took his parents to visit the Jewish state.

His knowledge of Judaism “could put many of us to shame,” New Jersey philanthropist and Jewish Federation leader Lori Klinghoffer told the Journal.

Booker has been in politics since a young age, after having grown up in a predominantly white upper-class borough of Bergen County. His parents were among the first black executives at IBM.

After earning a law degree at Yale, he moved to Newark to become a tenants’ rights attorney when he was  only 27. He quickly moved into politics and was elected to the city council in 1998. Booker narrowly lost his seat in 2002 but regained in four years later and then became mayor.

NORPAC, a top pro-Israel political action committee, endorsed Newark Mayor Cory Booker for New Jersey’s U.S. Senate seat just hours after he signaled he would run.

“With the recent passing of our friend, Frank Lautenberg, the United States Senate lost one of Israel’s and the Jewish community’s greatest friends and supporters,” NORPAC said in an email Thursday announcing a June 16 fundraiser for Booker, just hours after reports emerged that he was circulating petitions to qualify for the seat vacated by the death this week of Lautenberg.

“We must ensure that this seat is filled by someone with the same passion and commitment to those critical issues,” said the email from the New Jersey-based PAC, one of the top-earning pro-Israel PACs. “We believe we have found just that candidate – Newark Mayor Cory Booker.”

It was not clear from the announcement whether Booker would appear at the event.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, set an October date for a special election to fill the seat of Lautenberg, a Democrat.

Booker, a popular Democratic mayor who has presided over a revival of the blighted city, has deep pro-Israel roots dating to his days at Oxford University, when he led a group for Jewish students and others called L’Chaim House. He has maintained a close friendship with the founder of L’Chaim, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who last year failed in a Republican bid for a seat in the U.S. Congress. Booker and Boteach frequently appear together at speaking events.

In a race we closely watched, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach lost the NJ 9th District race to his opponent Bill Pascrell 76.1% (97,646) to 22.8% (29,214).

For New Jersey voters who place a high priority on the safety of Israel and want the U.S. government to continue its strong support for the Jewish State, there is only one choice in the 9th District race – Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

It isn’t just that Boteach is a rabbi, steeped in Jewish law and lore and is strongly pro-marriage, pro-America and pro-democracy, and it certainly isn’t that he is a world-famous author and larger-than-life personality, although he is all of that. It’s simply that despite there being a low bar set for congressmen to apply to their lapels the hecsher of “pro-Israel,” not all of them really deserve it, and Boteach’s opponent falls firmly into that category.

Boteach’s opponent, Bill Pascrell, Jr., was first elected to congress in 1996 and since then represented New Jersey’s 8th District, until it was redrawn which is why he is now facing Boteach in the 9th.  It is true that during his congressional tenure Pascrell has voted each time to support aid to Israel which, in the eyes of many who professionally hold out that low bar, makes Pascrell pro-Israel.

In fact, following a recent debate between the congressional candidates after Boteach insisted his opponent’s record is not sufficiently pro-Israel, Pascrell thundered at Boteach, “you don’t preach to me about my relationship with Israel!”

Pascrell practically foamed at the mouth as he spat out, “I did the right thing [in supporting Israel]. I want Israel to have the power to protect itself. You show me one time I went against that principle or one time I didn’t vote for dollars to make Israel safer!”

But Boteach doesn’t question Pascrell’s vote for U.S. aid to Israel.  “Instead,” he told The Jewish Press, “the problem is that Pascrell criticizes Israel when she uses that aid to defend herself.”

Pascrell signed the infamous Gaza 54 letter blasting Israel for what it called “collective punishment” of Gazans by blockading food and medicine — not true — and reserved a meeting space for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Capital building.

And just recently Boteach pointed out another way in which Pascrell, despite his public vows, is tone deaf to the interests of Jews.

This September it was announced that a portion of a park located within the 9th District, in Clifton, was going to be renamed for a local resident who had recently died, Chester Grabowski.  Grabowski had been the publisher of a local Polish-American weekly, the Post Eagle.

Pascrell had written an enthusiastic letter of endorsement to rename that park.  But Grabowski’s Post Eagle regularly referred to Jews as “vermin,” “animals” and “Christ killers.”

Pascrell’s letter in support of honoring Grabowski stated,

I knew Chester for many years and he was a great friend. He was a kind and respected man who would help anyone in need and he was a friend to all.  Chester was an individual who cared about the City of Clifton and was a strong advocate of the Polish-American community, not only in the City of Clifton, but all across the great State of New Jersey…For this, I whole heartedly support the honor of memorializing the Richard Scales Park to a resident, a businessman, and a leader in the City of Clifton, Mr. Chester Grabowski. His legacy will not only be that of a successful newspaper he operated for many years, but the family man who worked so hard for his community

And this isn’t the only hater of Jews and Israel on behalf of whom Pascrell has used his public office.

Pascrell signed an affidavit opposing the deportation of radical anti-Israel Imam Mohamad Qatanani, the Imam of one of the largest mosques in New Jersey, calling him “peace-loving” and “magnanimous.”  That’s hard to square with information provided by Steve Emerson, one of the world’s leading terrorism experts.

Emerson wrote that Qatanani’s deportation case centered on the Imam’s lying on his immigration documents about having been arrested by Israel for membership in the terrorist organization Hamas.  But even while in the United States, Qatanani openly displayed his hatred and contempt for Israel.  He allegedly referred to the creation of Israel as “the greatest disaster which occurred on the face of the Earth,” and has called for supporting the children of homocide bombers.

It is difficult to reconcile that with the words in Pascrell’s affidavit and his 2008 description of Qatanani whom he said, “put so much time into bringing peace for all of us. Thank you imam, for all you’ve done for America since you’ve come here.”

Thank you, voters of New Jersey’s 9th, if you vote for Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to be your next congressional representative.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife for a second time have given $500,000 to a Super PAC supporting Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s bid for Congress.

The Adelsons gave the money to the Patriot Prosperity PAC, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the gift, after having given the same amount earlier this year. They also gave $10,000 directly to the Boteach campaign.

Boteach is running as the Republican candidate in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District against eight-term incumbent Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.).

Boteach, who once was affiliated with the Chabad movement, bills himself as “America’s Rabbi.” He hosts a show on TLC called “Shalom in the Home” and is the author of several books, including “Kosher Sex,” “Kosher Adultery,” “The Kosher Sutra” and, most recently, “Kosher Jesus.”

Adelson has said multiple times that a candidate’s support for Israel is critical to whether he gives and how much. He has given $10 million to a Super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and earlier in the campaign put $20 million toward Newt Gingrich’s GOP primary bid.

Super PACs can raise unlimited sums from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as individuals, and indirectly support a political candidate. They cannot by law coordinate with the candidate’s official campaign.

The most unpleasant people I have encountered in politics are those who put party before principle, partisanship before politeness, tribal political doctrine before common human decency. Since beginning my run for Congress I have been approached by Republicans convinced that Barack Obama is the devilish anti-Christ promised in the Book of Revelation and Democrats who have told me that all Republicans are cold, heartless, bigots. Hatemongers like these who make every political attack personal are ruining our country.

I was saddened to discover that David Harris, President of the National Jewish Democratic Council, has decided to join these ranks. In a below-the-belt attack on mega-philanthropists Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, Harris forbade any Republicans from accepting their money due to allegations made against them by a disgruntled former employee. Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard, a Democrat, has already expertly eviscerated Harris for hypocrisy and political prejudice.

Ordinarily, an attack by the political hack of one party about a mega-contributor to another party would not merit attention or comment. But what made Harris’s vitriol most unfortunate was that it was one Jew deriding the two foremost private supporters of Jewish identity and the State of Israel in the entire world.

Most Jewish Democrats – and they are a sizable number – do not agree with Sheldon and Miriam Adelson on their politics. But they certainly revere them for their philanthropy. Here is a business magnate who has given over $100 million to Birthright Israel – the single most successful Jewish educational program in the history of the Jewish people – which has taken over 300,000 young Jews to the Holy Land at zero charge. Surely Harris has countless friends and acquaintances who have benefited from Birthright. Could he not show some basic appreciation to the couple who have made so many of those trips possible? Could he not have broken with the Adelsons over their opposition to President Obama but still praised them for vastly increasing global Jewish attachment to Israel?

I have twice led 50 young Jews on Birthright trips. On both occasions the majority never even had a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, which we gave them, amidst song and dance, at the Kotel. For most the trip was transformative, conveying a sense of identity and peoplehood in young Jews who otherwise had little attachment to the community. At the end of each trip my group asked me how it was possible that anyone would fork out so much money for them to experience ten free days across the length and breadth of Israel. I would tell them that basic decency dictated that they emails thanks to the people who made it possible, with Michael Steinhart and Charles Bronfman, Birthright’s co-founders, and Sheldon Adelson, its biggest contributor, foremost among them. I’m assuming David Harris shares my belief in the Jewish value of gratitude.

The Adelsons likewise support countless other vital Jewish institutions, most notably Yad Vashem which is charged with preserving the sacred memory of six million martyred Jews and to which the Adelsons contributed $25 million dollars. I have no doubt that David Harris is as committed to Holocaust education as any other Jewish leader and would therefore applaud the Adelsons generosity.

I originally met the Adelsons through Michael Steinhardt. What I have come to appreciate in Sheldon Adelson is a billionaire’s commitment to a cabdriver father’s memory. At a ZOA dinner a few years ago Adelson received an award for his lifelong commitment to defending Israel against attack. In his acceptance speech he spoke of his father’s perennial dream of visiting Israel which was outside his means. Later, after his father’s passing, when he achieved wealth and visited Israel for the first time, he wore his father’s shoes so they could create traces in the holy land.

This past March I asked Sheldon what motivated his philanthropy and support of Jewish and medical organizations worldwide. He told me that when he was a little boy his father used to come home from driving his cab. He would take the change out of his pocket and put into a charity box for the Jewish National Fund. He asked his father why he put money in the box and his father responded that he had an obligation to help the poor. “But we’re poor,” he said. His father responded, “There are always people poorer than you. And you have to always help them.”