Home

In the wake of the Edison Council elections, some Jewish residents of Edison and Highland Park are concerned that Kehilla of Raritan Valley, a self-labeled "political advocacy group" for the Orthodox community, is trying to steer voter decisions without revealing a basis for being able to represent their needs.

In a May 27 letter to Edison's Jewish community regarding the township's June 2 Democratic primaries, Kehilla endorsed incumbent Jun Choi for mayor as well as Rachel Callen, Meiling Kravarik, and Edward Fitzgerald for township council, citing their "years of support and sensitivity for the needs of our community." All four candidates lost their races.

The Kehilla organization is made up of seven board members and 18 members of an executive committee, according to the letter. The slate of officers "consists of a broad representation of prominent and well-respected individuals gleaned from the seven Edison/Highland Park Orthodox synagogues working together for the common good of our community," Dr. Israel Rivkin, Kehilla's board chairman, said in an email to The Jewish State.

Rivkin declined further comment on the details of how Kehilla officers are chosen as well as the organization's process for endorsing political candidates, and every other Kehilla board member who was contacted did not return phone calls. Fran Ackerman of Highland Park, who attends Congregation Ahavas Achim, said that Kehilla is not representative of the Orthodox community because there is no public knowledge of an election process for the group's officers, and therefore no assurance that those officers will deliver on their promises or be well enough aware of community needs to begin with.

"The way democracy is intended to work, they don't represent the community," Ackerman said. "There are no grounds by which they could claim to represent the opinions of the community."

Kehilla's formal endorsement of a block of candidates can be harmful by preventing Orthodox residents from making objective democratic decisions as voters, Harry Chefitz, who attends Congregation Ohr Torah in Edison, said. Chefitz said that he has always enjoyed how heterogeneous the Orthodox community of Edison and Highland Park has been over his 25 years here, and is afraid that Kehilla may lead to unnecessary tension.

"I fear that [Kehilla] may become a source of divisiveness; I don't think that it's possible to speak with one voice," Chefitz said. "I think one of the obligations of being in a democracy and voting is making your own informed decision. If you bypass that, it negatively influences the democratic process."

One current Kehilla executive committee member, who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for the public ramifications of commenting, recalled never being informed of Kehilla's candidate choices and never being invited to a Kehilla meeting of any kind since July 2008.

A former Kehilla executive committee member agreed to be interviewed for this article but withdrew the offer.

"If you are purporting to represent a community, and you have a board of officers for that purpose, theoretically you should meet up at least quarterly," the current committee member said. The committee member speculated that only a handful of people are involved in the decisions to endorse candidates, and that decisions of that nature would ideally be made by "two or three dozen people."

Kehilla stated in the May 27 letter that it is not a political action committee (PAC), the name given to a group whose main purpose is to elect political candidates. It also stated that it is not affiliated with any single political party. However, just over 89 percent of the campaign donations made by current members of the board and executive committee have been to Democratic Party candidates.

The anonymous current committee member expressed concern about the possible conflict of interest that Kehilla President Moshe Feuer is also a board member for Agudath Israel of New Jersey, while Kehilla executive committee member Josh Pruzansky is AINJ's director. Those affiliations could cause Kehilla to mimic Agudah's priorities, such as a strong focus on the needs of the yeshiva world, the committee member said. Pruzansky did not return phone or email messages, and Feuer did not return a phone call.

"There seems to be a serious blurring of roles," the committee member said.

Ackerman said that if organized correctly, a group like Kehilla has the positive potential to inform elected officials of the Orthodox community's needs and how they can be responsive to them.

Another Orthodox resident of Highland Park, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of the personal repercussions of commenting, said that Kehilla should be more open about its political role rather than using the disguise of being a political advocacy group, as stated in its May 27 letter.

"If someone wants to be politically active on their own, that's fine, but when you hide behind some kind of organizational name that seems to encompass a greater community, that's wrong," the resident said. "How can they say they are not a political action committee if they are trying to get people elected? They should be honest and call themselves something like 'Jews for Choi'."

The anonymous current committee member recalled being approached by at least three people who felt that Kehilla was not truly representative of the local Orthodox community and that the community loses viability in the public sphere when the candidates Kehilla endorses lose, as was the case in the Democratic mayoral and township council primaries of June 2.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg of Congregation Beth-El of Edison, who lost to longtime incumbent District 27 Committeeman Vincent Guarino in the primary, said he thinks Kehilla's endorsement of Guarino made the difference in a closely contested race. Since Choi lost his primary, Rosenberg said he would welcome any local support for Democrat Antonia Ricigliano in the mayoral race, and added that his outlook on the community won't change despite not receiving Kehilla's endorsement.

"I thank those who voted for me and I assure those who didn't vote for me that I will continue to work for the Jewish community," Rosenberg said.

Rivkin stated that, "Kehilla was founded at the urging of a large cross section of the Edison/Highland Park Orthodox Jewish Community to represent it's special needs to the local and state government. Our flourishing community to date has a population of over 1,200 families and continues to grow. We support three highly regarded parochial elementary schools, three growing high schools and a rabbinical academy with a combined student population of over 1,200."