Rabbi Boteach May Run for Congress
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has sent a letter declaring his intent to run for Congress in New Jersey’s newly formed 9th District.
Boteach sent the letter of intent to the offices of the Bergen County Republican Organization by the Jan. 31 deadline. But he has not decided definitively to run, the New Jersey Jewish Standard reported.
He would face the winner of the Democratic primary between U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell. Two other potential Republican candidates have also submitted letters of intent, according to the PolitickerNJ website.
Boteach told the Jewish Standard that one of the factors that will go into his decision of whether to run will be how much money he can raise for the race. He said he will make up his mind in the next two months.
He told the newspaper that he wants to “bring Jewish values into the political discourse.”
Boteach has been working, unsuccessfully so far, to get the city of Englewood, N.J. to rezone his house as a synagogue.
He is a syndicated columnist and has written several books. The Jewish Standard said that if he becomes the declared candidate that it would discontinue his column until after the race.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
