WEB EXCLUSIVE: For Hoboken Synagogue, Shul Politics Means Mayoral Politics

Dawn Zimmer

by Helen Chernikoff
Special To The Jewish Week

POSTED: Monday, May 11, Noon

Everybody talks about synagogue politics, but at the United Synagogue of Hoboken in northern New Jersey, folks are likely chatting more about who is going to be the next mayor of the city than who is going to be the next president of the Conservative shul. The congregation - the only synagogue of any size in this small city minutes from Manhattan - boasts two of the mayoral candidates with a shot at winning Tuesday's nonpartisan election.

Dawn Zimmer and Beth Mason, both active members, could easily end up in a run-off against each other. Another member, Ruth McAllister, recently won a school board seat. If either Zimmer or Mason wins, Hoboken will have its first Jewish or female

mayor, said Bill Campbell, spokesman for the current mayor, David Roberts, who is not seeking re-election. The other candidates in the race are Peter Cammarano, Thomas Vincent, Ryn Melberg and Frank Orsini.

Hoboken measures a mile square and packs almost 24 churches within its borders, and its politics until recently were dominated by Catholics, both Italian and Irish, Campbell said. That is changing as the town, population 45,000, becomes increasingly bound to Manhattan, the 1.6-million person gorilla across the Hudson. Manhattan desk jockeys of various ethnicities have colonized Hoboken, fueling a demand for new housing and opening up its politics, Campbell said.

"It's about the ease of the commute to Manhattan," Campbell said. "Hoboken is sort of like a borough of New York. This is a new generation and it's probably more mixed than it ever has been."

United Synagogue of Hoboken President Ken Schept, who has lived in the city for 35 years, has observed the same evolution away from a public life dominated by patronage politics.

"Hoboken was a small town that worked in spite of itself. The town could function, but not optimally," he said. "Now the pool of candidates has broadened and your background is much less important than how you can change the city for the better."

But leadership, congregants and candidates alike at the 270-household shul have found the race can on occasion be a source of subtle tension inside the synagogue's century-old walls.

"I know both people, I'm friendly with both," Schept said. He also knows who he going to vote for, and his choice knows who she is, but he is by no means endorsing anyone. "Having to make a choice is a bit awkward for me so I try to be pretty neutral in terms of being president of the synagogue."

For candidates, conversations with fellow congregants about the issues facing the city are freighted with the awareness that one party will make a choice on Election Day and might not choose the other party, Zimmer said.

"There may be an underlying tension but everybody is respectful, and understands that we're both running because we love the community," she said.

Then there was the time someone confronted Zimmer, who along with Mason already sits on the City Council, about taxes after Saturday morning services. Hoboken's property taxes spiked almost 50 percent last assessment - hardly the public servant's choice of topic to chew over along with bagels and herring.

Such intense interactions are, however, relatively rare, said Zimmer and Mason, who have both generally found something of a haven in the synagogue. It has an officially neutral stance on elections that is a boon to members active in public life, Rabbi Robert Scheinberg said.

"People who are deeply involved in politics also need a place where they can come to simply be with their community and get away from those kinds of pressures," Scheinberg said. The fact that Zimmer and Mason are both viable candidates vying for the city's highest office has raised the synagogue's stakes in the race, but a consciously low-key attitude prevails. "I would like to think that we have reacted the way most communities would react, which is with some pride and excitement but also with discretion," Scheinberg said.

This makes synagogue a respite from the constant public scrutiny that comes with a candidacy, Mason said: "In the regular public environment conversations are no longer private or between individuals. In the synagogue, discussions remain personal."

Shabbat has also become more important for both candidates during the race. Mason and her family have drawn inspiration from the weekly Torah portion, finding that it often speaks to the political rough-and-tumble.

"We have two daughters, one going to [Jewish] school, we sit and read it and look at each other as a family and know exactly what it's about," she said.

Shabbat offers Zimmer an essential chance to rest, decompress and re-charge.

"We have family dinners, we light candles and say the prayers and it's part of what helps me survive politics in Hoboken," she said. "You need that time to sort of clear the plate and be with your family."

That kind of Jewish life was commonplace in Hoboken about a hundred years ago, when the synagogue, now undergoing an intricate restoration, was being built, Schept said. Back then, Jewish merchants played an important role in Hoboken and worshipped in as many as six synagogues.

Post-World War II to now, the city experienced the typical trajectory of Jewish migration out to the suburbs that is currently reversing. During the low ebb of the 1970s there were about 300 Jews in Hoboken; today there are at least 3,000, Scheinberg said.

"The way I would say it, is the Jewish community is resuming a presence in Hoboken that it had 100 years ago," Schept said. "People are engaged not only in Jewish life, but in synagogue life, and increasingly you find people who are looking to improve the life of the town." n