In an interview this week with Hamodia, an Orthodox Jewish newspaper, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno was asked about what the paper called a growth in anti-semitism across New Jersey, specifically citing Mahwah and Jackson Township.
Kim Guadagno is running for election to become the next governor of the State of New Jersey, facing off against Wall Street millionaire Phil Murphy.
Here’s what she had to say…
A related issue. There’s recently been a growth in anti-Semitism in New Jersey. You have it on an official level — Mahwah banning the eruv, Jackson passing a no-knocking bill. Both of these are widely seen as targeting Orthodox communities, saying we don’t want you here. There’s been vandalisms, attacks. You don’t hear any official condemnation of it.
Oh, you hear it from me all the time. We have to be ever-vigilant. We have the most strict anti-bullying laws in the country, or one of the most, and we need to be sure that there is zero tolerance for any kind of discrimination on any level in any community. And if those laws are designed to be discriminatory, they should be banned, period.
And, you know, one of the biggest calling cards we have in New Jersey when it comes to creating businesses is we’re very, very open-minded, and we’re very culturally diverse and we’re just one of the most diverse states in this country, and that is a calling card for business. That’s why we have such a big Orthodox Jewish population, quite frankly, because we are so open-minded. And when those — I hope isolated — offensive behaviors occur, I, as a former federal prosecutor and as a state prosecutor, will, of course, aggressively pursue whoever those offenders are, immediately.
You can read the entire interview here.