LAKEWOOD, NJ – New Jersey GOP candidate Jack Ciattarelli was condemned this week for bringing his political campaign to a private religious institution in Lakewood Township without asking for permission, according to a letter signed by the rabbinical leadership of Beth Medrash Govoa (BMG), America’s largest Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva.
A tour of Lakewood was orchestrated by Yankel Wenger, a rabbi appointed to the nearby Jackson Township clergy by Mayor Michael Reina, to craft a public image that Ciattarelli has the support of the Lakewood community leadership. Instead, those leaders have announced their support for his opponent Phil Murphy and will formalize that endorsement in the next few days.
Ocean County GOP Chairman Frank Holman assisted Wenger by asking local Republican leaders to attend the tour with Ciattarelli to give the appearance of a strong unified front. In attendance was Lakewood Senator Robert Singer, a Republican. Singer also attended a visit earlier in the week with Governor Phil Murphy.
It turns out, Ciattarelli’s visit to the country’s largest Orthodox Jewish learning institution where future rabbis from around the country come to study the Torah, did not only show up uninvited, the leadership objected to bringing politics within their walls.
“We are protesting with all the force against the Chillul Hashem (desecration of G-d name) and the Bizayon (defamation) of the honor of the Torah and those who learn it…. that a few individuals without permission from the Yeshiva brought political people into the walls of the Holy Yeshiva, and exploited a Makom Torah (place of Torah) for their personal political agendas,” read the letter in Yiddish that was signed by HaRav Malkiel Kotler, HaRav Dovid Schustal, and HaRav Yisroel Neuman.
Shore News Network reached out to Ciattarelli’s campaign and did not receive a response. Shore News Network also reached out to Wenger and did not receive a response.
