As the only Jewish candidate in the race for mayor, Anthony Weiner managed to woo Orthodox Jewish voters at his debut appearance to the Jewish community since his announcement. At least that was the impression of my colleague at Ha’aretz, Chemi Shalev, who was among those who gathered at a mayoral forum hosted by the Jewish Press Wednesday night.

“Judging by the decibels of the applause he received at a Jewish debate in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Anthony Weiner stands a good chance of picking up a sizeable chunk of Jewish votes in his bid to become the Democratic candidate to replace Michael Bloomberg in the upcoming November elections for Mayor of New York.

As his rivals struggled with the proper pronunciation of “metzitza b’peh”, the traditional yet controversial custom of oral suction during circumcision – the very first question asked by Jewish Press editors (!) – Weiner jumped on the chance to prove his Jewish credentials by prattling off half a dozen Hebrew/Yiddish words, including “simcha”(happy occasion), “melave malka” (the end of Sabbath meal), “tashlich” (sin-cleansing ritual), “kishkes” (guts, literally and figuratively) and Jonathan Pollard to boot.

Among his other advantages, Weiner is the sole Jewish candidate in a wide Democratic field that ethnically includes one Irish woman as well as a Puerto Rican, a Taiwanese, a Brooklynite with Caribbean roots and two Catholic Italians. In what many people consider to be the most Jewish city in the world – with or without Israel – in which almost a fifth of the Democratic voters are Jewish and which has elected two three-term Jewish mayors in Bloomberg and Ed Koch in recent years, being Jewish is a definite advantage.”

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)