H EADLINES
Campaign Continued from Page 1
negativity in their campaigns.

“Th e most important thing
to me, as a candidate, but more
importantly as a person, was
running this campaign the way
I did: ethically, with integrity. I
was the only statewide Jewish
candidate this election cycle, so
it was important to me to make
sure that I conducted myself
in a way that would make us
proud,” McLaughlin said.

Th e Pennsylvania Supreme
Court race was defi ned by both
candidates’ steep budgets. One
week before the election, Brobson
launched an ad claiming,
without additional context,
that McLaughlin had “chose to
void the guilty plea of a drunk
driver who admitted to killing a
pregnant woman and her unborn
child,” though she had actually
joined a majority opinion among
judges saying that the defendant
should be retried.

The Bar Association’s
Judicial Campaign Advertising
Committee asked the Brobson
campaign to withdraw or edit
the advertisement.

Th e day before the election,
McLaughlin, a Congregation
LEGAL DIRECTORY
Mikveh Israel member, visited
the Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
mikvah in Wynnewood, her
fi rst time since converting to
Judaism in 2017.

“I never anticipated attacks
coming from another judge,”
she said. “Th at disheartens me.

When I went to the mikvah, I
came out diff erent.”
But according to other
candidates, negativity in
campaigning is not endemic to
just one side of the aisle.

“I was proud that my
campaign was taking the high
road,” Weintraub said. “Th ere
were some professional attacks
that my opponent levied
against me, but I didn’t really
think to get into the gutter
with my opponent, and I really
didn’t have to.”
Weintraub won his election
by 32,000 votes by almost 17
points against Democratic
opponent Antonetta Stancu,
his former assistant district
attorney. Th e district attorney, who
became a bar mitzvah at Shir
District Attorney Matt Weintraub
Courtesy of Matt Weintraub
Ami in Newtown, said integrity
was his key asset in his govern-
ment role.

“Every decision I make is
based on principle as opposed to
based on political expediency,”
Weintraub said. “Sometimes
people don’t agree with my
decisions, but I know I’ll be able
to lay my head on my pillow
every night and sleep well.”
Weintraub said
his upcoming term will be defi ned
I never anticipated attacks coming from
another judge. That disheartens me.”
MARIA MCLAUGHLIN
ELDER LAW
AND ESTATE PLANNING
Wills Trusts
Powers of Attorney
Living Wills
Probate Estates
Protect assets from
nursing home
LARRY SCOTT AUERBACH, ESQ.

CERTIFIED ELDER LAW ATTORNEY
CPA-PFS, J.D., LL.M.,MBA
1000 Easton Road
Abington, PA 19001
For consultation call
215-517-5566 or
1-877-987-8788 Toll Free
Website: www.Lsauerbach.com
10 NOVEMBER 11, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
City Controller Rebecca
Rhynhart Courtesy of Offi ce of City Controller
by addressing recidivism in
the community, as he hopes
to tackle what he believes are
the root causes of crime: drug
scourges and mental health
issues. He attributes his popularity
in Bucks County to his
commitment to working across
the aisle — he’s one of the
few Republican offi cers in the
county government — and
returning every phone call and
email received from commu-
nity members.

Rhynhart credits commu-
nity trust with her race without
opposition as well. Following a
competitive primary election
in 2017, Rhynhart’s 2021 run
was proof that she had gained
the trust of the Philadelphia
public, she said.

“Th e reason I think I won
four years ago is that people
in Philadelphia want change;
they want a government that
works,” Rhynhart said.

In her fi rst term, Rhynhart,
who became a bat mitzvah at
Congregation Rodeph Shalom
in Center City, conducted
an audit of the Philadelphia
Parking Authority, a risky task
due to its ties to both political
parties. Th e audit investigated
the effi ciency of the authority,
whose extra funds are supposed
to be funneled to the School
District of Philadelphia.

Though each
candi- date claimed integrity as the
Jewish value that shaped their
campaigns, according to Robin
Judge Maria McLaughlin
Photo by R.D. Gallego
Schatz, director of government
aff airs at Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia, Jews,
particularly younger ones,
don’t necessarily care about
candidates espousing Jewish
values during elections.

“There are people who
will vote for a candidate
because of his or her religious
background,” Schatz said. “But
especially with younger voters
... I don’t know if it makes a
diff erence.”
Schatz said that voters
who are pro-life may search
for candidates whose religious
values support their political
leanings. Abortion will be a hot-button
issue for the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court in the upcoming
term, McLaughlin said.

Th e trend of younger Jewish
voters potentially caring less
about the religious values of
candidates comes in tandem
with there being fewer young
voters, Schatz said. In both
Philadelphia and Bucks
counties, voter turnout for 18-
to 24-year-olds was the lowest
of all age brackets, according to
the Pennsylvania Department
of State.

To increase voter turnout,
Schatz believes young voters
need to believe their vote
counts. “Th ey don’t see that it makes
a diff erence,” she said. ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Antisemitism racism and misogyny, among
other forms of hate. More
than 200 people showed up,
Jews and non-Jews, according
to organizer Marlene Prey, a
Doylestown resident whose
husband is Jewish.

“Given that it was planned
in a number of days, it was
profound and beautiful to see
the response,” she said.

The day after the vigil,
Pennsbury district residents
reelected the two Jewish board
members running, Waldorf
and Palsky. They also elected
the four other Democrats
Continued from Page 1
member Debra Wachspress
said. Pennsbury’s new Director
of Equity, Diversity and
Education Cherrissa Gibson
hired a consultant to conduct
an audit.

Neither issue had a substan-
tive connection to Judaism
or the Jewish people. Yet in
attacking Pennsbury board
members for overseeing the
policies, some parents resorted
to antisemitism, according to
board members.

Four of Pennsbury’s nine
board members — Josh
Waldorf, Howard Goldberg,
Linda Palsky and Wachspress
— are Jewish. But emails
and threats to Pennsbury’s
entire board, and to President
Christine Toy-Dragoni, who is
not Jewish, have been antise-
mitic in nature.

Last spring, according to
Wachspress, most of the vitriol
came from inside the district’s
geographical area. But in June,
Simon Campbell, a Lower
Makefield resident, appeared
on Fox News to denounce an
alleged free speech violation by
the board.

The district edited videos
of public comments made by
parents at spring meetings,
according to reporting by
Levittown Now. That incident
led to a federal lawsuit in the
fall alleging that Pennsbury
had violated parents’ First
Amendment rights.

“I’m like, ‘This is the United
States of America. This is not
OK,’” Campbell said to host
Laura Ingraham on “The
Ingraham Angle.”
After the local man’s four
minutes of fame, emails and
threats started coming from
outside the district, too,
according to board members.

One message said, “You
should have been finished
off in the gas chambers,” per
Wachspress. Another, directed
at Toy-Dragoni, said, “You
Ashkenazi Jews owe the world
reparations for saving you in
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM running for seats.

None of the Republican
candidates won their races.

Pennsbury’s new board, like
its last one, will consist of nine
Democrats. “We have more support,”
Palsky said.

Wachspress wants those
supporters to come to board
meetings, too.

“It’s necessary,”
she concluded. “There’s power in
numbers.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Exclusive Women’s Apparel Boutique
Made in USA
Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy addresses the crowd at the vigil in Yardley
on Nov. 1.
Courtesy of Sue-Ann DiVito
World War II.”
Palsky, who converted to
Judaism after marrying her
husband in 1977, got a message
on her phone from someone
threatening to smack her and
beat her up. Later, she got a
call from a man posing as a
police officer. He said he had a
complaint about Palsky sending
a death threat to Jennifer
Spillane, an opponent in the
2021 school board election.

Palsky said she sent no such
threat. Then, she asked the man
if Lower Makefield Police Chief
Kenneth Coluzzi knew he was
calling. The man hung up.

Wachspress and Palsky said
some of the messages have been
anonymous. In addition to
antisemitic, they also have been
misogynistic, homophobic and
anti-immigrant. But antisemitism has
surfaced more often than
the other forms of hatred,
Wachspress said.

“It felt like the vast majority
of these messages were antise-
mitic,” she said.

Both women described the
vitriol as scary, discomforting
and perhaps ominous.

They said it only takes one
person to perpetrate an event
like Pittsburgh, referring to the
2018 Tree of Life synagogue
complex shooting t hat
killed 11.

Palsky mentioned that
the board already has active
shooter drills, armed guards
and a fenced-in parking lot.

None of those features were
present when she served on the
board in the 2000s.

Wachspress concluded that
Jews should have their eyes
open. “I stop and wonder — is this
1930 all over again?” she said.

“It’s really sobering.”
But Jews shouldn’t live in
fear, Wachspress said. She
pointed to the Nov. 1 vigil in
Yardley as an example of an
appropriate response.

Local organizers, including
some Jewish residents and
rabbis, planned the show of
solidarity against antisemitism,
JEWISH EXPONENT
Custom designs, color options and
free alterations available
Evening Gowns
Suits/Separates Cocktail Dresses
61 Buck Road
Huntingdon Valley,
PA 19006
www.elanaboutique.com (215)953-8820
Make an appointment today!
Consult with the designer to
explore your style options.

NOVEMBER 11, 2021
11