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Two North Jersey officials travel to Israel with group, ask President Biden to help

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Two North Jersey officials travel to Israel with group, ask President Biden to help

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Two North Jersey mayors are among 13 urging President Joe Biden to adopt a multi-step program to support Israel following a week-long trip there earlier this month.

Teaneck Mayor Michael Pagan and former Livingston Mayor Shawn Klein, now a councilman, were part of the Mayors Solidarity Mission organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement that traveled to Israel from June 3 to June 11.

Following the trip, the group penned a 500-word two-page letter to President Biden on Tuesday seeking federal assistance for Israel on a number of fronts. The letter, posted on the organization’s website combatantisemitism.org, stated the municipal leaders want the U.S. to:

  • Increase diplomatic efforts to negotiate the release of hostages;
  • Restore order in the region;
  • Provide humanitarian aid to support affected populations in Israel;
  • Strengthen security cooperation with Israel;
  • Support missions combatting antisemitism worldwide.

“It was deeply emotional,” Klein said in a phone interview once he returned to the United States. “Israelis are feeling really isolated right now, and the only thing they could do to feel like they’re making a difference is to explain their story and show people what happened.”

Klein was approached to participate in the trip after he took part in a Combat Antisemitism Movement Zoom broadcast during COVID with international government leaders. Pagan, on the other hand, said he was asked to participate because of the widespread press the township has received about conflicts between Jewish and Muslim residents since the attack.

On Oct. 7, Hamas militants from the blockaded Gaza Strip stormed into Israeli towns, killed 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others including children. The attack coincided with an Israeli holiday.

In response, Israel launched airstrikes and a ground offensive on Gaza, which has destroyed entire neighborhoods and killed an estimated 38,000 Palestinians. The conflict is said to have become the deadliest of the five previous Gaza wars, for both sides.

About 40% of Teaneck’s 40,000 residents and 46% of Livingston’s 30,000 residents are Jewish.

The mayors’ group also included officials from Florida, New York, New Mexico and Georgia. It was the third trip for Klein, who first traveled to Jerusalem for his bar mitzvah. It was Pagan’s first.

“I wasn’t even sure I was going to get on the plane,” Pagan said. “I was interrogated three times. Are you Jewish? No, I’m Catholic. Why are you going to Israel? Do you know anybody there? They kept asking the same questions over and over. I guess they were testing for consistency.”

The group first landed in Jerusalem, where they spent three days at events that included a meeting with its mayor, Moshe Lion, and a tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center.

“They have an exhibit for what happened to the kids, and I have a 9-year-old son so that breaks your heart,” Pagan said.

A day followed in Negev region in southern Israel where they visited Kibbutz Be’eri and the Nova music festival site, where Hamas killed dozens on Oct. 7, followed by dinner with a Bedouin family in the Israeli Arab municipality of Ra’hat.

“We saw things you can’t unsee,” Klein said. “We heard the last minute of this young nurse’s life while she was on the phone before she got gunned down by a terrorist.”

Pagan was struck by the kibbutz on the border of Gaza, where a tour was led by survivors.

“They take you into the homes where people were tortured, killed, burned alive and you’re looking at the bullet holes in the walls,” Pagan said. “You can’t help but cry.”

Four days followed in Tel Aviv where the group met with Mayor Ron Huldai and attended a rally in Hostages Square where the group was introduced to a crowd of 35,000.

“When they announced that I was from Teaneck, the crowd roared because everywhere I went, I bumped into someone from Teaneck,” Pagan said. “Even when I went on the Holocaust museum tour, the lady who gave us the tour was born and raised in Teaneck.”

Klein agreed the rally was the highlight of their trip.

“People were really grateful we were there,” Klein said. “They took hope from us.”

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