New Jersey Jewish News
Central New Jersey Feature

In one NJ town, community leaders reach out to settle Italian-Jewish divide

by Norm Oshrin
Special to NJ Jewish News

An Italian-American leader in Manalapan Township is reaching out to local Jewish leaders in order to defuse tension over an alleged anti-Italian incident involving the municipality’s deputy mayor and her husband, both Jewish.

Steve Cataneo, president of the 300-member Italian-American Association of Monmouth County, has been urging that Deputy Mayor Michelle Roth resign in the wake of a township committee meeting at which he alleges she and her husband Larry made insensitive remarks about Italians.

Wary of further inflaming ethnic tensions and seeking the Jewish community’s support, Cataneo has spoken to Rabbi Melinda Panken of the Reform Temple Shaari Emeth, and Howard Gases, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County.

“I don’t want this to become an Italian-Jewish thing,” said Cataneo. “I want the Jewish community to stand by us, united against any bias remarks.”

The “bias remarks” were uttered during a March 8 township committee meeting over a petition that would provide for the direct election of the mayor and town council in Manalapan.

First, in stating her opposition to the change, Michelle Roth invoked the name of Matthew Scannapieco, a former mayor of neighboring Marlboro Township, who pleaded guilty last April to taking $245,000 in bribes from a building contractor.

Stephen McEnery, township Republican chair, was incensed and immediately asked Roth if that meant she didn’t like Italian-Americans.

She didn’t respond.

For McEnery, that was “a subliminal message linking Italians with corruption…. By this linkage, there’s an inference about Italian-Americans,” he suggested in an interview with NJ Jewish News.

Speaking later at the same meeting in defense of his wife, Larry Roth was asked why he hadn’t read the petition. Roth’s reply, which he later said was intended sarcastically, was: “Because I hate Italians.”

That prompted Cataneo and his organization to urge Michelle Roth’s resignation — a demand that was scheduled to be reinforced at a township hall rally on April 5, preceding a committee meeting.

While Cataneo has called for an investigation of the episode by the Department of Justice, others in the township were looking warily at what it might mean for Jewish-Italian relations. McEnery and others recalled an earlier flap in which the Roths were involved during the 2000 primary mayoral campaign between Mayor Stuart J. Moskovitz and his fellow Democrat, Deputy Mayor Mary Cozzolino.

At the time, Moskovitz’s supporters alleged that the Cozzolino campaign, which was run out of the Roths’ business office, “had a heavy anti-Semitic bent to it,” according to McEnerny. Moskovitz’s supporters charged that Cozzolino’s campaign was distributing messages intended to spread resentment of the Jewish community and the Jewish candidate.

“I don’t want a repeat performance,” McEnery said.

Moskovitz — who lost the primary — remains bewildered.

“It was rather odd,” he said. “Basically, it was an anti-Semitic campaign by Jews. To be fair, [Michelle Roth] didn’t write or say anything, but her office was the headquarters and phone calls were being made along ethnic lines.”

Moskovitz also has advice for Deputy Mayor Roth in the current flap.

“My feeling is she could easily have made it go away,” he said. “Once you see people upset, put it to bed…. She’s at fault. But this isn’t about the fact her husband made a statement, but rather the way she dealt with it. To go on the attack, rather than acknowledge the fact it was insensitive… The [anti-Italian] reference was clear.”

Neither Michelle Roth — who is steadfastly refusing to resign — nor her husband returned phone calls seeking comment.

Mayor Drew Shapiro also declined to comment.

“I’m trying to keep the community together,” he said in a brief conversation with NJJN.

For his part, the federation’s Gases — who labeled Larry Roth’s comments “very insensitive” — observed: “While we are always in support of coalition building [on] issues of mutual interest and concern, we are not in a position to ask [Michelle Roth] to resign.”

Cataneo, meanwhile, is waiting to speak in more detail with Panken, who was married on April 2.

“I would love nothing more than to say the Jewish community stood by us,” he said. “It is irrelevant if [Roth’s comment] was sarcastic, a joke, a jest. Jewish people understand.”

Larry Roth insists that the remark was sarcastic. Quoted in the Asbury Park Press, he said: “My sarcastic statement about Italian-Americans does not represent who I am and is the exact opposite of what I am all about.… My wife had no idea what I was going to say. To hold her responsible for these words is morally wrong.”

But Cataneo says that misses the point.

“I totally believe he was, in fact, being sarcastic,” Cataneo said. “The problem here is we have an elected official whose husband made that comment in a public forum. She did not stand up and denounce it.

“Instead, 10 days later, they went on radio. [Larry] apologized, but she began to attack McEnery. She justified the comment, shrugged it off. And on television, her whole demeanor was arrogant. By her silence, she indicated agreement with her husband’s sentiment, a public distrust in the Italian community.

“When she failed to stand up as deputy mayor and failed to take action, she turned what is a moral issue into a political issue,” Cataneo said. “She buried herself so deep.”

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