Newark Mayor Cory Booker spoke about how people could work together on urban problems during the biannual Consultation on Conscience April 6 at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. Photo by Debra Rubin
April 22, 2008
A Jewish audience in New Brunswick expected Newark Mayor Cory Booker to share his vision of how his city could overcome the challenges of poverty and crime.
Instead, he gave them some wisdom from their own religion while explaining how crime had been reduced in Newark and sharing ideas about economic renewal in New Jersey’s largest city.
“I’m going to give you a bit of d’var Torah,” said Booker after pushing the podium to the back of the stage at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick April 6 so he could stride back and forth. But “before I go into this week’s Torah portion I want to tell you why this goy is talking about Torah.”
Booker was one of six speakers at the synagogue’s biannual Gertrude and Milton Kleinman Consultation on Conscience, focusing on Judaism and ethical issues.
Before dissecting urban policy, Booker explained how his interest in Judaism was sparked while attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Booker had made arrangements to pick up a date at the L’Chaim Society, a student organization run by author and Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Although his date stood him up, he accepted an invitation to stay. He sat down in the only open seat next to Boteach, a move he characterized as “bashert” — Yiddish for fated.
As their friendship developed, “I started becoming a regular at Shabbos,” he recalled. “I started bringing my Jewish friends who had never lit a Shabbos candle. I began bringing Mormons, Christian friends.”
Booker eventually became the society’s first non-Jewish president.
Understanding Judaism deepened his own Baptist faith and inspired Booker to study other religions, including Hinduism and Islam.
“The more I learned about Judaism, the more I learned about me,” said Booker. “The more I learned about all the great religions, the more it strengthened my own faith.”
That led to a realization that “by determination of spirit” Americans of all faiths could overcome any challenge.
“Jews together are strong,” said Booker. “Jews together with other people are invincible…I think that the biggest problem in the city of Newark is not crime or poverty. The biggest problem in the city of Newark, the surrounding towns, and state of New Jersey is a crisis of spirit.”
A powerful word
Citing the week’s Torah portion, Booker said Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59) appears to be about leprosy, but on closer examination “it is really about the evil tongue, the power of the spoken word.”
The mayor said people need to remember the founding ideals of America.
“From the city of Newark to New Brunswick, from Summit, New Jersey, to Beverly Hills, all children in the United States stand up and make that powerful utterance ‘one nation under God, indivisible’…. What a powerful word, indivisible,” said Booker.
Too many Americans “have forgotten what it means to sacrifice for each other. We have forgotten as a country what it means to make the world a better place. We have forgotten the spiritual.”
Booker asked why Americans regardless of political affiliation continue to tolerate inequities in education, a prison system that he said does nothing to rehabilitate, and what he called failed economic policies that have plagued his city and waste taxpayer money.
He said an increased police presence and coalitions formed with Newark residents and concerned citizens and clergy from outside the city have lowered the rate of gun violence by more than 20 percent, while murders have dipped precipitously.
However, outdated policies have hindered that effort, many surrounding the justice system. Booker said most prisoners are minorities convicted for drug and other non-violent offenses.
Although the state budget has earmarked more than $1 billion for corrections and it was the largest part of his city’s budget, the state continues “to grease the slopes of recidivism” by failing to address cyclical poverty and other factors perpetuating crime.
Moreover, the state doesn’t fund halfway houses, despite evidence that counseling and supervision to those reentering society “dramatically” cuts the rate of recidivism.
“They’d much rather have the taxpayers pay much more on the back end,” said Booker. “We’ve got to stop the insanity.”
Booker said the state’s problem was an ingrained, outdated criminal justice system that contains such provisions as one forbidding those with criminal records from working at ports.
“Today, young black men can’t get a job at Port Newark because they were caught 10 years ago with four bags of marijuana,” said Booker.
Borrowing a phrase from the Book of Isaiah, the mayor said the people of Newark have the ability “to be a light onto the nations.”
“The fires of the city of Newark will rage, but they will not be the fires of bigotry and hatred or the flames of rebellion,” predicted Booker. “They will be the flames of hope and they will light a fire so bright that from that city, that great place, they will fan out across the land and cast a shadow so bright…”
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