A free virtual forum between candidates in the 12th Congressional District will be hosted by the Jewish community relations councils of the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey and the Jewish Federation of West-Central New Jersey at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18. The candidates are Democratic incumbent Bonnie Watson Coleman and Republican challenger Darius Mayfield. The district spans parts of Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset counties and Plainfield in Union County.
Watson Coleman was first elected in 2015 as New Jersey’s first African American woman elected to congress. She previously served in the state assembly from 1998 until her election to Congress serving as majority leader from 2006-2010. Watson Coleman also worked for the state Division on Civil Rights, later serving as director of the Office of Civil Rights, Contract Compliance and Affirmative Action in the state Department of Transportation. She is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Mayfield is a self-made business strategist who became the youngest sales manager of a top 25 American auto group and became the first Black general manager in the third fastest-growing auto group in the country. He co-founded Heart-A-Cause, an initiative dedicated to marketing and fundraising for local organizations aligned with his values and has had a leading role in American Cleanup, a grassroots volunteer movement focused on revitalizing underserved communities across the nation. Mayfield also established the Darius Mayfield Foundation dedicated to addressing educational and transportation challenges in underserved areas of New Jersey.
To register go to jfedwcnj.regfox.com/2024-12th-district-congressional-forum. For questions call Lauren at (908) 758-2003 or e-mail ledelman@jfedwcnj.org.
American-Israeli rapper, songwriter, producer and singer Nissim Black will perform Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 9:15 p.m. at Rutgers Chabad House in New Brunswick. Black, who grew up in the inner city of Seattle, had a rough childhood where both his biological parents and stepfather used and sold drugs and his mother died of an overdose. He had released albums under the name D. Black, but retired in 2011 to focus on his conversion to Orthodox Judaism, turning his attention to Jewish hip-hop.
Black’s s YouTube channel has received more than 26 million views worldwide and he is host of the Nissim Black Podcast, sharing insights, inspirations, and experiences with his fans and followers. Black and his wife, with whom he has seven children, made aliyah in 2016.
Reservations are required. The concert is free to all college and university students with student ID and $36 for others. For tickets go to https://tinyurl.com/NissimatChabad.
The annual Raoul Wallenberg program of Rutgers University’s Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life will be held 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24 at the Douglass Student Center in New Brunswick featuring Jonathan Marc Gribetz, professor of Near Eastern studies and Judaic studies at Princeton University. He will discuss his new book, Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO Effort to Know the Enemy (Princeton University Press, 2024).
Gribetz will explore the history of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Research Center from its establishment in 1965 until its expulsion from Lebanon in 1983. He will delve into why the PLO was interested in research about Jews and what its researchers learned about Judaism and Zionism and how that knowledge affected its relationship with Israel.
Gribetz is director of the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia at Princeton University. He is also the author of Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter (Princeton University Press, 2014). Gribetz formerly was an assistant professor of Jewish studies and history at Rutgers from 2011 until 2014.
The program is free, but registration is requested at bildnercenter.rutgers.edu.
Congregation Torat El in Oakhurst will kick off its book and author series Sunday, Sept. 22 at 11 a.m. with Seth Bornstein, author of Swimming to Jerusalem. The program will be presented in-person and on Zoom.
The novel is Bornstein’s first, although he has written plays, short stories and essays. It tells the story of Bram Goodman, his family, friends, colleagues and demons. It traces Goodman from his birth in France to his childhood in Israel and his move to the United States as a teen. After his freshman year of college he goes back to Israel to enlist in the army with his cousin, Yoni. After his discharge, disillusioned and aimless, he goes to Paris where he meets and follows an American back to the U.S. Decades later when his youngest child wants to learn more about his heritage Goodman confronts the past going back to a place he thought he could emotionally and physically leave behind.
Books are available to purchase from Bookshop.org to support independent bookstores or amazon.com and will also be available the day of the event.
Cost is $15 in advance, $20 at the door or $10 for Zoom. Brunch will be served. For tickets go to torat-el.org.
