Is this really how a full-time mayor acts?
I'm not tellin', I'm just sayin' • DAN NEWMAN
By now, word has spread about the horrific display of swastikas that were spray-painted on the front of Congregation Beth-El in the overnight hours of Sept. 28, as well as the most recent case of anti-Semitism in Edison, when swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur were found on playground equipment at Paterniti Park on Oct. 9. And in last week's Sentinel, many readers saw the back-and-forth dialogue between Beth-El's Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg and Edison Mayor Jun Choi concerning what can be discerned as Choi's lack of compassion toward Rosenberg and his congregation.

According to Rosenberg, Choi never visited the temple immediately after the incident to lend his support and has not done so in the 23 days since it occurred. I found it odd that somebody of Choi's status would not at the very least reach out via the phone or email.

So I decided to call Choi on Monday, Oct. 12, on his cell phone to see if it were really true, if the man I've come to know over the last eight months as being accessible and available didn't even so much as reach out to a religious leader in town who had just had his temple spray-painted.

Choi's initial response to me: It's an off day.

Yes, that was true. Monday, Oct. 12, was Columbus Day, when many people have off, including municipal employees in Edison, and that's fine with me. But the fact is, he's the mayor in a town that has had three bias incidents in the last month, and at no point did he make a statement concerning any of them, other than the generic twoline email that was sent out from his office to the media via the police department, of all places.

Perhaps after his initial statement to me, he realized he needed to finally say something after too much time had gone by and not enough action had been taken.

So in this week's lesson as part of Damage Control 101, Professor Choi said that he has reached out to leaders of the Jewish-American community recently. I asked him if he had any names, but he had none. I asked if Rosenberg was one of the unnamed aforementioned people, and he would not say anything about it.

He then proceeded to tell me that Rosenberg was making a spectacle of the situation.

I'm thinking that Choi has never had his house of worship spray-painted or he's never been religiously persecuted.

And if any of the above has happened to him, I'm sorry to hear about it. But the fact is, the man has been insensitive recently.

To say that a spectacle is being made over swastikas being painted on a temple

or that having a 12-year-old child bear witness to many swastikas painted on playground equipment is plain wrong.

I went through this sort of thing myself many years ago. On the morning of my high school graduation ceremony, I woke up to find out that swastikas were painted all over the school's outdoor track. The ceremony still went on without a hitch, and over the following days the markings were removed and the suspects were eventually arrested, charged and did plenty of jail time. Looking back on that day, I was very happy to receive my diploma, but there were still questions that I wanted to be answered. Why did this happen, and most of all, how could anybody have that much hate in their hearts to do something so awful? I'm sure the Jewish community in Edison, and beyond, feel the same way.

Choi is a full-time employee, and he is certainly paid like one. He should act like it instead of saying that he had an "off day." And during his "on days," where was he to reach out to those most affected by this? Granted, even Rosenberg admits that his relationship with the mayor hasn't been great over the course of time, but he said that Choi still didn't reach out to members of his congregation.

The mayor said the township did reach out to the temple, in the form of Anthony Cancro, the township's business administrator. While that is very commendable on Cancro's part, the fact is that the man who should be worried about trying to get Edison out of a huge financial hole these days is not the one who needed to make peace with people.

It was Choi who needed to do the right thing and say something at the time. And it's still Choi who should stand up, go to the temple and make amends with the congregation. The next municipal holiday in the township is Election Day, 13 days away, more than enough time for the mayor to make it happen.

Dan Newman is the managing editor of the Sentinel. He may be reached at sentnorth@gmnews.com.