House Minority Leader Kevin Owen McCarthy visited Lakewood, NJ on Sunday. McCarthy first stopped at Beth Medrash Govoha, America’s largest yeshiva, where he received a tour of various botei medrash.
McCarthy was visibly moved by the sight of thousands of men of all ages sitting and learning Torah. He stopped and spoke to some of them, impressed by their commitment – especially a pair of brothers who are chavrusos and have been learning together for many years.
McCarthy then attended a private, by-invitation-only reception hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Richard Roberts. Among those in attendance was Congressman Chris Smith.
After a brief meet-and-greet, the guest sat down for dinner and Dr. Roberts introduced McCarthy. He first described the amazing altruism of the local Orthodox community. He pulled out a Lakewood phone directory. After flipping through the white pages, which contain the names and phone numbers of local residents, he proceeded to the yellow pages, until he reached the letter “g” and, more specifically, the exhaustive listing of gemachs. He then turned page after page after page, reading the names of the myriad gemachs in Lakewood, from those that supply bris paraphernalia, car seats, kallah shoes, blood pressure monitors, chasunah shtick, GPS devices, and a challah baking group for segulos, to others that provide driving directions, esrog jelly, gardening equipment, humidifiers, ladders, portable car refrigerators, toilet snakes, coat racks, and shnapps. The number and nature of the gemachs are amazing to behold – and McCarthy was blown away.
Dr. Roberts explained that the goal of the Orthodox residents of Lakewood is to live an ethical and moral life, and to engage in acts of chesed that benefit others. This presentation was a powerful one, especially to an individual like McCarthy who was previously unfamiliar with the inner workings of frum communities.
McCarthy has been House Minority Leader in the House of Representatives since 2019. He served as House Majority Leader under speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan from 2014 to 2019.
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Community leaders should stop pandering to politicians. If they want to prevent the government from pushing their agendas on our communities and yeshivos, they have to stop accepting money from them. Period. I don’t think this was done in pre-war Europe. And if someone responds that we are in a different tekufa doesn’t hold water. We should put our trust in the One Above not the government.
What you meant to say was “Community leaders should stop pandering to Democrat politicians.”