Bill Clinton brings Hillary’s message to leading rabbis

Participants won’t discuss contents of off-record NY meet-up, will only say it was ‘constructive’

By JTA 31 March 2016, 3:45 am

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Hillary Clinton greeting supporters at a caucus day event as her husband, former president Bill Clinton, looks on at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, Feb. 20, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via JTA)

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton met with over 20 leading rabbis in the New York area to discuss his wife Hillary’s presidential campaign.

The meeting Tuesday in Midtown Manhattan was off the record and lasted for two hours, twice the amount of scheduled time. Participants would not discuss the content.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, called it “constructive” in a brief interview with JTA.

“It’s important to have exchanges with candidates,” he said.

Potasnik, like others attending, was there in a personal capacity and not on behalf of their affiliated groups. Many of the rabbis took selfies with Clinton.

Among others attending were Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the former president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher division.

Hillary Clinton, seeking to secure her delegate lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., her challenger in the run for the Democratic presidential nod, is stepping up her campaign in New York state ahead of its April 19 primary.