In late 1999, Ed Rendell, a Jew, ended his term as Philadelphia's mayor. (President Clinton attended a $1,000-per-plate dinner honoring Rendell at the end of his term.) [FELDMAN, S., 12-9-99, p. 5] The former mayor then became the new general chairman of the Democratic National Party, "the chief spokesman for the Democratic Party." [CATABIANI, M., 10-3-99, p. A1] Within months his office announced the appointment of three new "finance vice chairs" for the party. Two, Kenneth Jarin and Alan Kessler were also from Philadelphia and they were both Jews. (A third Jew from Philadelphia, Thomas Leonard, continued, since 1993, as a DNC finance vice chairman. He also served as the state of Pennsylvania's Democratic Party finance chairman).

In Fall 1999, a Jewish Republican, Sam Katz, ran against an African-American, Democrat John Street, (who beat a Jewish opponent, Marty Weinberg, in the primary) to replace Rendell as the mayor of Philadelphia. (Katz's dog, noted a Jewish journal, is even named Jabo, in honor of the famous right-wing fascist/Zionist Ze'ev Jabotinsky). 87% of the Jews of Philadelphia -- despite high nationwide Jewish proclivities to liberalism and the Democratic Party -- voted for Republican Katz. [FELDMAN, S., 3-2-2000, p. 1] Katz lost the mayoral contest, however, to the African-American by a narrow margin.

A victory against Jewish political dominance? Hardly. Jews, after all, are central to the Democratic Party machine. As the Jewish Exponent observed about the African-American candidate's victory:

"From mayor Ed Rendell to District Attorney Lynne Abraham to City Controller Jonathan Saidel to primary opponent Marty Weinberg to campaign co-finance chairman Robert Feldman to State Senator Allyson Schwartz -- it appeared clear that Street could not have gained his slim victory over Republican Sam Katz Tuesday without key Jewish supporters. Need more proof? Also on stage in the [victory] ballroom at the Warwick Hotel were campaign insiders Leonard Ross, Leonard Klehr and Mark Alderman; Rabbi Solomon Isaacson, who helped get the votes out in the far Northeast, and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Ted Kirsch, who prominently endorsed Street in September. In the back of the room, chief campaign spokesman Ken Snyder was busy fielding last-minute questions from reporters, and looking on was campaign media consultant David Axelrod." [FELDMAN, S., 11-4-99, p. 1]

In a follow-up article, the Jewish Exponent noted that "As was the case during Street's campaign, Jews are playing prominent roles in the transition phase [to the new mayor]." Two co-chairs of the transition committee were Jewish: Leonard Klehr and Judith Rodin (the president of the University of Pennsylvania). Education Committee chiefs included Lee Annenberg, David Cohen, and Ralph Roberts; working under them were Lois Yampolsky and Deborah Kahn, who was later named to be Philadelphia's Secretary of Education. [FELDMAN, S., 3-9-2000, p. 15] The Government Organization Committee included Leonard Ross, Mark Adelman, and Alan Kessler. Marty Weinberg was in Policy and Programs. Jewish Task Force transition leaders also included Ed Schwartz, Emmanuel Freeman, Ira Lubert, Moshe Porat, Marciarose Shestack, David Marshall (Campaign Chairman for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia), Harold Goldman (president of Jewish Family and Children's Services), Michael Blum, Harriet Dichter, Ken Jarin, Robert Feldman, John Binswanger, Steven Cozen and Rabbi William Kuhn. [FELDMAN, S., 12-2-99, p. 10]

Two weeks later the Jewish Exponent featured another article about the many Jews in mayor Street's entourage, joking to its Jewish audience that "the Jewish community is well represented in this round of appointments. In fact, if your name is not on the list, you just might feel left out." Appointments of Jews in city government included: Education: Shelly Yanoff, Sandra Fellman, Ted Kirsch. Government Organization Specialists: Bennett Levin, Larry Silverman, Michael Sklaroff, Ronald Caplan, Sandy Fox. Policy and Programs: Stuart Shapiro, Ellen Solms, Neil Stein, Max Berger, Richard Green, Sharon Pinkenson, Roseann Rosenthal, Larry Cohen, Bart Blatstein, Marvin Block, Howard Asher, Joseph Zuritsky, Mike Masch, Deborah Kodish, Adele Manger, Stephanie Naidoff, Marjorie Sarnoff, Sandra Stein, Sallie Glickman, Brad Blumberg, Jeffrey Batoff, Judith Eden, Kenneth Goldberg, Wendy Rosen, Ted Hershberg, Paul Levy, Ronald Rubin, Connie Beresin, Howard Kessler, Larry Frankel, Michael Karp, Vicky Weitzman, Joel Posner, Rabbi Lina Grazier-Zerbarini and Sharon Weinberg. [FELDMAN, S., 12-16-99, p. 18]

In the same time frame, the Exponent also did an article about the visit of the Tel Aviv mayor to Philadelphia, noting that the two sites were "sister cities." "There has been, for a long time -- or as long as I can remember," noted the Chairman of the Jewish Federation, Joseph Smukler, "a special relationship between Tel Aviv and Philadelphia." [FELDMAN, S., 4-20-2000, p. 13]

Among new mayor John Street's ceremonial tasks was to cut the ribbon to open Philadelphia's new "National Liberty Museum: America's Home for Heroes." The museum's Executive Director is Gwen Borowsky. Wealthy media mogul Irwin Borowsky founded the organization. He also is the founder of the "American Interfaith Institute, which aims to expunge anti-Jewish sentiment from editions of the New Testament." Borowsky's museum, like so many these days, clearly aims to appropriate American patriotic heritage under the umbrella of Jewish Holocaust mythology. In the heart of Philadelphia, one of the icons of American heritage, the Liberty Museum features a second floor "hall of heroes [which] is studded with Holocaust memories." [MONO, B., 1-20-2000, p. 9]

And new Philadelphia mayor John Street's inevitable bending to Jewish Zionist concerns and their ties to Israel? In 1998, while still a city councilman, Street, his wife, and son were flown to Israel for eight days as a guest of a Philadelphia Jewish businessman, Joseph Zuritsky. Criticism of Israel, nor Jewish loyalties, was not the focus of a Philadelphia Daily News story about the trip. After all, as the paper observed, "Most of the potential candidates in the 1999 mayor's race, as well as Mayor Rendell, have traveled to Israel at some point in their careers -- and in most cases the trip was paid for or subsidized by one of several groups promoting closer U.S. ties to the Jewish state." These politicians courted by Zionists include Happy Fernandez, Doug Evans, and John White, Jr.) [BUNCH, W., 11-2-98] Rather, the Daily News piece examined the economic self-interests of Zuritsky (the CEO of the Parkway Corporation, Philadelphia's major "parking lot developer"), in sponsoring Street's trip to the Jewish state. The future mayor's journey "was paid for by a parking-lot magnate at the same time his firm was lobbying the [City] Council for millions of dollars in low-cost financing for a Center City development ... Zuritsky said he had no motive in sponsoring the trip -- which had planning assistance from several local Jewish community leaders -- other than to educate Philadelphia's highest-ranking black leader about Israel and Mideast politics. He said he wanted to promote ethnic harmony." [BUNCH, W., 11-2-98]

Among the critics of the trip was the president of the Philadelphia division of Common Cause, Barry Kaufmann, also Jewish.

But there's even more Jewish/Zionist politicking in Pennsylvania. In 2000, that state's governor, Tom Ridge (later the first appointment as U.S. secretary of Homeland Security), was awarded the "Friend of Zion Award" by the fundamentalist Orthodox Jewish organization Aish HaTorah and the city of Jerusalem. As noted by the Jerusalem Fund, Ridge's honor was based upon his "unbending support for the Jewish state." Just the year before Governor Ridge had received the Scopus Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University in Philadelphia. [PR NEWSWIRE,-24-2000]