On Thursday, Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) was hosted in the Bergen PAC of Englewood, NJ at a NORPAC event chaired by Judy and Bob Cook, Arthur Sinensky and Debbie Oremland and Edmondo and Miyako Schwartz. Gottheimer is serving his first term in Congress after defeating incumbent Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) in the 2016 election. His district encompasses some of the most heavily concentrated Jewish regions in the state, including Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, New Milford, Paramus and Teaneck.

At the event, Gottheimer stressed to the crowd of 30 people that the US-Israel relationship has hit a rough patch by becoming greatly polarized between the parties. He refused to sign a Congressional letter in March affirming the importance of the two-state solution, an issue that he supports, because the letter contained primarily signees from the Democratic Party and only two Republicans. He discussed an article that he recently published (“Let’s Keep Israel a Bipartisan Issue”) that addresses some of these concerns, as well as ideas to tackle the issue, such as re-focusing talks with Congress on the benefits America receives from its relationship with Israel.

Josh Gottheimer will be running for re-election in 2018.