She may not be flashy, a firebrand speech­maker, or even very well known outside of her Queens congressional district, but despite her brief legislative career, freshman U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) has become one of Con­gress’s most steadfast supporters of Israel and Jewish issues. Along the way she has endeared herself to colleagues and supporters on both sides of the aisle and the Jewish community in her district.

Meng’s demeanor, both in conversation and in Congress, reflects a modesty and can­didness many of her media-darling colleagues lack, or have lost. Though it may not put her in the national spotlight, her approach appears to have paid off in winning favor with the voters at home.

Meng, 38, represents New York’s 6th Dis­trict, covering the largely immigrant communi­ties of Central Queens, Forest Hills, and Flush­ing. According to data from the Berman Jewish Databank, the district ranks ninth in the coun­try in both population and percentage of Jew­ish residents. The largest population in her dis­trict is Asian-American and Meng sees herself as a bridge between the very different cultures she represents.

“I think that among Grace Meng’s greatest distinctions is her honesty. She is very direct and very, very sincere,” says Michael Miller, ex­ecutive vice president and chief executive of­ficer of the Jewish Community Relations Coun­cil of New York, who has known Meng since her time in the New York State Assembly. “Mem­bers of Congress and other elected officials have been roundly criticized for being corrupt and insincere. I have found Grace Meng to be honest and most sincere. And that’s why I think many in the community have great respect for her.”

Another reason may be that so much of the legislation she sponsors or supports appears to reflect Jewish interests.

On May 28, Meng spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives in favor of the Pro­tect Cemeteries Act, which will amend the In­ternational Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to include vandalizing and desecrating cemeter­ies in countries around the world as a consider­ation used by the United States in determining whether a nation is violating rights to freedom of religion. Meng was the bill’s sponsor.

She said that the act will serve as a tool for the U.S. to oppose violations of religious free­dom that occur in countries in which the Jew­ish population was wiped out during the 20th century, leaving their ancestral remains, which serve as targets for anti-Semitic vandals, or in municipalities looking to develop on sanctified ground. Among the key supporters of the bill was the Orthodox organization Agudath Isra­el of America.

The vote may have been preordained— it passed by a unanimous voice vote. But for those who were keeping track, it was another Jewish-friendly act by Meng.

During her House speech, Meng thanked a New York Institute of Technology physics pro­fessor as an inspiration for the legislation. Ber­nard Fryshman has been working to protect and preserve Jewish cemeteries for 30 years and was delighted the bill passed.

“You know this bill is not going to result in the marines going on behalf of a cemetery,” Fryshman told JNS.org. “It provides a moral suasion. It provides a vehicle for conversation. It provides a basis in which the State Depart­ment is trying to help a government in Europe decide maybe they should step in and not al­low a local municipality to dig up a Jewish cemetery.”

Since she came to Congress in 2013, Meng has worked on issues related to the State Department’s denial of tourist visas to young Israelis. She voted for and sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McCo­nnell (R-Ky.) to take up legislation to tight­en sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial sectors. She led an effort to lobby the Eu­ropean Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. She sponsored and passed legislation to make houses of wor­ship eligible for federal disaster relief fund­ing after Hurricane Sandy. All are actions that would be applauded by many in the Jewish community.

In a phone conversation with JNS.org, Meng said that she feels a connection to the Jewish community, having grown up in multicultural Queens.

“Obviously, I’m not [Jewish] but I repre­sent a district that has a large Jewish con­stituency,” she said. “I think honestly, grow­ing up as a kid in New York, issues that are important to members of the Jewish com­munity—especially now that I’m in Con­gress—I think they’re very important to Americans.”

She was born in Queens to Taiwanese im­migrants, whom she says instilled in her at an early age the value of community service and faith. Though Meng is a Democrat with a liber­al voting record, she feels that she has no trou­ble being accepted by the large haredi popu­lation in her district, recently being a guest at Agudath Israel of America’s annual gala.

“I grew up in a religious household, my family is Christian,” said Meng. “My grand­ma is sort of the matriarch of our family and has always tried to instill religious val­ues in our upbringing and so I can empa­thize with [most Orthodox members of the Jewish community], even though we may not always agree. My job is to listen and see how I can best address the needs of constit­uents living in my district.”

Meng attended the prestigious Stuyve­sant High School [in Manhattan] and then completed her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan. Wanting to move closer to her home for a law degree, she at­tended the Cardozo Law School, part of the Jewish-run Yeshiva University.

“Honestly, I didn’t really think about that it was considered a Jewish school,” she said. “I mean obviously I knew it but I knew that I wanted to be back home. It was a school where I heard the faculty was really excellent. And I got to meet [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu for the first time when I was there, so it was pretty cool.”

She was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2009. The next year she visited Israel the first time. That experience, along with a return visit last year as part of a con­gressional delegation, solidified her views on Israel, she said.

Meng won her congressional seat in 2012 after beating Republican Daniel Halloran 68 to 31 percent. But in her heavily Democratic dis­trict, the primaries were the real battle. Meng beat three other candidates by a 53 percent majority. Inaugurated in January, she is the first Asian American to be elected to Congress to represent New York City.

Upon taking office, Meng successfully sought a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, where she works on many Israel-related issues.

Meng views Iran’s potential to develop a nuclear bomb as a critical issue for the se­curity of Israel and the U.S. and has pushed for sanctions against Iran.

Michael Schmidt, New York regional di­rector for the American Jewish Committee (AJC), who has worked with Meng on Iran and other issues, called her a “strong ally.”

“I think this is not exclusively a Jewish issue,” he said. “Obviously the fact that the Iranians have threatened to completely de­stroy and decimate Israel means that Isra­el has a special place in terms of concerns. But this is an issue beyond just Israel. It’s about Western values and democracy and how we operate—and I think she recogniz­es that.”

Meng has also taken a taken a tough stance against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement popping up at college campuses throughout the U.S. She worked with AJC on a project to cre­ate fellowships on college campuses to fos­ter understanding among students of dif­ferent backgrounds. When the Association for Asian American Studies voted in 2013 to back BDS efforts, Meng criticized the vote in a letter to the association.

“I think that it’s important that we do whatever we can to stand against demon­strations of hate and ignorance and to me that’s what it is,” Meng told JNS.org. “Even if you believed in the reasoning for the BDS movement, how does that benefit anyone? How does that benefit America? How does that benefit any country?”

Meng is up for re-election this fall. As she considered her home district, she re­vealed her familiarity with one of her larg­est constituent groups.

“One of my favorite parts of my dis­trict activities is when I get the opportuni­ty once in a while to walk around certain neighborhoods in my district, let’s say dur­ing Shabbos, and to see a lot of the fami­lies walking around going to shul togeth­er, spending time together with family,” she said. “I think that’s amazing and that’s something that every culture could learn from.”

This article is exclusive to JNS.org.