Whipping up an interest in politics

House Republican Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Richmond) visited the Shalhevet High School located at Temple Hillel in North Woodmere to host a town hall meeting for 200 high school students last Friday.

Cantor visited the Five Towns to show support for fellow Republican Fran Becker (R-Lynbrook) who is running against Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) for Congress.

Ruthie Besalel, a 10th grader from Shalhevet felt privileged that Cantor took the time to speak at her school. “Cantor is such an important person and for someone who does speeches in front of thousands of people, it was nice to have one-on-one attention with him,” Besalel said.

The event coincided with the anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s visit to the Five Towns in 1984, when he also hosted a town hall meeting at Temple Hillel.

Avi Fertig, the director of Community Affairs for Nassau County Legislator Howard Kopel (7th District), received a phone call that Cantor would be in the Five Towns to support Becker and had an hour free on Friday morning.

“I wanted to coordinate an educational event with high school students that they would remember for the rest of their lives,” Fertig said. “Twenty-six years ago the kids that heard President Reagan speak here will always remember that for the rest of their lives.”

Kopel began the meeting by stressing the importance of the election. He also pointed out that Cantor was the only Jewish Republican currently in Congress. “Cantor is a moral leader, a fighter for Israel and a fighter for this country’s ideals,” Kopel said. “Both (Becker and Cantor) are people who say what they really think and do what they say.”

Becker spoke next and discussed the Flotilla incident and how the U.S. “embarrassed” Israel. (The flotilla incident occurred on May 31, when Israeli Defense Forces stopped six ships, also known as the “Free Gaza” flotilla, while there were trying to break Israel’s legal blockade of the Gaza Strip. The incident resulted in the death of nine people.) He also focused on the importance of bringing the message of freedom to young people and told them not to be afraid to speak their mind and protest or boycott.

“I would be honored to have the privilege of representing this community and standing with our great ally, Israel,” Becker said.

Cantor began his speech by telling students and attendees that there is a lot of concern about the direction of the country. He also said that we are blessed to be apart of this amazing country and that we have the ability to practice our chosen faith.

“There’s no government telling us which religion to practice and we have to protect that,” Cantor said. “What we are beginning to see is growth in power form the federal government and the bigger the growth, the less freedoms we have.”

The town hall meeting was hosted by the Shalhevet High School for Girls. Students from Shalhevet, Rambam Mesivta, the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County and the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway were in attendance as well as parents, community Rabbis, elected officials and local residents.

Though the students cannot vote, Devora Eisenberg, an 11th grader at Shalhevet and a chosen Shalhevet representative for the town hall meeting, Eisenberg said if she could vote, she would vote Republican.

“I would vote Republican because of Cantor’s views in favoring the Jewish community,” Eisenberg said. “He (Cantor) is a good representative of us as a Jewish

community.”