Like so many other Jews living in the diaspora, Tamar Warburg experienced an awakening of sorts after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel. 

She lives in Teaneck, N.J., where Orthodox Judaism flourishes and more than a dozen synagogues dot the suburban landscape. But when a pro-Israel resolution that came before the town council soon after Oct. 7 sparked vitriolic protests, Warburg experienced the resulting tension as a “defining moment” leading to a life-changing turn to electoral politics — from a surprising rise in local party politics to a long-shot campaign this year for the New Jersey Assembly. 

“I think there was always something bubbling under the surface, and Oct. 7 sort of unmasked that, and everything kind of bubbled up,” Warburg told Jewish Insider in a recent interview. “A group of community members got together and said, ‘OK, it’s America. We don’t address this with violence. We address it politically.’” 

She and her husband, Yigal Gross, observed that town power brokers often got their start on a body called the Democratic Municipal Committee, Teaneck’s branch of the Democratic Party. Before Oct. 7, two of the committee’s 46 members were Orthodox Jews. Warburg and Gross recruited Jewish candidates to run for the body, and after last summer’s elections, the number of Orthodox Jews rose from two to 18, Warburg among them. 

“The main motivation was flexing political muscle and saying, ‘We are here. We’re loud, we’re proud. We can vote as a bloc if we want to,’” Warburg said. “The ultimate goal, really, was to have people who are running for office, or in office and running again, to pay attention to our community and say, ‘OK, this is a community that votes. I need to pay attention to them and be attentive to their needs if I want to be reelected.’” 

Now Warburg is running for office, on the ballot in the June 10 Democratic primary to represent New Jersey’s 37th Assembly district, which includes Teaneck, Englewood and most of Bergen County. 

She didn’t plan for this: Last year, she was approached by Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, a leading candidate for governor, who asked her to run on an unofficial slate affiliated with his campaign. She’s taking on two incumbent Democrats, arguing that they have not been attentive enough to the needs of the district’s large Jewish community. (Challenging incumbents is always a long shot, but this year might be an exception; it’s the first New Jersey election in decades in which the candidates endorsed by the county Democratic Party will not appear at the top of the ballot, designated as party-approved. Now all the candidates will be listed in a bloc, giving challengers a better chance.)

“I realized this was not an offer to Tamar Warburg. This was an offer to my Jewish community, and unless I had a really compelling reason not to do it, I didn’t really have the authority to say no. I knew I would work really hard at this,” said Warburg. “It’s the first real primary in New Jersey in decades, and the Jewish community really needs a seat at the table.”

If elected, Warburg would be the first Orthodox woman to serve in New Jersey’s legislature. (There are currently two Orthodox men in the state Assembly.) 

But to win, she first faces an uphill battle within her own Jewish community. A messy political dispute playing out in the New Jersey gubernatorial election has trickled down to this Assembly race, pitting Warburg against another Orthodox candidate, Yitz Stern — and threatening to split the Jewish vote and deal a win to the incumbents. 

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It all started with what was intended to be a straightforward piece of legislation that would’ve formally defined antisemitism in state law, affording law enforcement officers and other state employees a tool to understand and respond to hate crimes and formulate anti-discrimination policies. 

“I think that the incumbents in the Assembly have simply not been responsive,” said Alan Sohn, a former member of the Teaneck township council who is supporting Warburg. “I was very, very, very disappointed to see some of the lack of support among the incumbents about antisemitism.” 

That bill would have codified the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by dozens of states and countries around the world, but that in recent years has also become a political lightning rod, with some left-wing lawmakers claiming that it infringes on Americans’ right to free speech because it deems some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. It passed out of committee in the State Senate in February, but it was never brought to a vote on the floor. 

Of the two incumbent assembly members from District 37, one — Ellen Park — signed on as a sponsor of the bill, while the other — Shama Haider — did not, earning criticism from many in the Bergen County Jewish community. 

“I think that the incumbents in the Assembly have simply not been responsive,” said Alan Sohn, a former member of the Teaneck township council who is supporting Warburg. “I was very, very, very disappointed to see some of the lack of support among the incumbents about antisemitism.” 

But what really riled up the district’s Jewish voters was the way that Fulop, the Jersey City mayor, approached the issue. He came out firmly against the bill, calling it “counterproductive.” Later, in an effort to assuage detractors in the Jewish community, he clarified in a letter, obtained by JI, that he would not veto the bill. 

“I oppose the bill because I think it will at best not have any effect on antisemitism and at worst increase it,” Fulop, who is Jewish, said in February. Two other leading gubernatorial candidates, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), have sought to draw a contrast between themselves and Fulop, offering sharp criticism of his approach to the issue. 

Warburg and her legislative running mate, Dan Park, published a statement in December expressing their unequivocal support for the IHRA legislation. At the time, Fulop had not weighed in on the issue. But his strong opposition to the bill has dried up much of the goodwill he built with New Jersey’s Orthodox community, much of which came from his response to the 2019 shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City that killed three people. And because Warburg is running on a Fulop-aligned slate, some view her stance on the issue as giving political cover to Fulop. 

“Because of my affiliation with Steve, and only because of my affiliation with Steve, my Jewish community is running another slate against me,” Warburg said. “That certainly has caused a rift. It’s very unfortunate, because when you split the Jewish vote, the Jewish vote is not as strong.”

“If you can’t be on the same page on IHRA, then what can you actually be on the same page that actually matters more?” Teaneck Mayor Mark Schwartz told JI. “She’s part of the Fulop machine, but she differs on the IHRA bill. Well, guess what? Who cares? Nobody, if you differ on the IHRA bill.” 

The IHRA bill is “the number one issue that comes up” when Warburg talks to Jewish voters, she said, even though her position on the issue is clear. 

“Because of my affiliation with Steve, and only because of my affiliation with Steve, my Jewish community is running another slate against me,” Warburg said. “That certainly has caused a rift. It’s very unfortunate, because when you split the Jewish vote, the Jewish vote is not as strong.”

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Stern, a Bergen County municipal employee who has served on local boards and commissions for several decades, was considering running for the state Assembly before the IHRA brouhaha began. But that was a decisive factor.

“One of the reasons I did go into the race is that I was not happy with Mayor Fulop’s stance on the IHRA legislation,” Stern told JI in a recent interview. “A lot of people are upset. And I’m upset, too.” 

Like Warburg, Stern is unofficially campaigning with a running mate, Rosemary Hernandez Carroll, in order to host events together and reach more voters, though they are not affiliated with any gubernatorial campaign. (Gottheimer did not endorse Stern, but a spokesperson for Gottheimer questioned why Warburg “would ever want to be on the same ticket as Steve Fulop, who has refused to back legislation that would codify the IHRA definition.”) 

Stern and Carroll have earned the backing of several major Jewish figures in Teaneck, including the Bergen County Jewish Action Committee and the heads of the region’s most prominent Orthodox day schools, while Warburg has struggled to bring in endorsements. 

“It’s very clear you can vote for the two of them. I have no problem with that. But it’s running against her that feels like we didn’t learn the lesson of Oct. 7 — that we’re powerful and can defend ourselves when we’re united, but when we have these internal struggles, whether it’s about permission or power, it divides us,” Hillary Goldberg, a Teaneck city councilmember, told JI. “All I see is we’re dividing the vote, and we’re gonna lose.” 

“We have one goal only, take out the incumbents,” Schwartz said. “I’d love to see her further getting involved down the line. She’s not electable. With that resume, she will not win, and we will be stuck with two incumbents that have not only done nothing for our town, but even less so for our Jewish community.” 

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The Stern camp is not alone in being worried that the campaign between the two Orthodox candidates is beginning to look like a head-to-head matchup, when in reality, Stern and Warburg both stand a shot at getting elected — together. When voters look at their ballots for the primary, they will not see the slates; they can choose any two Assembly candidates, so it would be possible to vote for both Jewish candidates. 

“It’s very clear you can vote for the two of them. I have no problem with that. But it’s running against her that feels like we didn’t learn the lesson of Oct. 7 — that we’re powerful and can defend ourselves when we’re united, but when we have these internal struggles, whether it’s about permission or power, it divides us,” Hillary Goldberg, a Teaneck city councilmember, told JI. “All I see is we’re dividing the vote, and we’re gonna lose.” 

Warburg, too, agrees that voters can select her and Stern. “I am being targeted as having guilt by association with Steve [Fulop],” she said. “I’m very proud to stand with Steve. And second of all, even if somebody had a problem with my association, of course they could vote for Josh [Gottheimer] for governor and they could vote for me for Assembly. There’s nothing preventing them from doing that, and I don’t think splitting the Jewish vote serves our interests.”

The Warburg campaign is distributing yard signs to supporters. The top two-thirds of the sign reads, in large letters, “Fulop for Governor.” Below that, in a much smaller font: “Warburg and Park for Assembly.”