Shmuely Boteach, who bills himself as “America’s Rabbi,” is not a candidate for Congress in the newly formed 9th district. That does not mean, however, that he will not be on the ballot come November.

The website http://www.politickernj.com and other sites have reported that Boteach is seeking the Republican nomination to run against either Rep. Steve Rothman or Rep. Bill Pascrell, who will face each other for the Democratic nomination in June. The report was based on the fact that Boteach sent a letter to the offices of the Bergen County Republican Organization informing it that he is considering running.

To be considered by the Republicans for the nomination, Boteach told The Jewish Standard, meant sending a letter of intent no later than Jan. 31. Boteach said he did so at the last minute, but has yet to decide whether to actually enter the race.

He said he has about two months to make up his mind. Among the factors that will go into his decision will be the amount of financial support he can count on. Boteach said that such a race will be an expensive one and that he would need to raise at least a mllion dollars in order to run an effective campaign.

Boteach said that he is considering running for Congress because he feels he can make a difference. He wants to bring Jewish values into the political discourse, the rabbi said. He also said that the focus by the political right on such hot button issues as abortion and gay rights has deflected the country’s attenton from the real values-oriented issues facing the country, especially that of divorce. As a congressman, Boteach said, he would seek to introduce legislation that would make marriage counseling a tax-deductible item. He said he has sought support for such a law from GOP lawmakers in the past, but while they expressed interest, nothing ever came of that interest.

Boteach said that although he was a Republican and may seek the Republican nomination for Congress (two Saddle River men also filed letters of intent — Blase Billack, a pharmacology professorat St. John’s University, and Bruce Wrede, senior technician at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission) — he also said he was a social moderate. He was not certain how that would go over with Bergen County’s Republican base.

Boteach currently is engaged in an effort, as yet unsuccessful, to get the City of Englewood, where he lives, to rezone his property for use as a synagogue. He insists that his filing of a letter of intent with the county Republicans is not related to that effort.

The rabbi writes a syndicated column that appears in a number of on-line and print venues, including the on-line Huffington Post and the daily newspaper The Jerusalem Post. He also appears every other week in The Jewish Standard. If Boteach becomes a declared candidate for the Republican nomination in the 9th district, his column in The Standard will be discontinued pending the outcome of the race.

Blase Billack of Saddle River, an associate professor of pharmacology at St. John’s University, and Bruce Wrede of Saddle River, senior technician at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, also submitted their names in search of the nomination.

Stanley Fischman wants his students to do the right thing — and more.

Fishman, director of general studies at the Ben Porat Yosef day school in Paramus, has just published a book encapsulating the moral lessons he has been teaching fourth graders.

“Seven Steps to ‘Menstschhood’: How to Help Your Child Become a Mentsch” is designed to enable parents to use classic Jewish principles as a framework for discussing the real challenges of ethics and character that children face.

The man who brought Gilad Shalit home is an immigrant from New York.

Gershon Baskin was the crucial negotiator in the secret talks that brought the captured soldier back to Israel in October after more than five years of imprisonment by Hamas.

Baskin will be speaking about the negotiations and Shalit’s release Monday night at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, in an event also sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and several area schools and synagogues.

“I made aliyah in the framework of Young Judea,” Baskin said in an interview. “One of the things we learned is that the primary goal is not only to make aliyah, but to make a difference to Israel,” he said.

She just had to do it.

That is how Haworth teen Micaela Mangot explains an incident that took place when she was a little girl, distributing food and toiletries to the homeless in Washington, D.C.

“My family was always big into philanthropy,” said the 16-year-old, a student at Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest. “They taught me good morals and values — that you should always help people and treat them as you want to be treated.”

“I was around 7, and we were in Washington, D.C.,” remembers Micaela. “There was a lot of poverty there, and I got very upset. I saw the homeless standing above the subway grate for warmth. I went back to the hotel and took the candy and toothbrushes and soap and conditioner and gave them to them in pillowcases. I had to.”

Brushing her teeth one day last spring, Woodcliff Lake teen Paige Alenick had an epiphany. “I was thinking about the little things we take for granted,” she said. “But some kids can’t afford simple necessities like a toothbrush.”

Then 15, Paige decided to do something about her “small idea.”

After doing research on dental health around the world, “I started collecting toothbrushes and asking friends for donations. Then I started reaching out to dentists and suppliers.”

Why did Adir Schwartz-Settenbrino choose to celebrate his bar mitzvah in Jerusalem with a cognitively disabled Israeli “twin” he had never met, rather than party with his peers at home?

“The main reason I gave up my bar mitzvah with friends to twin it with a disabled child is because when you have it by yourself, getting all the attention and gifts, [you] feel too self-centered,” explains the Clifton youth, a student at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy. “I wanted to be able to take what I have the opportunity to do and share it with somebody who wouldn’t have had it otherwise.”

The 19-year-old accused of firebomb and arson attacks on two area synagogues pleaded not guilty at his first arraignment in Hackensack Superior Court on Wednesday, while his attorney requested a change of venue outside of Bergen County for the trial.

Authorities arrested 19-year-old Anthony M. Graziano of Lodi late Monday night in connection with attacks on Congregation K’hal Adath Jeshurun of Paramus and Congregation Beth El in Rutherford. Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli elaborated on the events leading to Graziano’s arrest during a press conference Tuesday afternoon in Paramus. Graziano allegedly used gasoline in the Paramus arson and Molotov cocktails in Rutherford. In both cases, Graziano rode his bike to the synagogues.