TRENTON – "Happy birthday!"

The crowd at the statehouse on Monday applauding Gov. Jon Corzine’s greeting for Israel’s 60th anniversary included legislators, members of the New Jersey-Israel Commission, and 65 representatives from nine of the state’s Jewish federations. Signing a proclamation honoring the milestone, the governor extolled the benefits of the relationship between the Jewish state and the Garden State.

The day also marked the opening of a temporary exhibit in the Capitol Building on Israel, assembled by the N.J.-Israel Commission. The exhibit and the proclamation are signs of "the deep roots" of the New Jersey-Israel relationship, Corzine said.

"My ticket’s purchased," he added, referring to his twice-delayed trip to Israel, now scheduled for July, to boost economic relations.

The Jewish community seems to be taking a wait-and-see attitude toward Agriprocessors, the world’s largest producer of kosher meat, whose plant in Postville, Iowa, was raided by federal agents on Monday.

Authorities charged that the factory employed hundreds of illegal workers and cited claims that illegal narcotics production took place at the plant. Agents arrested 390 workers Monday in what Immigration and Customs Enforcement called the largest raid of its kind in U.S. history.

A Jewish Standard exclusive interview with the 2,000-year-old master comedian

It’s good to be an American." With those words Mel Brooks, one of only a few people to win an Emmy, an Oscar, a Tony, and a Grammy, accepted another award on April 17 at Ellis Island: The 2008 Ellis Island Family Heritage Award in entertainment. Presented by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, the annual award recognizes Ellis Island/Port of New York immigrants or their descendents who have made their mark on American life.

Shortly after the rare public appearance, Brooks sat down for an even rarer telephone interview with The Jewish Standard. He is not a religious man, but anybody who has seen his movies — and witnessed such memorable creations as the "Jews in Space" musical number in "History of the World Part I," his Rabbi Tuckman character in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," or the thick Lower East Side accent of the all-powerful, all-knowing Yoghurt in "Spaceballs" — knows that Mel Brooks is a product of the Borscht Belt brand of humor who embraces his Jewish identity.

The Beth Israel Worship Center looks like any synagogue under construction. Its few hundred members meet in a temporary sanctuary where an ark holding a Torah sits near a podium in front of a giant flag with a Star of David draped on the wall.

But here’s a major difference: While many of the congregants claim to be Jews, the liturgy focuses on Jesus as savior. Beth Israel is a messianic congregation that recently opened its doors in Wayne, and the Jewish community has sought to educate itself against a possible missionary onslaught. Messianism has been condemned by Jewish clergy and leaders as a cloak for Christian missionizing.

Some educators have recently come under fire for expressing their religious views in public schools.

"Public school teachers and coaches wield enormous influence over their students and it is critical they do not use that authority — authority granted to them by the government — to create an environment where children of different faiths or no faith are made to feel unequal," said Etzion Neuer, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s New Jersey office.

The days of school-mandated prayer are over — at least for now — but as we have seen recently in East Brunswick and Kearny, there are still cases of school officials impressing their religious views upon their students.

We applaud Matthew LaClair for standing up to his teacher and the Kearny School District last year when he was faced with a blatant violation of the separation of church and state (see story, page 10). Although LaClair is not Jewish, he stood up for an issue of great importance to the Jewish community.

U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5) introduced a House resolution last week to prevent U.S. taxpayer money from funding the 2009 U.N. Durban Review Conference II, a follow-up to the 2001 conference that was decried by Western nations for its anti-Israel agenda.

The United States and 45 other member-nations of the U.N. voted in December not to support Durban II. According to the resolution’s text, the first conference was "used as a platform to advance anti-Semitism and, consequently, the United States and Israeli delegates walked out."

While the United States has adopted a pattern at the United Nations of voting against the conference, Garrett’s bill prohibits U.S. funding and participation in it and any related preparation. A congressional statement sends an important message that the government’s constituency also supports the action against the conference, Garrett told this newspaper last week.

A sexual predator may be using a social networking Website to target Orthodox youth, according to an e-mail sent by Yeshiva University to parents and area yeshivot. Although further inquiries by this paper revealed that the predator is not an immediate threat, officials have used the incident as an opportunity to repeat general precautions about using the Internet.

The e-mail, dated April 10, was sent by Rabbi Hillel Davis, YU’s vice president for student life. It notes that a young man using the names David Newman and David Goldman has been befriending young Orthodox men and women on Facebook while claiming to be a New York University student. In addition, it says, the suspect has reportedly attempted to meet with young men to "coerce them into physical contact" and "threatens them if they rebuff his advances."