In a campaign in which image has taken on an outsized importance, President Barack Obama must overcome an unusually thorny political problem: the image of President Bill Clinton, specifically of a teary-eyed Clinton wearing a kippah and ending his eulogy for the assassinated israel Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin with two Hebrew words that are now forever tied to the two men, “Shalom, chaver” — goodbye, my friend.

Zumba is not just fun.

“It’s also a hidden workout,” says Melissa Avalo, Zumba instructor at the Bergen County YJCC in Washington Township.

Missy, as she is known to her students, makes no secret of her love for the fitness craze.

“It clears your mind, it’s good for your heart, you lose all your stress — and you do it to great music. It’s a big dance party,” she said.

“I see the faces of the students glowing, enjoying the music,” she said. “Even if they don’t get all the moves, or it’s too intense, they can always do it to their own level.”

At age 54, Esther Goldberg has danced in front of 46,000 people at a sold-out Phillies game and behind a casino bar wearing little more than a see-through mesh shirt over a sparkly bra.

This is what Zumba can do to an otherwise mild-mannered masseuse and yoga instructor from Northeast Philadelphia.

If you have not yet heard about Zumba, Goldberg and more than 500 other certified instructors located within 25 miles of Philadelphia’s Center City will clamor to tell you how the Latin-inspired dance fitness phenomenon not only can get you in shape, but truly change your life. As Goldberg put it, “You never know where it will take you.”

Sound a little cultish? It is.

Local leaders of Reform congregations returned from the movement’s biennial convention in a Washington suburb floating on clouds, energized, and determined to meet the challenge — set by the movement’s leadership — of more than doubling synagogue participation by high school seniors by the end of this decade.

“We all came back so charged up,” said Rabbi Elyse Frishman, of Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes. “It was a fantastic renewal opportunity.”

With more than 6,000 attendees, the biennial was the largest ever, the first to be sold out, and one of the largest indoor gatherings of American Jews ever.

“It was amazing,” said Irene Bolton, director of lifelong learning at Temple Beth Or in Washington Township.

WASHINGTON — At the opening plenary of the Union for Reform Judaism biennial, Rabbi Eric Yoffie asked for the help of nearly 6,000 attendees “in one particular area.”

Of the speakers to follow him in Washington, from Dec. 14-18, Yoffie said: “None of these individuals is without controversy, they each have their supporters and their critics in the broader community, in the synagogue world, and in this room.”

“I hope and trust that we can all agree on this — each and every speaker is a guest in our home,” the outgoing URJ president continued. “We should try to treat our speakers and our other guests as we would [treat] guests in our own living room.”

WASHINGTON — With President Barack Obama headlining the program, approximately 6,700 people attended the 71st Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) biennial, making it the largest ever gathering of Reform Jews and possibly the largest gathering in recent years of any Jewish organization in the United States. So many people attended, in fact, that registration had to be closed for the first time in the event’s history.

Why was this convention different from all the others?

No doubt, Obama was a huge draw, but there were plenty of other reasons to come to Washington, whether attendees were aware of that in advance notwithstanding. Here are 10 of those reasons — some of which might surprise you.

President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned speech to the 6,700 people gathered at a suburban Maryland hotel last Friday for the Union for Reform Judaism biennial convention.

“Even though it is a few hours early,” the president began, “I’d like to wish all of you Shabbat shalom,” Obama began. “I want to give a shout-out, NFTY I understand is in the house,” he went on, earning a raucous cheer from the National Federation of Temple Youth.

Throwing in a joke about his daughter Malia being in the midst of bar mitzvah season, he borrowed from her resulting Jewish knowledge to begin with a Torah portion, and based the rest of his speech on Joseph’s words, “Hineni,” or “Here I am.”

The words were taken from the Saturday, Dec. 17, Torah portion. “It never hurts to begin a speech by discussing the Torah portion,” Obama said.

Sessions at the five-day biennial conference of the Union of Reform Judaism covered everything from “Yoga Shalom: The Embodiment of Prayer” to “Is America Abandoning Church-State Separation? Implications for the Jewish Community.”

The conference was a mix of old and new, reflecting some of the changes made by the movement over the last generation, and some it has not made. The weekday prayer services consisted of participatory singing, guitar playing and even storytelling and meditation — part of a revolution in Reform prayer led by the late singer-songwriter Debbie Friedman. The Shabbat morning service, however, was more formal and operatic, sending some congregants — mostly young people, but also gray-haired ones — out of the room and into the hallways to chat and fiddle with their mobile phones.