Menendez praised in rabbi’s full-page NY Times ad

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/13/15 6:45 PM ET

Self-described “America’s Rabbi” Shmuley Boteach and his group have taken out a full-page advertisement in Saturday’s New York Times praising Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) as “the scourge of tyrants everywhere.”

The ad mentions the senior Hispanic politician’s “audacity to speak truth to power” and willingness “to reach across party lines on issues of conscience,” according to a press release provided Friday afternoon.

{mosads}Menendez gets praised in the ad on two issues where the ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee member has been critical of the Obama administration: on moves to normalize relations with Cuba and hopes to secure a deal over Iran’s nuclear program. The administration hopes to strike a preliminary deal on Iran by March 24.

On Iran, the ad says Menendez “stood up for the American and Israeli people against the Administration’s rush to conclude a deal with Iran that would endanger the security of both nations.”

“Senator Menendez is the vital, bi-partisan link against a deal with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism that would leave Iran with a one-year breakout capability toward a nuclear bomb,” the ad reads.

The rabbi’s ads have previously caused pushback.

Earlier this week, Boteach wrote an apology to national security adviser Susan Rice in The Washington Post after coming under fire for alleging in another full-page Times ad that Rice turned a blind eye to genocide in Rwanda during the Clinton administration.

Menendez earlier this week dismissed speculation he’d step down as the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee because pending criminal corruption charges against him from the Department of Justice, which Attorney General Eric Holder has reportedly signed off on.

“You know what? I haven’t been charged with anything, so you guys are way ahead,” Menendez said Monday.

The New Jersey-based Boteach wrote an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post earlier this week praising his home state senator.

“Robert Menendez, has the right to be presumed innocent regarding the allegations being leveled against him by Federal authorities. Moreover, as a senator he has the right to the gratitude and appreciation of the American Jewish community for being Israel’s courageous friend,” Boteach wrote.

The ad highlights an upcoming international awards gala in New York that in part honors Menendez.

Tags Bob Menendez Shmuley Boteach