Washington D.C. (Special) -- Over lunch in the House Members Dining Room, Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) recently addressed our questions about the kind of networking that occurs among his 22 fellow Jewish members of the House of Representatives. 

Meetings are regularly arranged between Jewish members of Congress and visiting members of the Israeli government, he replied.  There also is a monthly Torah study class that Rabbi Jay Marcus of New York City conducts for House members. "We usually have a bagel bruncheon," Filner said. "I go a majority of the time. He picks out a section of the Torah that has relevance to some current event. He might talk about women in the Torah, or the use of violence, or some other abstraction, and of course everyone brings it back to today and what is happening.

Rep. Bob Filner, under painting of Cornwallis' surrender to Washington, in House Members Dining Room

"He leads the discussion, which sometimes can be very difficult because Congress members are notorious for never staying at a meeting. They go in and out; they always go rushing around, and he tries to do his thing -- and when he finishes there are maybe 3 to 8 people there but they are not the same 3 to 8 people he started with. It is very difficult to teach under such circumstances." 

While African-Americans have a formal Black Caucus, Jews in the Congress historically have not wanted to formalize their relationships."Perhaps it goes back to our history, not drawing atention," Filner said. Nervetheless, through informal meetings Jewish members often function as a caucus, he said. 

"We watch each other--how each votes on things," Filner explained. "If there seems to be something strange, we will ask each other 'why are you voting this way? Before I vote I had better understand why you are doing this.'" 

He said two Democratic congressmen from the Los Angeles area -- Henry Waxman and Howard Berman -- are always well informed on Jewish communal issues. On matters affecting the Holocaust, Congressman Tom Lantos from Northern California--a Hungarian-born Survivor--is considered a leader. 

The congressman led us from lunch to the floor of the House of Representatives which, not being in session, was open for private tours given by members of Congress. 

We were surprised how compact the chamber really is. The aisle through the center of the House which the President of the United States walks en route to delivering each year's State of the Union message looks so much longer when viewed on television. And the rostrum from which he speaks, including the dais behind him where the Speaker of the House and the Vice President of the United States sit, looks so much bigger on television. 

There are no assigned seats, Filner said, although by tradition Democrats and Republicans sit on separate sides of the chamber. From his wallet, he pulled an electronic identification card and showed how it fits into any of several machines strategically located around the room. 

While the voting machine reads the card, members of Congress can vote by pressing nearby buttons for "yes," "no" and "abstain." Each member of Congress's vote is shown during the voting period on a large electronic board on either side of the Speaker's rostrum. 

As we returned from the floor of the House to the Rayburn House Office Building, we were joined on the short private subway ride -- as luck would have it -- by another Jewish Congressman, Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. 

Levin suggested that most Jewish members of Congress are well informed both on the Middle East as well as on domestic Church-State issues not only because of networking in Washington, but because "the Jewish communities are active at home, so a majority of the members are contacted there." 

Asked about the impact of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has been considered the second-most influential lobby in Congress behind the American Association of Retired People (AARP), according to various rating services, Levin replied: 

"AIPAC has always reflected more rather than less the views of the Israeli government" regardless of which party was in power in Israel. "There have been a lot of Jewish members (of Congress) who have not always agreed with the incumbent prime minister of Israel," he added. "We are not monolithic, and we haven't been bashful about raising our concerns." 

Whereas support for Israel is strong among Jewish members of Congress, it no longer is so nearly unanimous as it was prior to the Republicans taking over Congress, Filner said. 

"Five or six years ago, every Jew--almost by definition--would vote for the foreign aid bill, because it had foreign aid for Israel and you couldn't possibly want to undermine that. Well, now if there is something in the foreign aid bill that is a problem on some other issue, people may--to make a point-vote against it. If they throw in something like anti-family planning -- this is since the Republicans have been in the majority -- then all of a sudden the bill is not so clear cut." 

Filner said like most Jewish members of Congress, he often is invited to make an appearance before Jewish groups holding their national meetings in Washington. 

"I just happened to follow (former House Speaker Newt) Gingrich one time, and I gave the standing speech that I give now. The Republicans come to all these groups, they see Jewish, and they talk about Israel, Israel, Israel. So I get up there--to a Federation or JCRC or UJA group-- and say 'hey, ask these folks where they stand on prayer in the schools, or on public education or on choice issues. They come here and they want your support because they are for Israel. Well, Israel is very important. It is a key issue. But so are these other issues. Don't let them get away with it.' 

"Invariably," Filner said, "people will come up to me and say 'I am glad you said that. We have been here all day and no one else has.'" 

Filner said he was disappointed the time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint session of Congress that the time has come when Israel, with its strong economy, should begin reducing its dependence on foreign aid. 

"I was watching the Republicans," Filner recalled. "He just saved their rear ends because their budget already required us to decrease. Politically I would have said let them put forward a budget that decreases the aid, and then we can get them on that. Don't start your negotiations saying we accept a decrease in aid. I saw politically how they just lit up -- that saved them so much. They could say 'well, the prime minister himself said we had to start.' So we ended up cutting aid to a certain degree and not getting any political price paid for it."