Send Page to a Friend DNC's Dean at Jewish plenum   By Logan C. Ritchie The Jewish Advocate   Jewish Council for Public Affairs meeting in D.C. this week Democratic National Committee Howard Dean spoke Tuesday at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs plenum in Washington, D.C. At the session entitled "The Jewish Community and the Political Process," Dean and Republican National Committee Ken Mehlman presented the perspective of their respective political parties. With a theme of "Jewish Values: Seizing the Moment for America and Israel," programs touched on topics from the transitioning Middle East to Hispanic-Jewish relations in America. One highlight of the plenum included a panel discussion on religion in public life. Speakers Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals; John C. Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life; Amy-Jill Levine, professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School; and Jack Wertheimer, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York talked about how Evangelical Christians see their role in American society. Wertheimer stated that the Jewish community should be more concerned about its own survival (and high rates of intermarriage) than the "remote possibility" that the United States could be a Christian theocracy. Green explained that the Evangelicals comprise only one-quarter of the population of the U.S., despite their efforts to be a prominent movement with great influence. The plenum did vote to monitor religious tolerance guidelines recently proposed by the U.S. Air Force. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and Lawrence F. Kaplan, senior editor of the New Republic, hotly debated the war in Iraq on Tuesday afternoon. Boston delegates at the conference included members of the Jewish Community Relations Council and Brandeis professor and director of the Crown Center of Middle East Studies Shai Feldman.