Send Page to a Friend Republican candidate answers same questions as Patrick   By Rachel Axelbank The Jewish Advocate   In anticipation of the upcoming election, Jewish community leaders throughout the area met with Republican gubernatorial candidate and current Lt. Governor Kerry Healey on Oct. 26 to discuss issues of importance to the community. Healey was presented with the same set of 10 questions that the group had posed to Democratic candidate Deval Patrick last week in order to provide the candidates with equal opportunities to express their positions. "We appreciate her concern for the needs of the Massachusetts Jewish community," said, James Kaufman, the most recent past president of the American Jewish Committee. Kaufman said he was pleased with Healey's expressed intentions to resume trade missions between Israel and Massachusetts, an issue that he said is of importance both to the AJC and to him personally. Other matters discussed at the meeting included immigration, providing assistance to the elderly, and providing increased security to all citizens of Massachusetts, Jews included, according to Roy Schreiber, also of AJC. Healey said that she came away from the meeting with a better understanding of the Jewish community's concerns. She listed education reform and decreased cost of living among the principles of her campaign platform and added: "The most important thing is that I support Israel." "Both candidates had to respond to all of the issues," said Barry Shrage, president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, who noted that the questions focused primarily on human services. "They both did a credible job of answering the questions in intelligent ways." Shrage added that, above all, he hopes that whoever is elected governor makes good on his or her statements. The event was co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Anti-Defamation League, the AJC, CJP, and the Massachusetts Association of Jewish Federations.