Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) and Lisa Scheller have lived most of their adult lives in Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district in the state’s Lehigh Valley. Both have established their careers and raised families in the district, and both are actively engaged in the Jewish community. This November, Scheller is looking to unseat Wild, who was first elected in 2018. Jewish Insider’s Jacob Kornbluh spoke recently with both Wild and Scheller about their work and the election ahead. 

A first term in Washington: Wild, 62, first entered Congress in November 2018 after a close special election for the seat in Pennsylvania’s 15th district, left open by the resignation of seven-term Republican incumbent Rep. Charlie Dent earlier that year. On the same day, she also won the race for the seat in the newly redrawn 7th district. Wild knows voters in her district haven’t had long to get to know her. But the freshman congresswoman has made a point of making herself accessible to constituents, and taking the time to get to know them.

Guiding principle: In a recent interview, Wild told JI she tries “very, very hard to work in a nonpartisan manner, not even a bipartisan manner.” Wild teamed up a few weeks ago with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) from the state’s 1st district to introduce legislation aimed at stopping federal cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expected in October. “I really try hard to focus on the issues where I think I can find some common interests [with Republicans],” Wild said.

Taking the high road: Last year, when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) ignited a political firestorm by charging that pro-Israel activists had an “allegiance to a foreign country,” Wild rebuked her colleague’s comments. But she also took it upon herself to engage with the Minnesota congresswoman — with whom she sits on the House Foreign Relations Committee — to educate her about the matter. Wild told JI she had a private conversation with Omar following the incident. “I guarantee you she remembers our conversation about this issue much more than she remembers which members spoke out on the House floor,” Wild said. “I just have a different approach to those things. I think it's a more effective approach.” 

Read the full interview with Wild here. 

Challenge ahead: Scheller, 60, was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and grew up in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, after her grandfather moved his company, Silberline Manufacturing, to Lansford, 37 miles northwest of Allentown, where she now resides. Her family was one of just two Jewish families in the small town of Tamaqua and her mom drove 15 miles every Saturday to attend Shabbat services and Hebrew school at a nearby Reform synagogue. In recent years, Scheller has begun to share her own personal story as a recovering heroin addict and alcoholic for the past 36 years. 

Connection to Israel: Scheller, who speaks Hebrew fluently and describes herself as a Zionist in her campaign position paper on Israel, first visited the Jewish state in 1985, at age 26, on a singles trip sponsored by the American Jewish Congress. She told JI that she was so inspired by the visit that she considered making aliyah and enlisting in the Israeli Defense Forces. She chose instead to finish her degree in the U.S. and — after the unexpected death of her brother — took control of her grandparents’ company, putting to rest the idea of aliyah. In the decades that followed, Scheller, who owns a home in Beersheba, found other avenues to express her connection to Israel. In 2012 she founded the Zin Fellows Program, a biennial mission to Israel’s Ben-Gurion University for community leaders across the U.S. She also founded the Woodman-Scheller Graduate Program in Israel Studies at the university’s Sde Boker campus, which provides English-language masters and doctoral programs for students from around the world. 

Read the full feature and see Scheller’s policy views here.