One of the events taking place convention week is that Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania is scheduled this afternoon to lead a delegation of two other senators – Norman Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine – to visit the Orthodox Jewish community in Boro Park, Brooklyn. The senators are meeting at 2 p.m. at Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, an organization that helps individuals and families who are touched by personal challenges such as drug addiction, domestic abuse, and physical disabilities.

The group will host a meeting of about 20 social service providers in the Orthodox community. All three senators were supporters of President Bush’s faith based initiative, according to Rabbi David Zweibel of Agudath Israel of America, one of the organizers of the event. The senators plan to see firsthand how American Jewry is “enlisting the power and strength of faith communities to deal with real-life social problems that people face,” Rabbi Zweibel told us.

Rabbi Zweibel will escort the three senators to the Novominsker Yeshiva, where they will observe Torah learning and hold a private meeting with Rabbi Jacob Perlow, the head of the Rabbinic Council of Torah Sages, and two other council members. An aide to Mr. Santorum told us that the focus of the conversation will be religious liberty. Rabbi Zweibel emphasized that the meeting is “not being choreographed beforehand” and promises to be a wide-ranging discussion of “the role of religion in American society.”

Finally, the senators plan to stop for a photo opportunity with members of Hatzoloh, the largest volunteer ambulance service in America. The ambulance corps, which is manned by Orthodox Jews and privately funded, has earned a reputation for exceptional response times to medical emergencies. The senators will meet an Hatzoloh crew that worked on September 11 saving police and firefighters.

Many Democratic partisans contend that Jewish voters are alienated by the Republican Party’s conservatism on social issues. “The Jews we lose over domestic issues – you can have that convention in a phone booth,” Ira Forman, the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, told the Jewish Telegraph Agency during the Democratic convention in Boston. But Rabbi Zweibel told us that Mr. Santorum’s social conservatism “resonates well, certainly among Orthodox Jews.”

“There’s no question that Senator Santorum and people in this community see eye-to-eye,” Dov Hikind, the Democrat who represents Boro Park in New York’s state Assembly, told us. “The Democratic Party of Kerry and Al Sharpton is just not what they’re all about.” And, Mr. Hikind said, “You’ll see it very dramatically on election day.” Mr. Hikind’s district is heavily Democratic, but the assemblyman now sees overwhelming support for Mr. Bush. “Boro Park to a very great extent is George W. Bush territory,” he said. Citing Mr. Bush’s support for Israel and his focus on moral values, Mr. Hikind said, “People in this community who are wall-to-wall Democrats are voting wall-to-wall for George W. Bush.”

Mr. Hikind himself plans to travel to several swing states following the convention to help the Bush-Cheney campaign. “This president deserves to get re-elected. It’s that simple,” he said. As for Mr. Santorum’s visit to Boro Park, noted Mr. Hikind, “he’s going to get a great reception.”