Presidential politics, Jewish pluralism, sainthood and children's literature all take on a different cast in the month of Adar.

NEW YORK -- When the Presidential primary comes to the state with America's largest Jewish population, the candidates go to shul.

In an appearance at Congregation Kor v'Sheleg in Buffalo, Republican hopeful Sen. John McCain revealed that while he was a prisoner of war in Hanoi one of his interrogators was Colonel Ma Oseh Khan, the highest ranking Jew in the North Vietnamese army.

"He was the only one I developed a personal relationship with," McCain said. "We discussed philosophy and laughed together. I thought it was hysterical that when the bare bulb in the interrogation room burned out he didn't know how to change it."

Appearing on the same bima a day later, Gov. George W. Bush was asked if he had had any ordeals similar to McCain's. "I got real close to a Jewish fella during hell week when I was pledging my fraternity at Yale," he recalled. "Yeah, I felt really bad when he was blackballed. He was a real smart guy. Spoke eight languages. Taught me about cojones."

Perhaps because of higher expectations, the Democratic candidates seemed to be pandering less. Vice President Al Gore spent the last week before the primary trying to appeal to undecided voters and raised eyebrows when he said that some of Patrick Buchanan's ideas on immigration deserved study. "I think if you look at his proposals closely enough," Gore observed, "you'll find a rationale for getting Pat deported to Ireland."

While the other candidates were pressing the flesh in New York, former Senator Bill Bradley was in South Dakota. Speaking at a press conference at Mt. Rushmore, he unveiled a proposal to enlarge the national monument. "The first two faces I'd like to see added," he said, "are those of Red Auerbach and Abe Saperstein."

No candidate seemed to do more homework for his Jewish audience than Reform Party candidate Donald Trump. At Temple B'nai Kesef on Manhattan's Upper East Side he started with the Middle East peace process and ended with some observations about the upcoming Purim holiday. "If I'm elected, I'll have a contest for the most beautiful Jewish girl in America, and I'll marry the winner," he said. "And I pledge to you that I will stay married to her until at least the end of my first term."

JERUSALEM--In a subtle move likely to herald larger changes, Israel's chief rabbis have decided to confer greater respect on their non-Orthodox colleagues. An internal Chief Rabbinate memorandum, initialed by Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Yosl D. Schneider and Sefardic Chief Rabbi Anilo Gaon, directed that in written communications non-Orthodox rabbis can be referred to by their titles, but that the word rabbi be written without a capital "r." (Previously the Rabbinate refused any use of the word "rabbi" in reference to non-Orthodox clergy.) The memo also stated that since Hebrew doesn't have capital letters, in Hebrew correspondence the letter resh would be written in smaller type.

Reaction from non-Orthodox leaders was mixed. "I'll stop wearing my Bozo suit on the bima," said Rabbi Al Tagidli-Klum, a leader of Israel's Reform movement, in a retort that recalled Gaon's reference to non-Orthodox rabbis as "clowns." An anonymous source at the headquarters of the Masorati (Conservative) movement was less playful. "The Chief Rabbinate," he said, "doesn't know its r's from a hole in the ground."

ROME--Pope John Paul II has initiated the process of making Albert Einstein a saint. A spokesman for the Vatican secretariat said the inquiry is based on miracles attributed to Einstein but that he hoped the announcement would also be seen by world Jewry as a conciliatory move. "This would be the first time," said Bishop Innocente i'Culpado, "that someone who lived his entire life as a Jew has been elevated to such an exalted position by the Church."

In response, a spokesman for the World Jewish Congress said, "No, it wouldn't."

LONDON--Harry Potter is Jewish. That's the bombshell in the next volume of the popular J.K. Rowling series, scheduled for publication next month. In The Prisoner of Cheder-we can't reveal the plot, but in the final scene the villain is tied up with tefilin while Harry and friends wait for the police-the hero-sleuth reveals that his grandfather, Hessel Potchker, was an immigrant from Bohemia and a descendant of the venerable Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel.