Michael Gottesman, Neighbor

Michael Gottesman is a 56 year resident of New Jersey. A graduate of Duke University and Vanderbilt Law School, Mr. Gottesman practiced law for 30 years running his own practice and representing individuals and business entities in a variety of areas.

He is married to his wife of 37 years, Mr. Gottesman has two children in their 30s and a 2-year-old wonderful granddaughter.

Mr. Gottesman is a founder of Wayne VOAD, Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, which has organized members of our township and local businesses to help families in need during times of flooding. Wayne VOAD provided hot meals to hundreds of families and even delivered them to their homes when necessary. Mr. Gottesman personally ran the Wayne Township shelter for people who were displaced during flooding precipitated by hurricanes and tropical storms.

He is a member of the Wayne Citizens Emergency Response Team and served on the Wayne Township Human Resource Committee and the Wayne School District Security Committee.

In his post-retirement career, Mr. Gottesman worked pursued his love of gourmet foods and wine as a manager for Trader Joe's, Gary's Wines & Marketplace and several Bottle King stores. His final place of employment was Whole Foods Market where he rose to the level of Prepared Foods Manager at several of their Regional stores.

Currently, Mr. Gottesman has dedicated himself to protecting our Public Schools from a radical right agenda and dark money forces. As the Founder of the "New Jersey Public Education Coalition, Mr. Gottesman has created a representational framework of volunteers spanning all New Jersey counties and over 50% of local school districts/ municipalities and a collaborative network of organizations such as the NJEA Council for Honest Education, Garden State Equality, Women for Progress, the NJ LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus and many others. Together, these individual representatives and organizations are leveling the playing field for parents and advocate fighting powers that seek to remove diversity and inclusion from our public education system, replace it with hatred, intolerance, racism, trans/homophobia and introduce "theocratic" prefects into our schools in an attempt to de-fund public education and use taxpayer money to payment for religious schools.