A member of the Democratic Party, Wildes served as a federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York and as a city councilman for Englewood before he was elected mayor in 2003.

The memorial lecture has been given by Jonathan Sacks, Alan Dershowitz, Meir Soloveichik, Jacob J. Schacter, Norman Lamm, Adin Steinsaltz, Shlomo Riskin, Malcolm Hoenlein, and several other notable speakers.

Leon Wildes attracted worldwide fame in 1972 when he successfully defended John Lennon and Yoko Ono from a deportation attempt by the US government.

Wildes also obtained visas, green cards, and helped navigate the naturalization process for his foreign clients, including artists, athletes, models, and businesspeople.

[7] Wildes began volunteering with his local chevra kadisha (Aramaic: חברא קדישא, "holy society"), a group of men and women who ensure that dead bodies are properly buried according to Jewish law, when he was 14.

He and Bush and Reagan turned it over to their staffs, who do nothing but give it the runaround, writing letters, putting up a façade instead of going to the Saudi government and working out an arrangement so the girls could spend equal time here and there.

[citation needed] A U.S. court later sealed the fact that when Al-Sayegh was brought to the United States he made an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to plead guilty to an earlier, smaller, and unsuccessful terrorist attack, and to provide information about the Khobar Towers bombing.

Reid, a British citizen with loyalties to al-Qaeda, had boarded American Airlines Flight 63 (flying from Paris to Miami) on December 22, 2001, with an explosive device hidden in the heel of his shoe.

James, a dual citizen of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago at the time, was promised a work visa by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), although he never received one.

[citation needed] Wildes was mayor of Englewood at the time, and taught in the Division of Business, Math, and Social Sciences at BCC's Paramus campus.

[90] On March 19, New Jersey State Senator Byron Baer announced he would run against Wildes for mayor, at the urging of Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero.

[91] On April 3, at a public forum in Englewood, NJ, United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed Wildes for mayor.

[92] On April 9 it became clear that Wildes would be unopposed for the Democratic nomination, and was set to face Republican candidate Ray Aspinwall in the November general election.

[94] Byron Baer, Loretta Weinberg, Gordon Johnson, and several other prominent Englewood democrats backed Wildes for mayor in late September.

[97] Wildes was sworn into his first term as mayor on January 1, 2004, by United States Senator Frank Lautenberg and Kadijah Thomas, the 2004 valedictorian of Dwight Morrow High School.

"[101] Douglas E. Hall, the editor of The Press Journal, wrote an op-ed in his newspaper urging higher voter turnout among Englewood residents to support Grieco's plan.

Hall argued that the deterioration of Englewood's public schools had led to a condition of "de facto segregation", and praised Wildes' for supporting the effort to improve the situation.

The referendum was called "not definitive", however, because of a snow storm that began on voting day and lasted until polls were closed, and because of the slight margin (one half of one percent).

[103] In his first speech as mayor, Wildes named three issues as his top priorities: "public education, property taxes, and bringing a fresh perspective to government.

The Bergen Record printed reports of several raids in January 2004 that seemed to specifically target Colombian residents living on West, Charles, and James Streets.

At a city council meeting in January, Donald Porrino, an Englewood Zoning officer, had denied targeting any ethnic group, and said inspections were intended to check for overcrowding and other fire safety risks.

[120] In 2007 Wildes also gave a key to Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Bangladeshi-Muslim journalist who was imprisoned and tortured by the Bangladeshi government for visiting Israel.

In a Suburbanite interview of the three candidates, Wildes talked about public education expenditures, maintaining a stable tax base, and reforming the city council as his main priorities for a second term.

[129] In the first week of his second term, Wildes named five new members to the Englewood planning board: Reverend Dr. Vernon Walton, Jordan Comet, Lenore Schiavelli, Leland Robinson, and Warren Finkel.

[133] The panel's April 30, 2009, executive summary report made recommendations about immigrant access to social services, the labor force, education, and state and local government.

In his speech at the ceremony, Wildes said, "From the fields at Bunker Hill to the mountains of Afghanistan, our brave young men and women have always battled injustice.

[146][147] Wildes said, "I have every problem with a person who admittedly blew up a plane killing 38 New Jersey residents and has the audacity in recent days to give a hero's welcome to a convicted terrorist.

He served as chair of the American Jewish Congress' Committee on International Terrorism, and was a member of the advisory board for the Urban League of Bergen County.

The book, "Safe Haven in America: Battles to Open the Golden Door," was published by the American Bar Association and includes a foreword by Alan Dershowitz.

The book has received largely positive reviews from many prominent people including Melania Trump, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and Benjamin Brafman, among others.