On the first night of Passover and a few days before Easter, one supposes it was understandable that a good part of Wednesday's CD-11 debate centered on religion and the Holy Land.

Republican Joe Hathaway waded into the Christian part of that equation when he asked opponent Analilia Mejia about comments she allegedly made that "Jesus was a socialist?"

Mejia responded by referring to multiple Biblical verses quoting Jesus speaking about women's rights, feeding the poor and respecting immigrants.

She did not specifically call Jesus a "socialist."

Hathaway countered that he, too, backs women's rights and caring for those in need and that he definitely is not a socialist.

The online debate, which was sponsored by the NJ Globe, was the first and only one of the campaign. The April 16 election will replace Mikie Sherrill in the House.

Israel, and Jewish residents in general, dominated an earlier portion of the debate.

A core part of Hathaway's campaign is that Mejia is "anti-Semitic."

In one of the back and forths about this, Hathaway observed:

"Anti-Semitism is a bad thing to be accused of, it is."

Mejia's response, which surfaced earlier in the campaign, was that as a Latino woman, she understands the fears of all minority groups. And she pledged to fight anti-Semitism.

The disagreement about U.S. policy towards Israel also produced sharp exchanges.

Hathaway claimed Mejia "blamed" Israel for the Oct. 7 attacks three days after they occurred.

"Not true, not true," she interjected.

Mejia did reiterate that she views Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, as a "war criminal." And she said there should be widespread agreement that conditions in Gaza are deplorable.

She added that the United States government should be able to tell "a friend" when they are wrong.

Hathaway's views were different. Asked about conditioning aid to Israel, he replied that we should not condition aid to an ally.

The Republican stressed that Israel is a longstanding U.S. ally surrounded by countries that want to destroy it, and by extension, the United States as well.

More broadly than specific issues, the debate focused on the "extremes" of each candidate.

This, of course, is a matter of opinion. Both say they offer practical solutions to benefit a majority of residents in a district that covers parts of Essex, Passaic and Morris counties.

Mejia repeatedly linked Hathaway to Donald Trump, contending that tariffs and budget cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are hurting residents every day.

Hathaway took the opposite approach, saying the greatest potential harm to the district are the "socialist" policies of Mejia.

He said Mejia is a creature of "the Squad," a contingent of left wing Dems led by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

She, in turn, said Hathaway is far too comfortable with MAGA and "insurrectionists." The latter point stems from a photo he took with a man who was in Washington on Jan. 6.

The Globe debate was arranged after Mejia refused a League of Women Voters debate.

Democrats have slightly more than a 60,000 vote registration advantage. The mail-in ballot count also favors Democrats so far by more than a 3-1 margin.

So Hathaway needs help from the "other side" to win.To that end, he spoke about getting a good reception at a recent "meet and greet" in South Orange, a Democratic stronghold.

Mejia's gripe with the League of Women Voters had to do with the moderators. The irony here was that many Republicans think the League leans left.

As for today's debate, Hathaway expressed some unhappiness with the moderators allowing Mejia to speak past the time allotted.

"How much longer are we going to let this bell ring three or four times," he said at one point.