Mrs. Lieberman, wife of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, saluted this central Massachusetts city of 22,000, where her father once was a rabbi, as a place "that respected others that were not exactly like them."

On a campaign swing with Tipper Gore, wife of Democratic ticket leader Vice President Al Gore, Mrs. Lieberman waved and blew a kiss toward a crowd of several hundred on the front lawn of a town elementary school. She graduated there in 1966, when it was Gardner High School. A huge sign behind her welcomed her home.

Her late father, Samuel, who fled Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust, brought the family to this old industrial town because it had an opening for rabbi.

Mrs. Lieberman, who was born in a Prague refugee camp, was 3 years old when the family came to Gardner. Her mother, Ella, a concentration camp survivor, and her brother, Ari, joined her at Thursday's hometown reunion.

"She represents immigrants coming to America and being welcomed by communities such as this one," Mrs. Gore said. "We all know our country is stronger because of our diversity."

U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Amherst, said the presence of a Jew on the ticket moves the country closer to a time when any American can end up in the White House.

Phyllis Lakin of Gardner, a childhood friend of Mrs. Lieberman through her father's synagogue, listened to the speeches with others in the mostly Christian crowd.

She said she believes most voters will look beyond the religion of the vice presidential candidate and his family. "When all the furor wears off, I do believe this country is great enough and magnanimous enough to see the man."

Frank Hirons, whose daughter went to school with Mrs. Lieberman -- then Hadassah Freilich -- said the family's religion "will absolutely be a nonevent in the campaign."

"It seems like in this wonderful country of ours, we should be beyond that," said Eveline Beauregard, a Roman Catholic who was the family's next-door neighbor.

Some said they were not surprised that Mrs. Lieberman and her husband were the ones breaking a barrier as a Jewish couple in a campaign for vice president. They recalled that Mrs. Lieberman was once an honors student, talented actress, and winner of a political essay contest.

"She never sought the limelight, but the limelight found her," said Mary Walsh Glotch, a classmate.

There were some critics too. Several dozen workers from H&R 1871, a Gardner shotgun maker, carried protest signs nearby. They said the Clinton-Gore administration is partly to blame for municipal lawsuits accusing their company and other gunmakers of inadequate safety.

A Republican in the crowd, Bruce Seibert, hoisted portraits of the wives of the two Republican candidates, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. "Some people are affected by the wives more than by the candidates," he said.

The two Democrats' wives, who flew into nearby Worcester, were to leave from there later Thursday for another joint campaign stop at the University of Toledo in Ohio.