EW YORK - Vice presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman tried to boost Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign yesterday, appearing with her at a Brooklyn school and appealing to Jewish voters, calling her ''a dear friend'' who ''can always be counted on to do the right thing'' for New Yorkers and for Israel.
Clinton has been openly elated about Lieberman's candidacy ever since Al Gore chose him as his running mate. Lieberman, the first Jewish vice presidential nominee in US history, is expected to garner support for Gore in the state's Jewish communities, and the Clinton campaign hopes this will spill over to her own electoral bid.
Many Jewish voters, especially conservative ones, deeply distrust the first lady for having once advocated a Palestinian state and, during a trip to the Middle East last year, for kissing Suha Arafat after a speech in which the PLO leader's wife accused Israel of firing poison gas at Palestinian children.
So yesterday's political blessing from Lieberman had been eagerly awaited by Clinton's supporters.
''Believe me,'' Lieberman said solemnly, ''Hillary Clinton as a United States senator will be a strong, strong supporter of the state of Israel.''
But when it came time for questions yesterday, the students at the school, the Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted and Talented, seemed less interested in Israel and more interested in the candidates' own teenage years, asking, ''Who were your role models?'' ''Who were your favorite teachers?'' and ''Did you look forward to school every day?''
Nevertheless, the back of the room was packed with TV cameras and reporters, including some from the city's leading Jewish newspapers, The Forward and Jewish Week.
Jews constitute just 12 percent of the state's voters, but they are a vital segment of any Democratic candidate's coalition. Republican Alfonse D'Amato won three Senate races in part because he was able to get 40 percent of the Jewish vote. When he lost in 1998 to Charles Schumer, who is Jewish, D'Amato received just 18 percent of the Jewish vote.
Before Lieberman was named Gore's running mate, statewide polls showed Clinton attracting barely half the Jewish voters. By last week, she had won the support of 61 percent.
Pollster John Zogby credited much of her rise to the excitement over Lieberman's presence on the party ticket.
Hillary Clinton has shared a New York stage with Gore four times this year. But this was the first time since the Democratic National Convention that a national candidate has joined her on the campaign trail. Polls show Gore leading George W. Bush by a hefty margin in New York State, while Clinton and Lazio are tied. So, she and Lieberman both made a big effort yesterday to link her to the national ticket.
Lieberman, while laying out some of Gore's policy proposals, declared that he needs Clinton ''to help us lead the charge'' in the Senate.
Clinton said various measures to improve public schools were ''priorities for Joe Lieberman, for Al Gore, and for me.'' On another point, she noted, ''This is an issue that Joe and Al and Tipper and Hadassah and I have long talked about.''
Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut, has been friends with Clinton for 30 years, since she was a student at Yale University Law School. Bill Clinton worked on his first election campaign for state senate.
