Not Your Bubbe's Yentl

Let us rally for Holocaust survivors while we still can - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Let us rally for Holocaust survivors while we still can - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

This Jew Foursquare Mayor, Checking In and Checking Out.

24 Nisan, 5772

So what does James M. Curley, Raymond L. Flynn and I all have in common?

We were all mayors in Boston.

Well, to be accurate the first two were actual mayors of Boston. I, on the other hand, was a mayor in Boston. A Foursquare Mayor, multiple times, in fact. On campus. In my adopted town.  And yes, even at my Temple. Like so many other places I inhabit during my day I simply “checked in” whenever I was physically there - for Shabbat Services, Torah study, Hebrew lessons, minyan, etc. I would do this unconsciously, sometimes “stealing” the title from the current Mayor, only to watch it get “stolen” back days later. I didn’t really give any of this much thought, maybe a shrug or two. Being a Foursquare Mayor of anywhere is not exactly something to put on a C.V. or in a frame, a legacy to hand down to your children or something to teach the next generation. It is certainly not why I moved to The Bay State and especially not why I became a Reform Jew. 

But that whole not-giving-it-much-thought thing? That became the problem.

Recently I became Mayor of my Temple – again – and as a result was unexpectedly contacted by a local trendy newspaper. The reporter explained they were running a series on unique local Foursquare “mayors” and was wondering if I would consent to an interview and having my picture taken inside or outside the Temple. My first response? Great! I am a proud Jew and have no problem representing as such.

But something didn’t feel right.Something kept rolling around in the back of my brain like an annoying pebble in a shoe. It wasn’t just that the reporter wanted to take pictures of me on a Friday night. (I emailed him: Really, Friday night??? He admitted he wasn’t up on the whole religion thing.) It was wanting to take a picture of me in front or inside my Temple. My temple. That felt wrong all the way down to my core. My Temple is not a trendy newspaper article in a local hipster read or a ‘mayorship’ that can be/should be ‘won’ , ‘lost’ or ‘stolen’. This is a home to me, a place of community, shelter, even sometimes aliyah. It’s where I come for spiritual meditation, spiritual healing, spiritual questioning, spiritual family. Did I really want all that experience, all that meaning, all that joy, to be reduced to a couple of inches of clever print? Can any of that be awarded by some app?

I don’t think so. 

So I made a decision - a good decision, an authentic decision. I politely declined the reporter’s offer. Then I abdicated my Mayorship for good. I will not be checking in at my Temple anymore. I should write the reporter and thank him, thank him for reminding me that my minyan prayers, Shabbat Services, Torah study or any of my being Jewish need not be validated like this, and that what is real in my world will never be awarded via the internet or be found on the printed page (well, outside The Torah, that is).    

Pesach Sameach!

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“Standing on the parted shores of history

We still believe what we were taught

Before ever we stood at Sinai’s foot;

That wherever we go, it is eternally Egypt

That there is a better place, a promised land;

That the winding way to that promise

Passes through the wilderness.

That there is no way to get from here to there

Except by joining hands, marching together.” 

Michael Walzer