Openly Jewish Shapiro sworn in on Jewish Bibles

From Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Jewish News Agency reports

On the day before Josh Shapiro was set to be sworn in as Pennsylvania’s 48th governor, he had somewhere important to be: the Jewish Community Center in the state capital of Harrisburg.

Shapiro and his family spent that day, January 16, volunteering at the Alexander Grass Campus for Jewish Life, which was hosting a Martin Luther King Day celebration for the region.

It was a pre-inauguration stop that made sense for Shapiro. From his stint as Pennsylvania’s attorney general to his gubernatorial campaign ads to his election victory speech, Shapiro has long woven his Jewish identity into his politics, making him an archetype for a new breed of Jewish politicians.

“They seem above politics because they exude pride,” Scott Lasensky, a professor of American Jewish studies at the University of Maryland, said about Shapiro and other Jewish politicians who publicly demonstrate comfort with their identity. “It offers a much-needed respite from the reactive, defense posture that has seized the community.”

As Shapiro was sworn in on Tuesday, the 17th, on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles — including one from Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where a gunman massacred 11 Jewish worshipers in 2018 — a novelty became reality: A Jewish day school grad and dad is now one of the most influential elected officials in the United States.

“Now is the time to join together behind the unifying strength of three simple truths that have sustained our nation over the past two-and-a-half centuries,” Shapiro said: “that above all else, beyond any momentary political differences, we value our freedom, we cherish our democracy and we love this country.”

After the swearing in, the day of celebration continued on a schedule that included a sold-out concert with performances by rappers Wiz Khalifa and Meek Mill, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Smokey Robinson and the rock group Mt. Joy.

Back in November, Shapiro said in his victory speech that “you’ve heard me quote my scripture before, that no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it, meaning each of us has a responsibility to get off the sidelines, to get in the game and to do our part.”

It was a speech that Shapiro’s friends, teachers and associates might have envisioned decades ago. Nearly a dozen of them have said in interviews that the 49-year-old graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy (now Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy) has openly melded Jewishness and activism since his early teens, practicing a politics of bringing together disparate communities with his Jewish identity at the core.

“He gets done what he needs to get done, what he wants to get done,” said Robin