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Perelman Continued from Page 1
That spectrum is, in some
ways, a broadly accurate way
to describe the perception of
Perelman’s organization in
Philadelphia, which started in
2014. It is a smaller, newer and
more agile version of the good
government institutions that
it shares goals with, focusing
on greater democratic partic-
ipation, electoral reform and
more competitive city council
elections. At the same time,
the organization’s challenges to
traditional city politics have
ruffled feathers among both old
guard Democrats and younger,
far-left organizers.

Perelman, 36, is content to
suffer the slings and arrows of
both incumbents and upstarts
for a simple reason: It seems like
she’s starting to make waves.

Philadelphia 3.0, a 501(c)(4),
was founded on the supposition
that one of the more corrosive
aspects of Philadelphia’s dem-
ocratic process was the lack of
competitive elections for City
Council seats, among other
issues. So, Philadelphia 3.0
supports candidates for coun-
cil that challenge incumbents
according to a set of standards
determined by Perelman and
those who provide funding to
the group (more on that later).

“We just wanna know that
you are smart, and have a vision,
and that you’re willing to take
risks, and that you have a cre-
ative approach to problem solv-
ing,” she said, describing the
profile of a candidate that would
garner their support. “They can
be ideological, but that’s not for
us to adjudicate, necessarily.”
Perelman, who is “Ali”
to those know her, is the
granddaughter of Raymond
Perelman, the legendary busi-
nessman and philanthropist
who recently died at the age
of 101. She is a graduate of The
Baldwin School and Princeton
University, where she studied
art history. She spent a few
years in Hollywood as an assis-
tant at a talent agency, then
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM working on the Tori Spelling
sitcom So Notorious, before she
found herself called back to
Philadelphia. “I
wanted to
make Philadelphia my career,” she said.

She began her Ph.D. at the
University of Pennsylvania in
2007, focusing her dissertation
on the ways that politicians,
largely at the national level,
make themselves legible to vot-
ers as “likable” or “approach-
able.” Academia, she said, was a
good way to “exercise a certain
part of your brain when you’re
just thinking with such rigor
about such incredibly specific
questions,” but it didn’t stimu-
late the part of her that wanted
to make an impact in the tradi-
tion of her family.

Perelman knows
her name carries for weight for
Philadelphians, in particular
Jewish Philadelphians, but sees
her family name as something
to work toward.

“Inasmuch as there is like a
weight that I carry — and it’s
not a weight that I carry — but
inasmuch as there is something
that is banging around in my
head around that, it’s more just
that you feel so responsible for
this place,” she said.

Jewishly speaking, Perelman
hasn’t found religious practice
to be as meaningful for her as
it is for others, but credits a
conventional culturally Jewish
upbringing, replete with fam-
ily dinner table conversations,
with forcing her to punch
above her weight class from a
young age.

Alongside her academic
work, she became further
involved in city politics, and
was in the inaugural class
of Legislative and Policy
Research Fellows for the City
of Philadelphia in 2012. In the
program, she found herself
disabused of the notion that
one had to work in the may-
or’s office to get in on the real
action of Philadelphia. Rather,
she said, it was City Council
where things could really get
done. It was around then that
she was approached by a group
of intentionally anonymous
Philadelphia civic leaders about
heading up Philadelphia 3.0.

One oft-repeated criticism
of the group is that it rep-
resents a serious contradiction
to, on one hand, call for greater
transparency and openness to
the public when it comes to,
say, electoral reform or com-
mittee-person elections, while
also failing to disclose its own
source of funding.

And it’s hard not to think
that Perelman is unfamiliar with
that line of thought; sitting on
the desk in her office (situated in
a co-working space that literally
overlooks City Hall) is a copy
of Jane Meyer’s Dark Money, a
book that describes what Meyer
sees as the nasty consequences of
invisible donors. Her detractors
have grabbed onto this issue.

“Philadelphia 3.0 is more or
less a group that was founded
to make the city of Philadelphia
government more
busi- ness-friendly. It was founded
by money, and it’s backed by
money,” Agre said.

Perelman is familiar with
these criticisms, but stresses
that a look at Philadelphia 3.0’s
endorsements during the last
election cycle — which included
candidates like Maria Quinones-
Sanchez and Isaiah Thomas,
among others — reveals that any
attempt to characterize the can-
didates they support beyond pos-
sessing a general resolve to upend
the status quo would fall flat.

Her supporters are as effu-
sive as her detractors are sure
of her insidiousness.

“She’s clearly very bright,
she’s determined, she has a
pretty good feel for the ins
and outs of politics here,
which takes some doing,” said
Thornburgh, who has been
at the Committee of Seventy
since 2014. “I think she’s trying
to do the right thing for the
right reasons. I’m an admirer
of hers.”
Jon Geeting, Philadelphia
3.0’s director of engagement,
said that even from afar he
could see how intelligent and
driven she was, which was
JEWISH EXPONENT
part of what drew him to join
the group in August of 2016.

(Geeting, Philadelphia 3.0’s
only other full-time employee,
is more focused on engaging
prospective committee mem-
bers than on City Council.)
And in 2017, Ed Rendell
told Philadelphia Magazine
this: “I can close my eyes and
see Ali Perelman as mayor of
Philadelphia.” She’s proud of Philadelphia
3.0’s staying power thus far —
these types of groups usually
have a short shelf life — and
moreover, believes that they’re
much better positioned for the
upcoming election cycle than
they were for the previous one.

As for any personal political
ambition, Perelman said she can
imagine running for office at some
point in the future, but remains
focused on the task at hand.

“This year presents such an
unusual opportunity to drive
transformative change,” she
said, “and I’m thrilled that I
get to help try to make that
happen.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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