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R JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
ebecca Rhynhart grew up in a
Reform Jewish household, had
a bat mitzvah at Congregation
Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia and
sent her daughter to Jewish preschool
at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in
Center City.

Even today, Rhynhart celebrates
Jewish holidays like Chanukah and
Passover. And while she is far from
Orthodox, she is driven by two Jewish
values that have always stuck with her:
empathy and fairness.

Th e 48-year-old stated those values to
the Jewish Exponent in August when she
was discussing how her religion might
impact her run for mayor of Philadelphia.

And aft er the Democrat announced her
campaign on Oct. 25 at Nichols Park in
West Philadelphia, she repeated those
same values as motivation.

“Th ere are certain tenets of Judaism, of
empathy, of fairness, that resonate with
me, that I look at when I look at what’s
not right in our city,” Rhynhart said.

Rhynhart resigned as city controller
to run for mayor. Philadelphia requires
city employees to step down to run for
mayor. But before she did, Rhynhart
released a report through her offi ce that
detailed some of the Philadelphia Police
Department’s shortcomings.

Th e controller found that there are
not enough cops, only about 11 to 22 per
police district, and response times that
are slower in Black and brown neighbor-
hoods than in more white ones, among
other issues. It confi rmed what she
already believed: Th e city needs to feel
more empathy for residents impacted by
violent crime and show more fairness
toward them, too.

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NOVEMBER 3, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Rebecca Rhynhart announced her
campaign for mayor on Oct. 25 in
Philadelphia. In 2021, Philadelphia set a record
with 561 homicides. As of Oct. 31,
the city has seen 445 homicides. In
September, Philadelphia reached 1,000
car-jacking incidents for the fi rst time,
with three months still to go.

“We need to get our city safe,”
Rhynhart said. “People don’t feel safe.”
Rhynhart is one of four Democrats
to declare their candidacies for the May
primary. City council members Derek
Green, Maria Quiñones Sánchez and
Cherelle Parker also resigned to run.

As many as eight other Democrats are
rumored as possible candidates. Jewish
real estate developer Allan Domb
resigned from his city council posi-
tion to go on a listening tour through
Philadelphia neighborhoods, though
he has not yet announced a run.

Philadelphia has not had a Republican
mayor since Bernard Samuel from 1941
to 1952, and Mayor Jim Kenney won
more than 80% of the vote in both
of his elections in 2015 and 2019. So
if Rhynhart can win the Democratic
primary, she will likely win the city’s
executive seat next November.

But against so many candidates, that’s
a big if, especially when the most import-
ant issue, crime, is obvious to everyone.

Th e former controller, though, feels like
she has the winning argument.

It starts with empathizing with city
residents and showing fairness toward
them with her policies.

Rhynhart’s public safety plan
includes putting more cops on the
streets, but it does not start there,
she explained. It starts with “inter-
vention strategies,” as she describes
them. Th e mother wants to give the
“mostly young men in this street
life a way out.”
A way out could begin with a life
coach with the same lived expe-
rience, job training and therapy,
according to the candidate. Th ese
strategies have been used success-
fully in other cities like Oakland,
she added.

“A majority of them want the
way out of that life,” Rhynhart said.

“Th ere is a small percentage that
won’t stop and that need to be
prosecuted.” Intervention strategies focus on indi-
viduals. But Rhynhart also wants to
help communities. She believes the city
needs to fund more services to help
young people aft er school. In too many
poor neighborhoods with the most vio-
lence, she said, libraries are not open
aft er school and there is not recre-
ational programming each day.

“As mayor, I would urgently work to
get city services in areas most impacted
by the violence,” Rhynhart said.

But while the candidate thinks that
it’s important to address these root
causes, she said she understands the
need to fi ght crime as it happens. Th at’s
why she also wants to put more cops on
patrol. Her report discovered that just
under 2,600 PPD offi cers out of nearly
6,000 are on the streets.

Rhynhart believes that residents
across the city want to know their
police offi cers. Th ey want to see them
on the streets and on bikes, not “run-
ning from one 9-1-1 call to the next,”
she said. Rhynhart’s report found that
civilianizing non-patrol positions and
decreasing abuse of the state's heart
and lung disability benefi t would
increase the number of offi cers in
neighborhoods. “Th is is about the urgency of it,” she
said. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Courtesy of Rebecca Rhynhart For Mayor
Jewish Democrat Rebecca Rhynhart
Announces Mayoral Campaign



Thank you to the sponsors of Jewish Federation Real Estate’s
10 th Annual Legends and Leaders event. Your support
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and provided critical dollars to the JFRE Fund, which
awards grants to essential capital projects in our Jewish
communities in Greater Philadelphia and in Israel each year.

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