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Shapiro Continued from Page 1
on his “Big Fights” bus tour
that is serving as the opening
stage of his 2022 gubernatorial
campaign. And he uses it for
two reasons.

It clarifies his own role as a
public servant, and it reminds
citizens that they have a role to
play, too.

“Each of us has a responsi-
bility to get off the sidelines, to
get in the game and to do our
part,” Shapiro continued in his
address. “Folks, by being here
tonight, you’ve stepped off the
sidelines. You are in the game,
and now it’s on all of us to do
our part.”
Shapiro closed his speech
just seconds later to a round
of applause from the hundreds
of Montgomery County
supporters in attendance.

The attorney general opened
his campaign earlier that day
in Pittsburgh. But he saved his
primetime kickoff event for his
home county.

The 48-year-old grew up in
Montgomery County, gradu-
ated from the Akiba Hebrew
Academy and attended Beth
Sholom Congregation in Elkins
Park. As an adult, he moved
back to the area with his wife,
Lori, and began attending Beth
Sholom all over again.

Shapiro came of age in a
Conservative Jewish household
that kept kosher, and now he’s
raising his own four kids the
same way.

For Shabbat dinner each
week, Lori Shapiro even makes
homemade challah.

On Oct. 15, with the bus
tour in full swing across the
state, the Democrat finished an
event at 6:30 p.m. in Scranton
and raced home for Shabbat
dinner. The Shapiros said their
prayers and ate, just like they
do every Friday night.

“It keeps me grounded,” he
said. “It is at least one night
each week where we know we’ll
all be together.”
Shapiro’s friends and neigh-
bors say his faith is not just
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM The crowd gathers in the late afternoon on Oct. 13 for Josh Shapiro’s campaign rally.

genuine, but deep.

His rabbi at Beth Sholom,
David Glanzberg-Krainin,
pointed to one piece of
evidence in particular: the
Shapiro kids following in their
father’s footsteps by attending
the same Jewish day school,
now called the Jack M. Barrack
Hebrew Academy.

“Sending your kids to
Jewish day school is a serious
commitment,” Glanzberg-
Krainin said.

According to
Nancy Astor-Fox, a Merion resident
and the chief development
officer for JEVS Human
Services, Shapiro’s Judaism
extends into his political work.

JEVS helps “individuals
with physical, developmental
and emotional challenges as
well as those facing adverse
socio-economic conditions,”
per its website. Astor-Fox
said Shapiro has visited the
not-for-profit’s various
programs and connected
its leaders with political and
community authorities.

“He’s a righteous Jew,”
Astor-Fox said.

Jill Zipin, a Horsham
resident, concurs with that
description. Zipin is the chair-
woman for Democratic Jewish
Outreach Pennsylvania, a
political action committee.

In the past, Democratic
Jewish Outreach was only a
federal PAC, supporting candi-
dates who reflected Jewish
values. But Zipin started the
state PAC to support Shapiro.

Zipin said the committee’s
13-member board aligns with
Shapiro on several issues. Yet
there’s one, access to the vote
and support for the democratic
process, that matters more
than others right now.

In November,
after Democrat Joe Biden won
Pennsylvania and the presi-
dential election, then-President
Donald Trump filed lawsuits
challenging the result in
court. Shapiro defended
Pennsylvania’s process, both in
court and in the media.

Republican requests to
invalidate millions of votes
were rejected by state judges.

Congress certified Biden’s
Electoral College victory on
Jan. 6.

“That says everything to
Jewish voters,” said Laurin
Goldin, a Jewish Abington
resident who attended the Oct.

13 rally.

Maybe to some, but not all.

Grant Schmidt, a Jewish
political conservative from
Haverford Township, does not
plan on voting for Shapiro. He
thinks the attorney general has
not done enough to prosecute
criminals. Philadelphia has seen more
than 400 homicides in 2021.

Schmidt believes that Shapiro
isn’t working hard enough with
Philadelphia District Attorney
Larry Krasner to stamp out the
crime issue.

“He keeps trying to go
after firearms. That’s not the
root of crime,” Schmidt said
of Shapiro. “It’s the lack of
willpower to prosecute.”
Shapiro is the only
Democrat in the gubernatorial
race. Gov. Tom Wolf is also a
Democrat, but he is finishing
his second term and unable to
run for reelection.

Nine Republicans are
running in the party primary
election set for May 2022.

“I’m hopeful and optimistic
about our future,” Shapiro said. l
“Josh Shapiro is defending
democracy,” Zipin said. “The
GOP seeks to limit and take
away the right to vote.”
Zipin said that democracy is
a Jewish issue.

“Jews have, throughout
the last hundred years, fled to
the United States in search of
a better life,” she said. “That
better life is not just economic
and religious freedom, but
political freedom as well.”
To Shapiro’s friends and
neighbors, though, it’s not just
the depth of his Judaism that
impresses them. It’s also that
he’s a self-loving Jew, rather
than a self-loathing one.

He’s literally out there on
the campaign trail quoting the jsaffren@jewishexponent.com;
215-832-0740 Talmud.

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OCTOBER 21, 2021
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