It’s not day-after-day a sitting mayor celebrates his bar mitzvah. However final Saturday, as greater than 700 folks packed the pews at Temple Beth-El in Windfall, Rhode Island, that’s precisely what unfolded.
On the middle of the ceremony on the Reform synagogue on the East Facet of Windfall was the town’s mayor, Brett Smiley; the previous mayor and congressman, David Cicilline; and 11 different adults who, for the final 16 months, had been finding out Hebrew, parsing Torah parts and making ready collectively for a long-awaited ceremony of passage. (The ceremony was first reported by the Windfall Journal.)
For Smiley, who was raised in a Protestant family and transformed to Judaism in 2024, the ceremony was the end result of a years-long religious journey that, till not too long ago, had been a largely personal endeavor.
“My grandfather was Jewish, and I’ve been surrounded by a Jewish group for a lot of my life,” Smiley mentioned in an interview. “So I felt like I had each familial bonds after which what ended up being an actual religious connection that simply felt actually snug and pure to me, and has turned out to be a supply of nice energy and pleasure for me.”
Amongst these within the viewers was a cousin of Smiley’s on his grandfather’s facet from Haifa, Israel, who had traveled to the USA every week earlier for an additional dedication. (Smiley’s cousin’s spouse was unable to make the journey as a result of conflict in Iran disrupting air journey.)
“To know that every one these years later, his grandsons or grand-nephews had been sitting collectively in a synagogue in Windfall, Rhode Island, was actually type of an attractive assertion in regards to the survival and perseverance and resilience of our group,” Smiley mentioned.
Mayor Brett Smiley stands on the bimah of Temple Beth-El in Windfall, Rhode Island, on the day of his bar mitzvah, March 14, 2026. (Courtesy)
Cicilline, who served because the mayor of Windfall from 2003 to 2011 and the U.S. consultant for Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District from 2011 to 2023, is Jewish by means of his mom and has been part of Temple Beth-El for many years. However he had by no means marked the ceremony of passage historically celebrated at age 13.
“This previous Saturday marked a deeply private milestone for me as a member of a group of 13 adults known as to the Torah as a part of the Grownup B’nei Mitzvah program at Temple Beth-El,” Cicilline wrote in a submit on Fb. “In occasions of tumult, religion calls us again to our traditions — and to one another.”
For Smiley, finding out alongside Cicilline, who paved a path for him in some ways, created an added layer of that means.
“I view him as a task mannequin and a mentor for me in my skilled capability,” Smiley mentioned. “The primary brazenly homosexual mayor of Windfall, the primary Jewish mayor of Windfall — I type of joke that he took all of the superlatives.”
The b’nai mitzvah cohort on Saturday spanned generations, from their mid-30s to their 70s, and, past the mayoral contributors, included a veteran, an equine veterinarian and the pinnacle of an area Holocaust instructional middle.
“We maintain totally different political opinions, skilled identities, and life experiences. And but, we stand collectively,” one bar mitzvah scholar, Jay Potter, mentioned throughout the opening studying Saturday. “In a time when the broader world feels fractured by division, rhetoric, violence, and isolation, this gathering is just not small. It’s a assertion that we’re all B’tzelem Elohim, created within the picture of God.”
Windfall Mayor Brett Smiley (L) and former Windfall Mayor David Cicilline (M) collect for the gathered for our annual St. Joseph’s Day celebration on March 19, 2026. (Brett Smiley/Fb)
For Rabbi Sarah Mack, the chief of Temple Beth-El, the timing of the ceremony took on a particular significance following the assault on one other Reform synagogue, Temple Israel close to Detroit, simply days earlier.
“The end result of a 12 months and a half of examine was only a stunning factor to witness, particularly within the wake of the assault in Michigan,” Mack mentioned. “It felt like a very joyful, proud embrace of Jewish life and custom, fairly publicly, unabashedly and I might say that that felt actually like an attractive response to antisemitism and hatred on the planet.”
On Monday, Smiley mentioned he got here throughout a photograph of a teenage congregant at Temple Israel celebrating her bat mitzvah within the aftermath of the assault, a scene that struck him personally.
“To see her there studying the identical parsha [Torah portion] that I had learn, , together with her tallit and 30 years in between us, 35 years in between us, however that very same shared expertise made me really feel as a lot a member of the group as I’ve ever felt in a very pretty and heat and embracing manner,” Smiley mentioned.
Cantor Judith Seplowin, who served as the primary instructor for the cohort, mentioned the ceremony was “bittersweet” for her because it marked her final grownup b’nai mitzvah class earlier than her upcoming retirement.
“It was an attractive occasion, and I believe it actually made us shine,” Seplowin mentioned. “It was simply fantastic that we might all be doing this, and thank God, , nothing occurred safety smart. I knew that we had been in good fingers, particularly with the additional safety due to the mayor being right here.”
However whereas the timing of the celebration within the wake of the assault loomed massive for these gathered at Temple Beth-El on Saturday, the b’nei mitzvah culminated in the way in which they at all times do: with a celebration.
On Saturday evening, the cohort convened at The Dorrance, an area lodge, for a celebration that featured a photograph sales space, a DJ set with an “80s and 90s heavy playlist” and the customary chair raise — the mayor included.
“The ceremony itself was significant, however completely happy and joyful, after which we had a celebration on Saturday evening, which was just like the 13-year-old model of ourselves, the social gathering none of us ever obtained to have,” Smiley mentioned. “It was only a actually joyful day, and I believe that’s one thing all of us want.”
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