At Long Last, Chicago Has a Jewish Mayor
And Emanuel’s folks couldn’t be prouder
May 17, 2011
Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at his swear-in ceremony yesterday (he lost part of the finger in a childhood accident).(Frank Polich/Getty Images)
Rahm Emanuel was sworn in yesterday as Chicago’s first new mayor since 1989 and its first Jewish mayor ever. Rachel Shteir has just published her latest dispatch in her Tablet Magazine series, The Rahm Report; she follows Emanuel at a public event over the weekend and wonders if he will be able to reverse the city’s decline.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune reports (via Vos Iz Neias?), perhaps contrary to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assertion that Emanuel (whose middle name, I did not notice until today, is “Israel”) is a “self-hating Jew,” that Emanuel’s parents couldn’t be more proud of their middle son, and moreover believe that their parents would feel the same way. It’s a lovely article, and you should read the whole thing.
Emanuel Takes Reigns as Chicago Mayor [WSJ]
Forward and Back [Tablet Magazine]
Rahm Emanuel’s Parents Say Ancestors Would Be Proud [Chicago Tribune]
Related: The Rahm Report [Tablet Magazine]
Earlier: Self-Loving Emanuel No ‘Self-Hating Jew’
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
