Under tight security, and before a packed synagogue and a live feed, the acting and former mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, were among a group that celebrated their bar and bat mitzvahs on Saturday.

Together with them were 11 other Jews, by choice and by birth, who for a variety of reasons had never undergone the traditional Jewish rite of passage usually performed at the ages of 12 or 13.

The serving mayor, Brett Smiley, 46, had a German-born Jewish grandfather (this reporter’s uncle), who arrived in the United States in 1941 and married a Unitarian. Smiley was raised in the liberal Protestant United Church of Christ until he was confirmed. He converted to Judaism in 2024.

David Cicilline, who, like Smiley, is a Democrat and gay, was the first openly gay mayor of a US state capital, leading Providence from 2003 to 2011. He went on to represent Rhode Island’s 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2023, leaving to become president and chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Foundation.

According to Jewish law, Cicilline is Jewish through his mother. His father and four siblings are practicing Catholics.

The adult bnei mitzvah service at Providence’s Temple Beth-El Reform Synagogue followed 18 months of weekly study by the group. The course is run every one to three years, depending on demand.

Smiley grew up in a Chicago suburb with a vibrant Jewish community, and in Providence celebrated Jewish holidays with friends for years. He met Rabbi Sarah Mack, Temple Beth-El’s senior rabbi, with whom he would frequently consult, and took his first trip to Israel in 2017 while working as chief of staff to then-Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo.

“As you start to get older, life happens around you,” Smiley told The Times of Israel. “Loved ones die, people get sick, and I felt an increasing........

© The Times of Israel