The Blogs: Seek the welfare of the city: Why rabbis belong in public service | Karen Reiss Medwed

Rabbi and school board trustee Karen Reiss Medwed argues that rabbis belong in local public service, drawing on Jewish tradition and her own experience. She distinguishes bringing values into office from imposing religion, and calls for wider rabbinic civic engagement.

Rabbi Karen Reiss Medwed, an elected trustee of her school board, argues that rabbis belong in local public service. She writes that her rabbinic training—habits of deliberation, communal responsibility, and teaching—directly prepared her for civic duty, not by bringing religion into the boardroom but by serving all children. Medwed recounts explaining the Islamic calendar to her board when considering a day off, and speaking in a pastoral voice after a shooting. She emphasizes that bringing values into office is not the same as imposing religion, citing the Jewish principle dina d'malkhuta dina and Jeremiah's call to seek the welfare of the city. She calls on rabbis to widen their civic engagement, noting that local office builds trust across political divides.