Mayor Brett P. Smiley

Jewish Rhode Island: Thank you for agreeing to talk with us. You weren’t born Jewish but instead made the decision to convert to Judaism. Can you tell us about that journey?

Mayor Brett P. Smiley: I felt like I had a spiritual void and went looking for a home. I had grown up in a very Jewish community, had been celebrating holidays with friends for years and had built a relationship with Rabbi Mack at Temple Beth-El. And ultimately, I reached out to her and started exploring the conversation around conversion. I ended up studying with her for a little while. The more I learned and leaned into my studies there, the more I knew I had found my place and found my people. It was a great source of joy and has become a great source of strength for me to have converted and joined Temple Beth-El — and then to continue my journey.

I participated last year in what ended up becoming a relatively well-known B'nai Mitzvah class. Happily, really, truly joyfully, it was a lot of work, but it was great. It was an incredible experience to learn some basic Hebrew. I've got a long way to go [in learning Hebrew], certainly, but to have a chance to be called to the bima and read from the Torah and share that moment with family and friends…it has become something very important in my life and a great source of comfort in both a difficult job, but also in a difficult time in our country and in our world.

I sit here now proudly as the second Jewish mayor of Providence. [It] has become a big part of who I am. You don't get a lot of these really life-changing moments as an adult, so it feels like a gift to have had this one.

JRI: Those who grew up Jewish can't really compare life as a non-Jew to life as a Jew. How has your life changed since you joined the tribe?

Mayor Smiley: It has changed. First of all, I could not speak more highly about how warmly I've been embraced by the community, and it really feels like I have a new circle of strength and support that I find at shul and that I find in the broader community. That has been a source of comfort for me. It has been helpful and meaningful for me to have moral guidance that I get from the rabbi, but also from services and such.

Then personally, it's been fun to start to establish our own traditions at home that I know many families have been doing for millennia. I have the opportunity to set some of our own traditions. My husband did not convert, but he's been incredibly supportive, and so we've started to define for ourselves what Shabbat dinner looks like at home. Now we invite friends over to break the fast after Yom Kippur. It's been fun just to start to establish those traditions of our own. Maybe it's different for someone like me in that we're starting from scratch, as opposed to — and there are probably pros and cons to it; it's not better or worse — it's just instead of passing down the tradition from generations, we get the opportunity to create our own tradition in our own way.

JRI: You've had the opportunity to go to Israel, is that right?

Mayor Smiley: I've been twice.

JRI: What were your impressions?

Mayor Smiley: The first time I went, which was maybe six or seven years ago, was well before I had converted. It was an interesting and moving experience. It was well before the war. I have a cousin who at the time lived in Jerusalem. Now she's up in Haifa. It was great to connect with family and just to understand the complexity, not just of the nation of Israel, but of so much of human history that passed through that tiny place.

When I went back, which was now a year and a half ago, it was after I had converted, and so it took on a different meaning for me. This was after October 7, and after the rise of so much antisemitism in America. It really is moving to be in a place where kippot are the norm and not the exception and that people are so proudly Jewish without fear from neighbors or passersby that, sadly, too many American Jews have to experience today.

I went to the Kotel both times I went to Israel, but it was very different to be able to say the Shema at the Wall. And again, to once again visit family. It's a special place, and I look forward to many more trips to come.

JRI: Keeping briefly on Israel but moving to policy, I wanted to ask you about your position on the upcoming ballot referendum that would mandate municipal funds be divested from Israel. What is your position on that?

Mayor Smiley: I'm opposed to it. I think it's both bad policy and the wrong message. The [Providence] law department has issued an opinion unequivocally [that] it's unenforceable. Were it to pass, it would go no further. It's also bad policy in that we don't make investment decisions based upon complicated geopolitical conflicts. And even though it's written in a different way, the organizers have been explicit that it's about Israel. It also furthers this narrative that I believe isolates the Jewish community, targets the Jewish community and contributes to antisemitism.

JRI: Would it really only affect Israel?

Mayor Smiley: I'll take the words of the organizers. The organizers have said that they believe it would only apply to Israel at this time.

JRI: Turning to education, the Providence public schools have just come out of state receivership and now are under city control. Could you give us some background on that?

Mayor Smiley: Yeah, it's cause for optimism. For nearly my entire first term, the state was running our schools, and for the last several years I stood alongside several other leaders in advocating for the return of our schools to local control because that is clearly what families in the community wanted. Now it has happened on July 1. This will be our first school year in seven years where the schools are back being governed by their mayor and their school board.

We are optimistic that will result in stronger community engagement and a stronger voice for our parents and our students, because before the accountability was from a state official to the governor and not to the actual families of Providence.

We've got a lot of work to do. There is no shortage of really incredible, ambitious, talented students here. Still, far too many of the students at PPSD (the Providence Public School District) are not achieving at levels that they should be and are not receiving the supports that they deserve.

The entire community has a stake in our schools doing better. The fact that in most of our schools, seven out of ten kids are not reading or doing math at grade level is a major problem, and we have a civic responsibility, but also, I think, a moral obligation to do better by these students.

JRI: Let’s turn to the environment. A few months ago, you announced the city's five-year update on the climate justice plan. Could you tell us a little about that?

Mayor Smiley: Providence is really a national leader in how we're reacting to the climate crisis, and I'm particularly proud of the work that we've done — and of this community. Not only are we making changes here in Providence, but our actions are inspiring changes statewide. That's a way in which Providence is influential beyond just our borders.

We're making meaningful infrastructure and resiliency investments. We have a detailed and very realistic goal and plan for carbon neutrality. We've updated stormwater. We've improved and repaired our hurricane barrier to help protect the community. We've passed the first green revolving fund, which gives us a recurring revenue stream to continue to make these investments to ensure that we don't just have fits and starts of investment.

These are long-term, sustainable changes that will help us meet these goals, but also, ultimately, save taxpayers’ dollars and make this a more resilient city.

JRI: You've been the mayor now for a few years. What is one thing that you're proudest of? Also, what is something that, looking back, you would do differently?

Mayor Smiley: The thing I'm most proud of over my first term was our reaching the standard known as universal access to pre-K. Early childhood education is critically important [to] educational outcomes. Financially, dollar for dollar, it's the best investment you can make in education. It will improve outcomes for kids for their entire educational career, but it has this added benefit of helping families save money.

The cost of childcare is one of the family's largest out-of-pocket expenses. Pre-K is school, but it's also childcare. We're the only community in Rhode Island that has reached this standard. It was an explicit promise that I made four years ago, and it took sustained focus and investment to get there, but everyone in Providence will benefit from it. It's something that I think is a really great thing to have done.

JRI: Okay. And on the thing that you could have done differently?

Mayor Smiley: There are plenty of things, and I don't, I don't lack humility. My first year — they were well-intended, but they were not well-received — we made some dramatic changes to the city's arts festival, PVDFest, that were roundly criticized. For an event that's meant to bring the community together and spread a little bit of joy, when people don't like it, you admit you're wrong and make changes, which is what happened.

After the festival I said, “I screwed up. I got that wrong.” We changed it back to the way in which the community had enjoyed celebrating. Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is to say, “I screwed up, and we'll change.”

JRI: Is there anything that you would, like to add for our readers?

Mayor Smiley: I would just say that it is a complicated time in the world and in the country, not just for Jews, but for many vulnerable communities. Despite some very real challenges that I'm not naive to, especially now over the last two years with the current presidential administration and some of the things going on, I'm proud to be a member of this community. I would hope that other people would count their blessings to get to live in Providence, that we have come together as a community, that we are protecting some of our most vulnerable residents. We are standing up for our values.

While there’s a lot to be upset about, we are in this beautiful place that we get to call home that has not strayed from its values. And I'm going to do everything that I can to continue to protect that specialness here in our city [even] as other things are happening elsewhere.

JRI: Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for your time.

Mayor Smiley: Thank you!

To check your registration status or to find your voting location, visit the Rhode Island Voter Information Center.

DANIEL MARGOLIS is editor of Jewish Rhode Island.