It is not every day a sitting mayor celebrates his bar mitzvah. But last Saturday, as more than 700 people packed the pews at Temple Beth-El in Providence, Rhode Island, that’s exactly what unfolded.
At the center of the ceremony at the Reform synagogue on the East Side of Providence was the city’s mayor, Brett Smiley; the former mayor and congressman, David Cicilline; and 11 other adults who, for the last 16 months, had been studying Hebrew, parsing Torah portions and preparing together for a long-awaited rite of passage. (The ceremony was first reported by the Providence Journal.)
For Smiley, who was raised in a Protestant household and converted to Judaism in 2024, the ceremony was the culmination of a years-long spiritual journey that, until recently, had been a largely private endeavor.
“My grandfather was Jewish, and I have been surrounded by a Jewish community for much of my life,” Smiley said in an interview. “So I felt like I had both familial bonds and then what ended up being a real spiritual connection that just felt really comfortable and natural to me, and has turned out to be a source of great strength and joy for me.”
Among those in the audience was a cousin of Smiley’s on his grandfather’s side from Haifa, Israel, who had traveled to the United States a week earlier for another commitment. (Smiley’s cousin’s wife was unable to make the trip due to the war in Iran disrupting air travel.)
“To know that all these years later, his grandsons or grand-nephews were sitting together in a synagogue in Providence, Rhode Island, was really sort of a beautiful statement about the survival and perseverance and resilience of our community,” Smiley said.
Mayor Brett Smiley stands on the bimah of Temple Beth-El in Providence, Rhode Island, on the day of his bar mitzvah, March 14, 2026. (Courtesy)
Cicilline, who served as the mayor of Providence from 2003 to 2011 and the U.S. representative for Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District from 2011 to 2023, is Jewish through his mother and has been a part of Temple Beth-El for decades. But he had never marked the rite of passage traditionally celebrated at age 13.
“This past Saturday marked a deeply personal milestone for me as a member of a community of 13 adults called to the Torah as part of the Adult B’nei Mitzvah program at Temple Beth-El,” Cicilline wrote in a post on Facebook. “In times of tumult, faith calls us back to our traditions — and to each other.”
For Smiley, studying alongside Cicilline, who paved a path for him in many ways, created an added layer of meaning.
“I view him as a role model and a mentor for me in my professional capacity,” Smiley said. “The first openly gay mayor of Providence, the first Jewish mayor of Providence — I sort of joke that he took all the superlatives.”
The b’nai mitzvah cohort on Saturday spanned generations, from their mid-30s to their 70s, and, beyond the mayoral participants, included a veteran, an equine veterinarian and the head of a local Holocaust educational center.
“We hold different political views, professional identities, and life experiences. And yet, we stand together,” one bar mitzvah student, Jay Potter, said during the opening reading Saturday. “In a time when the broader world feels fractured by division, rhetoric, violence, and isolation, this gathering is not small. It is a statement that we are all B’tzelem Elohim, created in the image of God.”
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley (L) and former Providence Mayor David Cicilline (M) gather for the gathered for our annual St. Joseph’s Day celebration on March 19, 2026. (Brett Smiley/Facebook)
For Rabbi Sarah Mack, the leader of Temple Beth-El, the timing of the ceremony took on a special significance following the attack on another Reform synagogue, Temple Israel near Detroit, just days earlier.
“The culmination of a year and a half of study was just a beautiful thing to witness, especially in the wake of the attack in Michigan,” Mack said. “It felt like a really joyful, proud embrace of Jewish life and tradition, quite publicly, unabashedly and I would say that that felt really like a beautiful response to antisemitism and hatred in the world.”
On Monday, Smiley said he came across a photo of a teenage congregant at Temple Israel celebrating her bat mitzvah in the aftermath of the attack, a scene that struck him personally.
“To see her there reading the same parsha [Torah portion] that I had read, you know, with her tallit and 30 years in between us, 35 years in between us, but that same shared experience made me feel as much a member of the community as I’ve ever felt in a really lovely and warm and embracing way,” Smiley said.
Cantor Judith Seplowin, who served as the main teacher for the cohort, said the ceremony was “bittersweet” for her as it marked her last adult b’nai mitzvah class before her upcoming retirement.
“It was a beautiful event, and I think it really made us shine,” Seplowin said. “It was just wonderful that we could all be doing this, and thank God, you know, nothing happened security wise. I knew that we were in good hands, especially with the extra security because of the mayor being here.”
But while the timing of the celebration in the wake of the attack loomed large for those gathered at Temple Beth-El on Saturday, the b’nei mitzvah culminated in the way they always do: with a party.
On Saturday night, the cohort convened at The Dorrance, a local hotel, for a celebration that featured a photo booth, a DJ set with an “80s and 90s heavy playlist” and the customary chair lift — the mayor included.
“The ceremony itself was meaningful, but happy and joyful, and then we had a party on Saturday night, which was like the 13-year-old version of ourselves, the party none of us ever got to have,” Smiley said. “It was just a really joyful day, and I think that’s something we all need.”
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