Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) was sworn in on Friday on a copy of the 2008 book The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, and published by the Reform Movement.
A photo provided to JNS by Slotkin’s office showed that some 20 rabbis and cantors in the state—part of the Michigan Board of Rabbis—gifted the volume to the senator and signed it, many of them both in Hebrew and English.
Slotkin, who is Jewish, was joined by about 40 of her relatives. (The ceremony was symbolic, as photography isn’t allowed in the Senate during the actual swearing-in.)
“The Senate does a great job of letting families participate in the swearing-in process. I’ve got my parents, brothers, nieces and nephews, cousins and more here on Capitol Hill to share in the day,” she wrote.
“All of us descended from my great-grandfather, Sam Slotkin, who came to the U.S. at 13 and ended up living the American Dream,” she added. “This day would be beyond his wildest dream.”
Her father stood beside her as she was sworn in.
