The First Orthodox Jewish Woman to Become a U.S. Mayor
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Michele Weiss just became America’s first Orthodox Jewish woman mayor—ready to unite a diverse Ohio city and confront rising antisemitism with integrity and courage.
While Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win has dominated headlines, a different political milestone happened the same day — one that few people have heard about. On Tuesday, November 4, history was made in University Heights, Ohio: Michele Weiss became the first Orthodox Jewish woman to become a mayor in the United States.
Formerly the vice mayor for six years and a city council member for a decade, she is deeply committed to her town. She will now be the voice and advocate for nearly 15,000 residents, 20-25% of whom are Orthodox Jews, as well as a diverse community made up of 17 different ethnicities.
Michele acknowledges the importance of her role – both as a politician and a Jew.
“I thought I was the one who could do the best job for the city,” she told Aish. “It’s an honor. I want to do it with integrity and moral clarity and make sure everything I do is a kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s name).”
Michele is originally from Cleveland and runs the nonprofit AMATZ Initiative, which provides professional development to engage principals of schools. She is also close with Aish; Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of Aish, was her NCSY advisor when she was a teenager. That was when, at age 16, she decided to become observant.
Later, after getting married and having children, she wanted to give back to her community, so she dove into local politics.
“In 2013, I went back for my MBA, and that program was very much dedicated to leadership skills,” she said. “It was a time in my life when my children were older, and it had me thinking what could I do for the broader community and have a bigger impact than what I’m doing before. I always worked and quietly did acts of kindness but I didn’t have time to devote to anything larger. That was the impetus for getting involved with the city.”
The mayor, who also works as CFO of the largest Jewish day school in Ohio, Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, is going to utilize her new role to bring about unity among residents – and confront antisemitism.
“There has been an undertone of antisemitism over last bunch of years,” she said. “We have home shuls because there are so many people moving in and not enough places to pray… observant residents don’t send to public school, so a lot of big public-school advocates make that known, even though we have a huge Jesuit population here too that [goes to private schools]. That gets overlooked. We have large families and people are adding onto their homes. Some people are slowly turning against the Jews.”
One thing that Michele wants to do is institute monthly programming that invites people of different ethnicities to speak about their culture.
“We’ll have an open session,” she said. “The library could host it, and people will get the chance to have that dialogue and civil discourse, as well as start respecting each other. Much of it is misunderstanding and ignorance.”
We need to make sure everyone is treated the same. I’m serving all residents – not just one particular part.
She continued, “Everyone needs to be treated fairly. There can’t be one particular part of the population viewed or treated differently from the other. We need to make sure everyone is treated the same. I’m serving all residents – not just one particular part.”
In terms of being a city council member, Michele acted as the voice and advocate for the residents. She would legislate and, along with fellow city councilmembers, decide how to spend the budget.
“We would take care of everything from helping with trash to resolving neighbor disputes,” she said.
Now, as mayor, she will administer the city, working closely with the council to make sure the vision and goals are aligned.
“That means we have the right people in place, things are running properly, and I can advocate for funding from various sources,” she said.
As Michele starts working as mayor, she is going to strive to be the best example possible for her people.
“Many people don’t want Jews in high profile positions,” she said. “If it’s done with humility and integrity, we really could set an example and be that ambassador of the Jewish People that people can learn from.”
