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Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with Rev. Marshall Mitchell during a Jan. 24 event at the Free Library of Philadelphia. (Photo credit: Stephen Silver)<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with Rev. Marshall Mitchell during a Jan. 24 event at the Free Library of Philadelphia. (Photo credit: Stephen Silver)<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Shapiro launched the tour for his new book, \u201cWhere We Keep the Light: Stories From a Life of Service,\u201d with an event at the Free Library of Philadelphia\u2019s Parkway Central location on Jan. 24, part of the library\u2019s Author Events series.<\/p>\n
The event, which filled the library\u2019s main auditorium as well as an overflow room, featured Shapiro interviewed on stage by his friend, Rev. Marshall Mitchell of Salem Baptist Church, in the governor\u2019s hometown of Abington.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs your pastor \u2026 every Jewish kid should have a pastor,\u201d Mitchell joked.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s Jewish faith, as it often does, came up a lot during the hour-long event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in a home that was pretty structured around religion,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cMy parents sent me to a faith-based school, and we would have Shabbat dinner every Friday night \u2026 something Lori and I continue to do to this day with our children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very centered around religious institutions \u2014 that\u2019s what my faith was like for a good chunk of my life,\u201d he added. \u201cBut as Lori and I had our four kids, and we were choosing to raise them to care about the world around them, and as we evolved in our faith, I found that I began to get a deeper connection to my faith that was less connected to institutions \u2026 Less time in a synagogue, but more time praying. Less time in a religious institutional setting, but more connection and deeper connection around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book covers Shapiro\u2019s life in public service so far, including his run for governor and his early friendship with President Barack Obama. It begins with his story of the April 2025 incident when, after he hosted a Passover seder, an assailant set the governor\u2019s mansion on fire. A 38-year-old man was arrested for the crime and later pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
Shapiro said at the event that the arson attack happened about five months after he started working on the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat moment, darkness was brought upon us,\u201d Shapiro said at the Free Library. \u201cBut the real thing that we learned from that experience \u2026 is the light that evolved, and emanated, from people from all different walks of life, all different faiths, all different backgrounds, all different parts of Pennsylvania, and this country and this world, where goodness came out, where people prayed for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never felt the power of prayer as I did after that experience, the power of other people\u2019s prayers to lift you up and give you strength,\u201d the governor added.<\/p>\n
He also addressed rising antisemitism and what \u201cliving Jewishly\u201d means to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no secret that antisemitism is on the rise,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cBy the way, we\u2019re seeing other forms of hatred and bigotry on the rise, across our commonwealth and across our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The protests outside the event (Photo credit: Stephen Silver)<\/p>\n
He remembered, especially after Oct. 7 and later the arson attack, that people often approached him and told him how scared they were.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a responsibility to be more open about my faith, and offer comfort to others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The event took place just hours after the killing in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. About 100 protesters were outside the venue before the event, urging the governor to end all state cooperation with ICE.<\/p>\n
Shapiro addressed the situation near the end of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are seeing in Minnesota is absolutely unacceptable,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe are seeing these federal agents violate people\u2019s constitutional rights. We are seeing these federal agents create havoc and destroy the trust that exists between law enforcement and their community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we do not do ICE\u2019s work,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not do the work that ICE purports to want to do to enforce immigration laws here in Pennsylvania. \u2026 We also understand that what\u2019s happening in Minneapolis could happen here in Philadelphia, or in Pittsburgh, or in Lancaster, or in other communities across our commonwealth. And I will just tell you this: We are prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the possibility that the president might try to interfere with the midterm elections, Shapiro also vowed that \u201cI will do everything in my power to stop anyone from taking away your vote,\u201d citing the more than 40 times he was sued, as Pennsylvania\u2019s attorney general, by the Trump campaign in 2020, and his perfect record in those cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what\u2019s clear is the leadership we see coming out of Washington, D.C., is all about restricting our freedom,\u201d the governor said. \u201cIt\u2019s scapegoating certain people in our communities, deciding who is being othered and deciding who counts. And I think that makes us all less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ve got to build a society where no matter what you look like or where you come from, who you love, who you pray to, who you choose not to pray to, is respected in our commonwealth and our country,\u201d Shapiro added. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got a president of the United States who\u2019s doing the opposite, who\u2019s pitting Americans against one another, who\u2019s making it harder for certain people to get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book first made headlines in mid-January when multiple media outlets reported that Shapiro revealed he was asked some surprising questions during his vetting for the vice presidency in 2024, including a member of then-Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 team inquiring whether he had ever been an agent of the Israeli government.<\/p>\n
A few controversial topics did not come up during the Free Library event. There was no discussion of the Kamala Harris \u201cIsraeli agent\u201d controversy or anything involving the Middle East more broadly, aside from a few mentions of Oct. 7. The interview did not broach Shapiro\u2019s in-progress re-election campaign or the possibility that he could run for president in 2028, although Mitchell did say that \u201cThere are a lot of people in this room, and a lot of people who are listening, who are telling you (to take your shot).\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephen Silver is a Broomall-based freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with Rev. Marshall Mitchell during a Jan. 24 event at the Free Library of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33,182,139,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-98512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-josh-shapiro","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}