World
Finding His Roots
County Treasurer-elect Andy Meisner
attends Israeli yeshivah during hiatus.
Gabriella Burman
Special to the Jewish News
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March 19 - 2009
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he last time Andy
Meisner — Oakland
County Democrat
whose six-year stint in the state
Legislature ended Dec. 31 and
whose new job as Oakland
County Treasurer begins July 1
— had a long break was "prob-
ably in high school, if that," he
said with a laugh.
So he took the opportunity to
Rabbi Yosef Lynn, dean of students and
take three weeks in Israel in late
an instructor at Machon Yaakov yeshivah;
January. Meisner, increasingly
Oakland Country Treasurer-elect Andy
interested in his own Jewish
Meisner; and Judd Millman, a Houston attor-
literacy, hadn't been there since
ney studying at Machon Yaakov.
2005, when he went with seven
other legislators.
"This was more of a personal trip," he Ferndale, his friends noticed a "pal-
explained.
pable" difference in him. "Rather than
Meisner, 35, spent three weeks at
Torah study just being another source of
Machon Yaakov, an Orthodox yeshivah
input or an enjoyable exercise of engag-
in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood
ing with text, it is becoming an anchor
designed to accept men with little for-
that is central to his personality," said
mal Jewish education. The yeshivah
Rabbi David Shapero, who learns with
generally offers only one- and two-year
Meisner at Partners in Torah at Yeshiva
programs, but made an exception for
Beth Yehudah in Southfield on Tuesday
Meisner.
evenings and who taught Meisner's
"This was an opportunity for us to
Talmudic Law course at University of
bring in an interesting guy and expose
Detroit Mercy, where Meisner obtained
him to a broad range of Jewish subjects," his law degree.
said Rabbi Avraham Yitzchok Jacobs,
"It's remarkable that he's done this
the yeshivah's director and co-founder.
course of study just a short time before
"We were fantastically impressed by his
starting a high-pressure position,"
genuine interest and enthusiasm. His
Shapero said. "I give him a lot of credit."
questions were focused and challenging;
Meisner, the first Jew and possibly
and he is a truthful and truth-seek-
the first Democrat in memory to serve
ing person, which by the way, are good
as Oakland County treasurer, admits
qualities in a public servant as well."
he faces many challenges when he
At the yeshivah, Meisner lived in a
assumes work July 1. "The foreclosure
dormitory with a roommate, prayed
crisis is compromising tax revenue and
three times a day and attended classes
destabilizing neighborhoods through-
from morning till night, breaking up
out Oakland County, and it is a time of
his day with runs through the nearby
unprecedented peril for public inves-
Jerusalem forest. He also engaged in
tors," he admitted.
one-on-one sessions with rabbinic
His focus, he insists, will be on safety
faculty on translation of the Hebrew
of capital, then on liquidity and lastly on
prayers from daily services and on the
yield (investment gains).
daily rituals and services that are part
But don't expect his appetite for Torah
and parcel of observant Judaism.
study to wane in the interim. "I'm tak-
"It was a pretty remarkable experi-
ing baby steps," he says. "I know you
ence," Meisner said. "I've always had a
risk going backward if you bite off more
good faith connection, but my Jewish IQ than you can chew, and I want to keep
wasn't what it could be. I wanted to gain moving forward.
more confidence with rituals and prayer
"Religious observance is about becom-
and not have to ask people what page
ing a better person," he said. "To the
we're on when I'm at the synagogue."
extent that I am working on that, it will
After Meisner returned home to
make me a better public servant."