World Finding His Roots County Treasurer-elect Andy Meisner attends Israeli yeshivah during hiatus. Gabriella Burman Special to the Jewish News T FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1971 HARDWOOD REFINISHING LAMINATE MARBLE/GRANITE VINYL 3021 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD KEEGO HARBOR, MICHIGAN 48320 248.681.6460 WWW.HARBORFLOORS.COM HOURS: M-F 8 AM - 6 PM, SAT. 9 AM - 5 PM OR CALL TO MAKE AN APPOINTIVIENT A44 March 19 - 2009 CARPET CERAMIC CORK AREA RUGS COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL 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."