Greenberg: Faith, Hope and Charity; San Francisco’s New Mayor Daniel Lurie

Native San Franciscan Daniel Lurie became the city’s 46th mayor Wednesday, in an outdoor ceremony featuring a color guard, brass band, local and state dignitaries, speeches and well-wishes under a cloudless sun. Security was tight, as this inauguration comes one week following the New Orleans truck ramming attack.

The pomp and circumstances celebrating new leadership lacked one usual bit of protocol: an invocation. No clergy made specific blessings upon the mayor. The night before, however, made up for the absence.

Tuesday evening January 7th, the San Francisco Interfaith Council held a special unity celebration at Congregation Emanu-el, the synagogue Lurie grew up in, honoring the mayor-elect. Powerful, praising, it was an extraordinary display of faiths in unison. Representing eight hundred houses of worship dotting the city, the prominent religious leaders praised and prayed for this next mayor to have the strength, the courage, wisdom and guidance from God, to succeed in his new job and possess compassion for the city’s downtrodden, underserved, and addicted.

A break in tradition

Local tradition has held the city’s mayors-elect hold a faith celebration of their choice the day prior to being sworn in. Lurie’s choice, however, was to instead include all San Francisco’s religions in a mass show of support, rather than the sole faith in which he was born into.

At that ceremony, on the stage behind Lurie, were seated an Imam, a Rabbi, a Buddhist, representatives from Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Armenian Apostolic, the city’s Roman Catholic archbishop Salvatore Cordileone – and a Ohlone Nation leader – all joining spiritually together with their full council colleagues seated in the audience below, to fete Lurie.

The Ohlone Nation leader elicited the audience on hand (1,000 in all), to participate in Prayer In The Four Directions, instructing us we face to the east while reciting the blessing significant of that direction, then turn south, then west, north, and then turn hand’s palms facing downward towards Earth, concluding with upwards towards heaven, each motion repeating the leader’s prayers to Grandfather (Ohlone spiritual supreme being).

Daniel’s father, Brian Lurie, is a former assistant rabbi at Congregation Emanu-el. In a poignant father-son moment, Daniel came to the stage, bowed into the outstretched hands of his father, who then recited the ancient Jewish priestly blessing, the Birkat haKoanim. It was at this moment, the city’s most powerful leader had become a boy in the hands of his father and God in testament to the reverence Daniel has for his faith and tradition.

The outpouring of blessings and prayers culminated with full membership of the Interfaith Council to gather around Daniel, and through a laying of hands, they beseeched and channeled each their faith’s powers from on high to focus all upon him in a scene reminiscent of a Renaissance masterpiece.

Throughout the course of the evening, speakers alluded to Lurie’s life-long devotion to service for the betterment of society. His innate drive for benevolence and charity, culminated most recently in his 2005 founding of Tipping Point, a local nonprofit aimed at fighting poverty.  Over this more recent past year, that organization played a central theme of his mayoral campaign. He touted its success as basis for San Franciscans to place trust in his leadership abilities, as justification for voting him into office.

These several days since his being sworn-in an air of change and hope has settled over the city of San Francisco, as the strife and chaos under previous mayor London Breed and her administration has been shown the door. Six and a half years of race-centric grants, of a harsh Covid lockdown, of persistent homelessness and drug addiction, drug dealers and crime, reckless spending, collapsed retail sector and a hotel industry in shambles, we now cross our fingers and give the utmost hope that we will see meaningful, true change.

Godspeed, Daniel Lurie.