Michele Weiss, who is about midway through her third four-year term on the city council of University Heights, Ohio, was elected earlier this month as mayor of the Cleveland-area suburb in what is being widely reported as the first time an Orthodox Jewish woman would be mayor of a U.S. city.

The 50-year-old told JNS that her first conversations after deciding to run for office were with her family—and her rabbi.

“I really feel that everybody is placed on this earth to make a difference,” she told JNS earlier in the week. “I’m doing it for the klal ,” Hebrew for “community.”

“I want to make a kiddush Hashem ,” to sanctify God’s name, she added.

During the campaign, a “few very loud voices” suggested that she would “ask your rabbi for everything,” Weiss said. “My response was, ‘Well,

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