Children’s television icon Mister Rogers was not Jewish. But he did live in the very Jewish community of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, PA, for 33 years. The ordained Presbyterian minister was also passionate about theology and was well-studied in Jewish tenets and traditions.
And so, when he came out of retirement just a couple of weeks after his show stopped airing in 2001 to help the children and the grown-ups of New York City cope with the events of September 11, he used a Jewish concept to offer them a little bit of comfort and inspire them to take action in a positive way. Rogers owned an apartment in the city himself, where he would stay on visits to the Big Apple; it’s likely he also needed to hear this message.
“No matter what our particular job, especially in our world today, we all are called to be ‘tikkun olam,’ repairers of creation,” he said, using the Hebrew term for “world repair,” which comes from the Mishnah and is often used in the context of social justice. At a time when New Yorkers felt shattered beyond repair, facing the pain, shock and grief of the Sept. 11 terror attack, Mister Rogers’ message was a welcome one. The television personality was known for comforting children in the wake of tragedies like the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.; after Sept. 11, he reminded kids and adults alike that we all have the capacity to rebuild.
“Thank you for whatever you do, wherever you are, to bring joy and light and hope and faith and pardon and love to your neighbor and to yourself,” he said in that same video.
It was a moving and much-needed message from the man who helped raise many a New Yorker with “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Mister Rogers passed away in 2003, and 15 years later, his very own neighborhood, Squirrel Hill, was affected by a shocking and tragic attack, a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue that took the lives of 11 people. And while Mister Rogers couldn’t be there, his spirit was: His widow, Joanne Rogers, addressed the crowd at a Shabbat service after the shooting, and Rabbi Aaron Bisno put on a sweater as a tribute to the ones Rogers wore.
“I want to tell you how wonderful you are,” Joanne said, channeling her late husband. “How beautiful you are. I love you.”
