How a Mr. Rogers Ministry Guided My Pandemic Rabbinate*
“I’m not that interested in ‘mass’ communications. I’m much more interested in what happens between this person and the one person watching. The space between the television set and that person who’s watching is very holy ground.” -Fred Rogers[1] When I was a child growing up in a largely secular Jewish home, I took tremendous comfort in watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Fred Rogers was an educator and a pastor, who used television as a vehicle to communicate his torah, which was that each person is unique and special, worth seeing and celebrating. Through the camera, he saw us. Through a screen, Mr. Rogers would invite us into his living room and would share things that were precious to him. He would share stories about his […]
