Josh Shapiro’s life trajectory began in Cheltenham Township, where the 48th Pennsylvania governor and former Attorney General attended both elementary school and synagogue.
According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Shapiro was a student at the Forman Hebrew Day School on Old York Road in Melrose Park and Congregation Beth Sholom in Elkins Park. For middle school and high school, he matriculated at Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion Station which he graduated from in 1991.
At Akiba, Shapiro was a basketball star, scoring 16 points to lead Akiba Hebrew over Wyncote Academy, 82-63, in the 1991 championship game of the Tri-County League.
Today, he’s a national figure.
Shapiro was recently featured by a columnist for The Washington Post in an article titled “Josh Shapiro is showing how to break the politics of resentment”.
The opinion piece describes Shapiro’s successful navigation of the I-95 catastrophe earlier this summer, and notes that a June a Quinnipiac Poll found that 57 percent of Pennsylvania voters approved of Shapiro’s job performance.
“You’ve got to show up everywhere, and you’ve got to speak to everyone, and you’ve got to speak in plain language and in practical terms,” he told the author, E.J. Dionne Jr., in an interview last week. He noted that in his 2022 campaign, “I went to counties the Democrats had written off a long time ago and spoke about workforce development and spoke about how we’re going to bring back the economy and talked about it in very tangible, practical ways.”
The article also highlights Shapiro’s Commonwealth Workers Transformation Program which is expected to create 10,000 jobs.
“I think that we’ve gotten too elitist in our attitudes that the only way you can succeed is if you go to college,” Shapiro said. “I just fundamentally think that is the wrong approach, and that’s something I’m trying to change.”
In the midst of political attention, he hasn’t forgotten about home. In February 2020, then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Shapiro returned to Cheltenham Township, visiting Cheltenham High School where he sat down with a group of student equity ambassadors to talk about social justice reform and other important issues.
For the full story by The Post, you can click here.
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.
Photo courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Cheltenham School District, Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania