A Jewish Police Chief

I’m reading Daniel Silva’s latest Gabriel Alon page turner, The Defector while this column percolated in the back of my mind. It’s my method. Do one thing, let the subconscious do the real work behind the scenes. In a flash the connection was made. On page 314 American, British and Israeli spymasters are trying to figure out how to extricate hostages from an inaccessible location. The American president has offered his services. “Kachol v’lavan” says the Israeli. “It means ‘blue and white,’ the colors of the Israeli flag. But… it also means much more. It means we do things for ourselves, and we don’t rely on others to help us with problems of our own making.” Perfect, I thought. Dean Esserman to a T.

The chief of the Providence’ police force speaks in aphorisms that summarize his beliefs. In two interviews a few permeated our discussions: Fear no man, but respect them all; practice integrity; walk the talk; compassion is not a weakness, it’s a strength.

I had written to him to ask if we could meet, my principal question, from which others flowed was how does being Jewish influence your thinking?

His response in a nutshell was: “Being Jewish is good practice for being a police chief…because you learn to stand alone, because being popular turns out to be pretty easy, but doing the right thing isn’t easy and isn’t going to make you popular.…I don’t always make the most popular decisions but I work hard to make the right ones. That’s why I wear a uniform though many police chiefs don’t; that why I still go out on patrol every week; that’s why I insist my command staff does it. All are first police officers before they are the rank they wear. And perhaps what I’ve learned most is … that the rank on the uniform is not as important as the man in the uniform. You have to earn the trust; you have to earn the respect.”

His office is decorated with memorabilia ranging from children’s drawings to reminders of who he is—the words on the Statue of Liberty, a placard reflecting his own view on life: “Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” And police hats from international constituencies including Jerusalem. When I asked him about Zionism he responded that to him it “means first and foremost you rely on yourself and know that if all you have to rely on is yourself that would be enough.” So I asked, not yet having read The Defector, How is that Zionist? That’s the way you conduct your business here, but within the concept of the knowing who you are and relying on yourself, where’s the Israel part of that particular Zionism?”

He answered by suggesting that his Zionism his Zionism is internal, not a chauvinistic response to harsh realities. “My sense of self and my strength comes from the shoulders I stand on, which are my father and mother before me and my grandparents before them. And though we grew up in a family that was really very involved in the Ethical Culture Society and in the Humanist movement, I know it was also a Jewish home, and it was a family proud of being Jewish. And there was a sense that you get things done by your own work, that ability and achievement come from within you, that integrity, compassion and strength are all on the inside, and that those qualities can all be ones you can stand alone with, that you don’t need to lean on others, and growing up as … a Jewish child in New York in the ’60s and the ’70s that’s how I looked at Israel; stand alone if need be, fight alone, the strength comes from within and the strength and resources to survive and to move forward don’t come from outside the state.” And, I thought, perhaps Ethical Culture was influenced by Hillel’s famous dictum that “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”

Esserman understands that he’s not better than his officers. “This is my office,” he says, pointing to the floor. “That out there, the streets, that’s their office. In this business as chief of police I’ve put officers in harm’s way. That’s what I do. I can’t ask them to do anything I won’t do.” The son of a Judeo-humanist doctor who spent summers tending to the sick in Guatemala and in Ethiopia and China, he continues the process by not staying in the office but going out onto the streets.

Jewish or Ethical Culture, which has had the biggest impact on his life? Probably the latter, but there is a strong element of Judaism reflected in the personality and actions of this not particularly observant Jew, a new aphorism for whom might be Kachol v’lavan.