Shaun Donovan likes to say he is running a campaign of ideas for mayor of New York City.

Those ideas were influenced by growing up in a heavily Jewish neighborhood on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, attending the exclusive Dalton Prep School where most of his classmates were Jewish and a childhood filled with attending friends’ Passover Seders and bar and bat mitzvah celebrations. Many of Donovan’s Friday-night sleepovers ended up in a synagogue. In fact, he thinks he may have spent more time attending synagogue than church in his early years.

Although not raised Jewish, his paternal grandmother was an Ashkenazi Jew and his sister is a convert to Judaism.

“She and I were so engaged with the Jewish community we found our moral grounding in the teachings of Judaism,” he told The Jewish Link in a phone interview in advance of the June 22 primary. That moral grounding spurred both siblings to develop a keen interest in helping those less fortunate than themselves. While Donovan’s sister works with the homeless, he channeled that concern into a series of initiatives, including serving as housing commissioner under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and as director of the federal Office of Management and Budget and secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Obama administration. He also served in the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary for multi-family housing and as acting federal housing authority commissioner.

While focused on the plight of New Yorkers struggling to get back on their feet as the COVID-19 pandemic eases its grip on the city, Donovan also said he is “deeply saddened by the escalation of violence” in the Middle East.

“My deepest thoughts are with the innocent people getting killed,” he said. “As a father my heart breaks for the parents of those children who lost their lives. However, I support the right of Israel to defend itself and strongly condemn the Hamas attacks.”

He compared his 30-year career rebuilding urban areas to that of the biblical Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Donovan plans to use what he has learned about economic initiatives that benefit cities, his relationship with many varying population sectors of the New York and his political connections to help a city hit hard by the pandemic.

“I have a plan to create 500,000 jobs in the city by the end of my first term,” said Donovan. “I want to ensure we make this city the best city on earth.”

His vision includes building “clear paths” for residents to secure middle-income employment and increasing long-term capital investments to create an equitable economy. Donovan would also take advantage of his deep relationship with the Biden administration to access some of the trillions of dollars being made available by the federal government. He stressed his intimacy with the problems and needs of the economically, ethnically and religiously diverse city population.

“I have a long history of working with religious leaders across the city,” said Donovan, who said he was deeply affected by the poverty and homelessness he saw in his hometown while still young. He volunteered in a homeless shelter while attending Harvard University, from where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration and architecture. After graduation, Donovan volunteered for the National Coalition for the Homeless. After returning to the city, Donovan worked for the nonprofit Community Preservation Corporation in the Bronx.

Among the projects undertaken during Donovan’s tenure there was assisting the multifaith community organization, East Brooklyn Congregations, on its 5,000-unit Nehemiah Homes.

“That really began my career on the frontlines of housing and homelessness,” noted Donovan, added it also further ignited a passion for racial and religious justice that has never been extinguished.

Donovan said he was “outraged” over the unprovoked attacks against Asians, religious Jews and others and said, “I have a plan to achieve racial equality that is much more far-reaching than any other candidate,” and that would include teaching about the history of Jewish persecution. Donovan said he would use his experience in working with Black, Hispanic and other communities to ensure racial equity is embedded in city policies, programs and services. That would be achieved by training of city staff, development of equity tools and action plans, and tracking and measuring progress along the way.

To restore the economic health of the city he would ensure a more equitable distribution of vaccines to minority groups and sharply criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio for not listening to science and health leaders in dealing with the pandemic.

“He didn’t understand what I understand after being involved with crisis after crisis, that the most vulnerable are the ones who get hurt the most,” said Donovan, adding that he believed a portion of the vaccine should have been earmarked for vulnerable residents and protocols established to overcome fear and language barriers.

For nonprofits, which Donovan said “have been left behind literally,” the immediate future is “a New Deal moment,” in which federal money being made available can assist them with their vital work. Rather than “relying on the goodwill of people,” nonprofits need to have working capital and people allowing them to grow.

Donovan also said he would work with leaders of the Jewish community and other religious leaders as well as community activists to ensure children in yeshivot and other schools, “get the quality education they deserve. I have had that conversation with many religious leaders across the city and have heard the issues on both sides.”

By Debra Rubin