Wisconsin is distinctive in the nation in having two Jews, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, serving as its senators in Washington. There are also Jews like Dr. Sheldon Wasserman of Milwaukee and Gary Sherman of Port Wing serving in the state legislature.
But it has come to The Chronicle’s attention that a few southeastern Wisconsin communities have Jewish mayors. This article is the first in a series looking at them. We begin with Mayor Larry Nelson of Waukesha.
Wisconsin Educators for Social Responsibility has a slogan: “If I can’t have fun changing the world, it’s not worth changing.”
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Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson has been a member of this organization, and he told a Chronicle reporter that “I think I came up with” that slogan.
Whether he did or not, the slogan certainly seems to characterize him, for this big man with a beaming smile appears to relish being mayor of Wisconsin’s seventh largest city (population c. 70,000).
After a little more than one year into his first four-year term, “I enjoy it a lot. I enjoy every aspect” of the job, including “running Common Council and plan commission meetings” and “interacting with citizens, giving speeches,” he said.
“I enjoy trying to find solutions to difficult problems, like the water issues,” which he said are the “number one” issues facing his community.
Indeed, observers credit his personality with a big share of this basically liberal Democrat’s surprise victory in the non-partisan mayoral election in a predominantly conservative and Republican community.
“Nelson was the more engaging candidate,” wrote Laurel Walker in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in April 2006, shortly after the election. “He showed passion about the city and excitement for the job.”
And Waukesha resident “TC,” who operates the blog, “Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative,” wrote after the election that Nelson “ran an upbeat campaign” and is “very personable. At the last mayoral forum at the Civic Theater, he went around the audience shaking hands with people and introducing himself (even me, “I like to keep track of the other side,” made me smile).” (sic)
Indeed, self-described conservative Matt Jendrzejczyk, a mortgage consultant who has been Nelson’s next-door neighbor since 1994, worked as Nelson’s campaign treasurer.
“He’s the cheerleader of the city,” said Jendrzejczyk. “He’s the one to bring business in and keep the revitalization going downtown.”
Milwaukee native
Nelson, 52, is a Milwaukee native who grew up on the northwest side. Though his last name seems Scandinavian, he said his family came from Russia and Lithuania, where his grandfather’s name was Cotts-Nelson, a name that still exists in Russia, as he learned during a visit there in 1989.
Nelson received his Jewish education and did his bar mitzvah ceremony at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, when it was on Sherman Blvd. Moreover, in high school, he “followed in the footsteps” of his cousins and older brother to become president of King Solomon AZA of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization.
Yet he said that he was “a very shy kid” when he was growing up, and “was a bookworm” who won prizes for his poetry and essays.
When he was 17 and one month from his graduation from John Marshall High School, his father Seymour Nelson, who ran a shoe store on Green Bay Ave., suddenly died from a blood clot in his leg.
“That really was a turning point in my life,” Nelson said. “It made me ask myself what I was going to do with my life and what I was going to do to make a positive impact on the world.”
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nelson thought about majoring in philosophy and psychology, but “I felt I found more of life’s answers in literature than anywhere else,” he said.
But then came the question of what to do with a literature degree: “I decided I did not want to be a perpetual college student,” he said. “I wanted to be in the world.” Moreover, “I thought being a teacher and trying to pass on my love of literature to students would make a difference.”
So he left Madison with degrees in English and secondary education. He was immediately hired by the Butler Middle School in Waukesha, where he taught for 31 years.
Nelson has been very active in political and social causes, including the teachers’ union and the local Democratic Party, and he served as an alderman for six years before becoming mayor.
Yet he says that teaching in middle school was among the best preparations he had for being mayor. “Every day you are dealing with crises and problems, and I work with people who don’t necessarily like me,” he said. Being a teacher “helped me develop a thick skin” and learn to “deal with the criticisms you get as an elected official.”
Fortunately, those criticisms so far have not included anything about his being Jewish, which he attributes to the diversity of Waukesha’s population in “race, religion and economic background. That’s one of the strengths of the city…. There is a healthy respect in Waukesha for people of different races, religions and political beliefs.”
Nelson has been married to Dawn Borowski since 2004. His term as mayor lasts until 2010, and “if things go well and I continue to get the positive feedback I’ve been getting, I hope to run for a second term.”
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