STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Max Rose recently marked the first anniversary of his election to the House of Representatives as Staten Island’s congressman.
Rose is both the first borough Democrat to hold this position since 2008, as well as the first member of the Jewish faith to be so elected.
Among those who have met him, one described Rose as “a committed intelligent man who listens and works tirelessly for his constituents.”
Here are a few things you may not have known about our Rep. Max Rose.
How do you describe yourself?
Well … curious, compassionate, energetic, and lighthearted. [Rose asks an aide what they think, and the aide answers: “Fun, passionate, thoughtful?” Rose laughs]. I would also say that I am deeply patriotic.
What do you want the public to know?
Generally, that my heart is in the right place, and what you see is what you get, and that I am going to put the community first, and that I’m in this for the right reasons.
Tell us a little bit about your parents and sibling.
My mother comes from an incredibly eclectic background. She has been a trained social worker. Currently, she is a public school teacher up in Harlem and has been a college professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College for 30, or nearly 30, years. She is just an incredibly bright, serious, but also loving woman, who sets me to a very high standard and I really appreciate her for that. Her father, my grandfather, was an artist and a sculptor. My father is a medical laboratory executive. [My] younger sister, Maya, [is] an educational psychology Ph.D. student at the CUNY Graduate Center.
When you were a child, what did you want to be?
Probably it depended upon my age. There was a time when I wanted to be a lawyer. There was a time when I wanted to be a writer. There was a time when I wanted to be a model, but that was before I realized that I’m pretty mediocre looking. There was a time when I thought about staying in the military and trying to make a career out of the military, so a little bit of everything.
Where did you attend school? What kind of student were you?
I attended elementary school in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, then went to Poly Prep in Bay Ridge and on to Wesleyan University from there. I then went on for a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the London School of Economics. I was ... a kind of curious student. I loved history and social science and English, but I was not this kind of math student.
If you hadn’t decided to run for Congress, what would you be doing?
I really was enjoying being in the healthcare business. I was the chief of staff for a wonderful organization, Brightpoint Health, a network of outpatient clinics for the poor and the homeless. I really enjoyed it. You know the combination of that and being in the National Guard was truly a way to diversely serve and be entrepreneurial at the same time. You know, if I was smarter, I could’ve been, maybe, a college professor like my mother, but I’m not as smart as my mom, so I couldn’t pull it off.
What motivates you the most?
I don’t want to have any regrets. Regrets that I could have served, or regrets that we could have done better. Regrets that I could have contributed more. I want to be in the arena trying to make this country and this city a better place. I think that our potential [is] in the soldiers with whom I served and the wonderful people with whom I served alongside in government and the nonprofit sector. I have confidence that as Ronald Regan once said, “If we, for a moment, don’t worry about who takes credit, we can get unbelievable things done.” I am motivated deeply by the desire to show people that government can work, that government doesn’t have to be a problem, that it can be a positive service, and that is something to which I want to dedicate my life.
What is the most important advice you can give to a child?
Resiliency. My father always really instilled in me this idea — never quit. If you never quit and you always maintain your morals and your ethics, things will work out for you. You just have to stay healthy, keep loving people, never quit, stay moral, and you will be fine.
What do you enjoy doing the most?
I love to read. I love to spend time with my wife. She views the world through this unbelievable artistic way. I’m so appreciative of that. It’s a lot of fun to be with her, from the clothes that she wears, to the art that she enjoys, to the things she notices when we’re walking around. She’s just a very enjoyable person and the world is better with her. I devour books and newspapers. I read for a few hours every day at a minimum. I’m deeply curious and I love trying to understand the intersections of different issues, where they overlap with the intersection of history, economics, culture, politics. I can’t get enough of that.
Get to know Rep. Max Rose:
His hobbies: I spend time with my wife, Leigh. She’s a fashion stylist. I mean, I don’t like to build boat engines. I don’t have any cool hobbies like that. When I was on active duty [in the U.S.] Army, I used to love to go shooting. I loved to go to the gun range. That was definitely a hobby of mine. .... I like to exercise. I like to run. I’ve had a bunch of injuries over the course of my life. I can’t always do things consistently, but I also like to do yoga. My wife and I will do yoga whenever we can. I got into yoga a lot when I came back from my deployment to Afghanistan. I’ve been into it ever since. .... But the job I have now is a seven-day job so, when I have spare time, I use it to read and spend time with my wife. I haven’t time for another [hobby], other than those.
What ticks him off: Ticking clocks. I cannot stand a ticking clock in a quiet room. Drives me crazy. That, and I really don’t like it when I ask someone to do something and they don’t do it, or don’t tell me that they asked someone else to do it. You know, when some people pass the hot potato?
His future: I want to be in some type of public service for the rest of my career. I’m deeply committed to it. I deeply enjoy it, and I think we collectively have an opportunity to truly make the world a better place.
His (sports) pain: I’m a die-hard Knicks fan, although that’s potentially the most depressing thing that one could get. [Knicks owner James] Dolan has to sell the New York Knicks — he should be legally required to do so, out of dereliction of duty, to guild a championship basketball franchise in New York City, which New York deserves.