Background
Born Marakay Jessica Rogers, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania (USA) March 1, 1962. Given Hebrew name Malka Gittel bas Reuven. Uses English name professionally. Father: United States Air Force; Mother: former US Senate speechwriter, civil servant.
Education
Waynesboro Area public schools, graduated with honors Waynesboro Area Senior High School (early graduation with credits from Pennsylvania State University). Violinist since third grade, high school concertmistress and performer with the Potomac (now Maryland) Symphony throughout high school and part of college. Graduate of Wilson College, AB magna cum laude, honors in history; graduate of Dickinson School of Law, Juris Doctor.
Career
As a lawyer, Rogers specialized in family law and criminal law before taking professional interest in reduced fee and pro bono legal work, particularly on behalf of lesbian mothers, transgender clients, and illegal immigrants facing deportation. Her greatest success has been preventing the execution of an illegal immigrant from an African nation who was facing that penalty for homosexual behavior and escaping his imprisonment therefor by relocating him to a safe nation.
As a civil rights activist Rogers has been both the executive director and later the volunteer solicitor for the City of York Human Relations Commission, as well as a volunteer appointee to the York County Advisory Council for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. As a political appointee she also has served on the Civil Service Board of the City of York, and as an activist has drafted local ordinances including that for the banning of "conversion therapy" of minors within the municipality.
As a writer, Rogers has been a theatre critic for Broadway World since 2012, and an entertainment writer for PopImpressKA Journal in New York. She also writes on cultural and historical topics for The Georgian (a formal periodical of the California chapter of the Royal Society of Saint George) and for Crown and Country (published by the British Monarchist League). Under a pseudonym she has also authored or co-authored several small press novels. She also writes occasional poetry and designs art collage, and has been exhibited in Pennsylvania art showings.
Rogers is also a former candidate for Attorney General and for Governor in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She has been involved in several electoral rights cases in Pennsylvania, including volunteering as lead plaintiff in the critical case of Rogers v. Corbett.
As a volunteer and charitable aid worker, Rogers has worked with local agencies and churches, with Soka Gakkai International and with the International Pestalozzi Society to bring books to where children are, to church drop-in after-school programs, to hospitals and to doctors' waiting rooms, and even electronic libraries to schools in Godenu, Ghana. She has also worked with food relief on local levels, as well as on anti-poverty and anti-crime projects involving children.
Politics
Jeffersonian Libertarian with leanings to civil liberties protection, individual rights, and human rights support
Views
The key to solving all our problems—whether it be building a secure and lasting peace, protecting our environment, or overcoming economic difficulties—is to cast off apathy and preconceived notions that lead us to view a situation as unsolvable or unavoidable. Problems caused by human beings can be solved by human beings. - Daisaku Ikeda
Quotations:
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Isaiah 58: 6-8
Rabbi Tarfon would say: The day is short, the work is much, the workers are lazy, the reward is great, and the Master is pressing.
He would also say: It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it. If you have learned much Torah, you will be greatly rewarded, and your employer is trustworthy to pay you the reward of your labors. And know, that the reward of the righteous is in the World to Come. - Pirkei Avot 2:15-16
Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more. - Oscar Wilde
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. - Oscar Wilde
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. - Oscar Wilde
After the parinirvana of Buddhas, if there are people who are kind-hearted, gentle, and charitable, all these living beings have already attained Buddhahood. (Lotus Sutra 2: 5.39)