Last night, our Federation hosted a thank you event to show appreciation towards over 150 volunteers who combed through the petition to place the antisemitic/anti-Israel referendum question on the City of Pittsburgh’s November ballot. Their work in looking at 15,000 entries was painstaking and tedious, but they persevered. While our Federation hired a consultant who has deep expertise in reviewing names on these types of petitions and he trained the volunteers on what to look for during their work, the heavy lifting was done by doctors, lawyers, business owners, retirees, stay-at-home parents, Jewish communal professionals and more. These volunteers represented all ages and parts of our Jewish community. It was a unifying activity that, to me, demonstrated the strength of our Pittsburgh Jewish community (and several of our allies). I want to take the opportunity now, in a more public avenue, to thank the volunteers, our volunteer legal counsel and the organizational partners who worked with the Federation to defeat the referendum. Though we can take this moment to celebrate a clear win, we must remain clear-eyed that more attempts to demonize Israel are on their way. When they come, we will fight back against them in the same way—together.
While this cause for celebration is one of which, due to coverage on social media and the news, most of you probably were aware, there are others that you might not be. This week, we should take time to celebrate Pittsburgh’s support, as part of the wider Federation system, given to the synagogue in Zhitomer, Ukraine, helping them secure an electric generator that provided power after the entire power grid was destroyed by Russia. We should celebrate that our two new shinshinim (young Israeli emissaries) arrived in Pittsburgh just two weeks ago and are ready to connect our children and teens to Israel and Judaism, a connection that is even more crucial at this very challenging time in Jewish history. We should celebrate that with Federation support and guidance, several Jewish organizations were awarded significant Federal Non-Profit Security Grant Program funds. We should celebrate the security upgrades about to take place at the JCC’s J&R Day Camp (Family Park) in Monroeville with a state grant secured by the Federation.
It could be easy and understandable to become discouraged when you look at why all these activities are necessary. But instead, I encourage us all to focus on what we can do as a community. Yes, there are often great challenges in our world, but there is also great promise. How our community comes together to support Jews both here in Pittsburgh and around the world is nothing less than incredible. Our actions that we celebrate showcase our strength, our resilience, our strategic thinking and our grit. That, by itself, is a true cause for celebration.
Speaking of celebrations, a quick reminder that the Jewish Federation’s Annual Meeting is coming up on Wednesday, September 11 at 7:00 PM. We will take time to review all of our Federation’s accomplishments this past year including achieving the biggest Community Campaign result in our history, surpassing $350 million in assets under management in our Federation Foundation, raising an additional $8 million for our Israel Emergency Campaign and so much more.
We will present our two highest awards, the Spector Award to my friend Dave Sufrin and the Rudolph Award to the Federation’s Jewish Community Security Director, Shawn Brokos. Shawn has helped every single Jewish organization and synagogue in Greater Pittsburgh since she joined our staff. I hope you will be there to celebrate everything!
Shabbat Shalom. Happy Labor Day.
Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Annual Meeting
Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024
7:00–8:30 PM
JCC Squirrel Hill, 5738 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217