This week, I’m handing the keyboard off to Lily Wein, Manager, Planning & Impact. Lily writes:
Earlier this week, I traveled to Washington, D.C., with a group of 23 Pittsburghers to attend the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly (GA). The General Assembly brings together Jewish communal leaders, philanthropists, professionals and community partners from across North America to learn about, engage in and take action on the defining issues of our time as a united Jewish community. Being in a room of over 2,000 leaders discussing the key challenges facing our people today–challenges that we can only solve together–was very powerful. The fact that so many Jewish Pittsburghers attended–the largest delegation from our community in years–made it even more special.
Our agenda at the GA was packed with interesting discussions, inspiring panels and healthy debates highlighting the diversity of thought across our global Jewish community. A few sessions and conversations were particularly impactful to me.
The Pittsburgh delegation met with Katya, a teenager in Ukraine whose family was displaced from their home and relocated to Kyiv due to the war. In Kyiv, Katya discovered her Jewish identity and immersed herself in Active Jewish Teens (AJT)—a Jewish youth network program run by the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the leading global Jewish humanitarian organization. Through AJT, Katya connected with Jewish peers and Jewish life at the local Jewish community center, and she now serves as a teen club leader helping teenagers strengthen their identity and develop leadership skills. Thanks to the support of our donors, our Federation provides annual funding to the JDC, enabling Katya to find a new warm and welcoming home in the Jewish community in Kyiv. You can catch a glimpse of Katya’s story at jdc.org.
Members of our Pittsburgh delegation also met with David Koren, CEO of ERAN Emotional First Aid. ERAN is Israel’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to providing emotional and mental health support via phone to the Israeli public anonymously and immediately, for free, 24 hours a day year-round. David shared that since October 7, 2023, ERAN’s mental health hotline has experienced a surge in need. Last year, the hotline fielded over 300,000 calls from Israelis in distress, including over 6,000 calls with suicidal content. David talked about the robust support systems ERAN has in place to bring suicidal callers to safety and get them the support they need. He teared up as he thanked our Pittsburgh delegation for the funding from our community that is enabling this lifesaving work to continue.
While there were many meaningful sessions at the GA, the most moving experience for me was hearing from four of the hostages who were recently released. The messages that they delivered were not of bitterness, anger or spite, but of finding hope in humanity even in the darkest of times. Their generosity of spirit, despite the horrors they faced, was awe inspiring. One hostage, Avinatan Or, spoke of digging in the tunnel and finding a root of a tree, a sign of life. His message: that anger destroys you and without hope you cannot survive. This encapsulated my greatest takeaway from the conference. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but together, we can rebuild and come out stronger. Avinatan Or closed by saying “When the Jewish people unite around a cause, we are unstoppable.” You can watch his speech on YouTube.