November 21, 2025 | 1 Kislev 5786
LOCAL Ready to serve
Dan Gilman's new role
Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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A benefits, the rising price of essential items and even damage from recent storms as factors affecting the financial well-being of Jewish households. JAF, she said, has heard from people who felt the immediate impact of not receiving SNAP benefits earlier this month. The organization also saw what GoodmanLeib called “a significant increase” in the number of people contacting JAF for the first time, finding it challenging to pay their bills due to the financial impact of the government shutdown and pause in SNAP benefits. Those benefits resumed when the federal governent reopened on Nov. 13. “We are working closely with our partners, and we ramped up our efforts to increase the community’s awareness of JAF’s no-repay grants,” she said. Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel is the executive director of the Aleph Institute, an organization that provides relief for incarcerated Jews and their families. As part of that support, it runs a kosher food bank on its property that is available to the wider Jewish community needing assistance.
ctors portraying Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. treated an audience to moving monologues about persecution, faith and hope. Each holding a journal and writing utensil in hand, Amelia Dudley, playing Frank, and Marcel Daly, playing King, expressed bewilderment and awe at fellow humans’ responses to legally imposed harms. As the actors sat, stood and paced across the nearly empty stage on Nov. 14 at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, they encouraged attendees to envision how “The Diary of a Young Girl” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” came to be. Hours earlier, the acting duo delivered a similar performance at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School. Speaking to theatergoers following the performance at the August Wilson Center, Dudley and Daly said it’s inspiring to portray iconic 20th-century figures, but there’s a particular significance in doing so for students. Dudley credited Allderdice students and educators with using the 40-minute performance as a springboard to ask difficult questions about building a “broader community.” “I had a little bit of tears in my eyes,” Daly said. “We were in their shoes, and then we’re going to blink, and they’re going to be in our shoes. They are going to be making these decisions.” The Thursday night talkback, which was joined by community activists, was part of the Anne Frank Center USA and Hear Foundation’s “Voices for Change” program. Moderated by Anne Frank Center CEO
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Strokes of insight
Aquatic master Al Rose Page 4
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p State Reps. Dan Frankel and Abigail Salisbury organized a press conference to address food security at Our Giving Kitchen. Photo by David Rullo By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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Murray's is coming
Squirrel Hill's new grocery
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Jewish organizations work to Actors channel Anne Frank meet increased need and MLK to inspire youth through paired monologues
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Candlelighting 4:40 p.m. | Havdalah 5:41 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 47 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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nflation, tariffs, supply chain issues and the temporary suspension of SNAP benefits have added downward pressure to Jewish households — some of which were already facing food insecurity and worries over meeting their daily financial obligations. Squirrel Hill Food Pantry Director Jesse Sharrard said that on Nov. 7, only six days after SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — benefits were suspended due to the federal government shutdown, need exceeded the pantry’s expectations. In those six days, he said, “we had already provided food to as many families as we would typically provide in two weeks.” The Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, part of Jewish Family and Community Services, isn’t alone in seeing an increased need. Jewish Assistance Fund has offered no-repay grants to members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community since 1985. Cindy Goodman-Leib, executive director of JAF, said what happens nationally impacts the Jewish community locally. She cited the government shutdown, the pause in SNAP
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Coming November 28