February 14, 2025 | 16 Shevat 5785
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Pitt tamps down on anti-Israel group
Candlelighting 5:37 p.m. | Havdalah 6:37 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 7 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
JFCS pledges to keep working for Pittsburgh’s refugee and immigrant community
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Gainey declines to sign one of two City Council anti-BDS referendums By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
Sanctioning misconduct LOCAL
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different government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security. “People who enter the U.S. with the status of refugee are the most vetted individuals allowed into the country,” Golin said. “The process typically takes several years.” When they reach the United States and start working with JFCS, or another agency, the clock has already begun ticking. Refugees are given 90 days of intensive assistance — someone from an agency like JFCS meets them at the airport, finds them a place to live, enrolls their children in school, helps the adults find employment and ensures that they have health insurance. The assistance agencies also provide cultural orientation to teach acceptable behavioral norms that might differ from the refugees’ home country.
he city of Pittsburgh is one step closer to stopping the type of BDS referendum that Not On Our Dime is attempting to have added to the May 20 ballot. That referendum would prohibit the city from doing business with Israel or any entity conducting business in the Jewish state. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey has signed ordinance 1425, a referendum that City Council approved last week. If the referendum passes a ballot vote in May, it will amend the Home Rule Charter to prohibit discrimination “on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or expression, disability, place of birth, national origin or association or affiliation with any nation or foreign state in conducting business of the City.” The mayor did not sign the other referendum passed by City Council last week — ordinance 1426, which asks voters if the Home Rule Charter should be amended to prohibit “the use of the Home Rule Charter Amendment process to add duties or obligations beyond the lawful scope of the city’s authority.” While Gainey said that the intent behind ordinance 1426 is commendable, “serious concerns about its legal soundness were raised in Council’s deliberations.” In an email to the Chronicle, the mayor said he shared these concerns and, as a result, returned ordinance 1426 to the council unsigned. “Returning a bill unsigned is not the same as a veto and will allow the bill to take effect after 10 days, in time for the City Clerk to file the referendum with the County Elections Division and have it placed before the voters in May,” Gainey said. Julie Paris, a Squirrel Hill resident and StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic regional director,
Please see Immigrants, page 13
Please see Gainey, page 13
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Strengthening emerging leaders
Chabad Young Professionals visit Crown Heights
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By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
Antisemitism experts join Tree of Life council
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FOOD Meal on a budget
Poor man's niçoise salad
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n Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Tarfon famously wrote, “It is not your responsibility to finish the task, yet you are not free to withdraw from it.” It’s a lesson JFCS has learned well. The Pittsburgh social service organization is one of only about 10 national refugee resettlement agencies that contract with the U.S. Department of State to bring refugees into the country. Refugee status is a form of protection granted to people who are designated by the United Nations as unable to stay or return to their home country because of fear of prosecution based on political affiliation or demographic criteria, JFCS President and CEO Jordan Golin explained. The United States, he said, determines how many people with refugee status will be admitted into the country. Extensive screening is conducted by several
Robert Kneschke/Adobe Stock
Members of the Aponte Ortiz family gather after arriving in Pittsburgh. JFCS is continuing to work with refugees and immigrants like the Aponte Ortiz family, despite a federal stop work order. Photo courtesy of JFCS
Fighting identity-based hate
Summer Camps 2025 Begins on p.8