February 28, 2025 | 30 Shevat 5785
Candlelighting 5:53 p.m. | Havdalah 6:52 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 9 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Pittsburgh vigil marks 500 days of mourning, prayer and solidarity
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Meet the Minyan Makers
CDS students help build community LOCAL
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Not On Our Dime submits petition to place anti-Israel referendum on May ballot
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Targeted with hate Rabbi Alex Greenbaum of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills (left) and Shaare Torah’s Rabbi Yitzi Genack lead a prayer for the hostages. Photo by Toby Tabachnick
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Antisemitic messages found at professor's home Page 3
HISTORY 100 years of "The Dybbuk"
The first in a three-part series Page 5
LOCAL Hillel Academy wins international contest
First graders coin a new Hebrew word Page 21
ore than 250 community members came together on Feb. 18 in prayer, grief, song and hope to mark 500 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and launched a war that has claimed thousands of lives. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked the Jewish state, viciously murdering more than 1200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 251 people to Gaza. The terrorists used rape as a tool of war, slaughtered parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents. Jews around the world have been mourning since then, and fearful for the fate of the hostages — those who remain in Gaza as well as those who have come home but have a long road to recovery. “Five hundred days since hundreds of innocent people were brutally kidnapped from their homes and kept in tunnels, with 73 remaining today,” began Julie Paris, MidAtlantic regional director of StandWithUs, which sponsored the vigil along with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Israeli community. “Five hundred days of witnessing 27,000 missiles fired indiscriminately into Israel. Five hundred days of pain, of prayer, of helplessness, of screaming from the rooftops. Five hundred days of shock at the silence and open hostility of too many, but also of finding friends in unexpected
places. Five hundred days of finding our own voices. Five hundred days of a fragile Jewish unity in the most difficult of times.” The vigil, held at the JCC in Squirrel Hill, drew Jewish community members and their allies from across Greater Pittsburgh, including several local politicians. Mayor Ed Gainey, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, City Controller Rachael Heisler, state Rep. Dan Frankel and City Councilmember Erika Strassburger were among the government officials who came to support their local Jewish community — a community which has been targeted with more than 300 acts of antisemitism since the beginning of the war. Both Pennsylvania senators, John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, sent messages of solidarity to be read to the crowd. “My commitment in spirit, vote and voice for Israel and the global Jewish community is ironclad and unbreakable,” Fetterman wrote. McCormick, in a message read by his Western Pennsylvania Regional Director Sam DeMarco, said that he and his wife, Dina, visited Israel in January 2024 “to see the devastation for ourselves.” “We have been praying with all of you for the last 500 days for every hostage to come home safely,” he said. The gathering drew rabbis from across the denominational spectrum, with many called to lead the crowd in prayer, remembrance and unity. Please see Vigil, page 18
Event Planning begins on page 8
Pittsburgh City-County Building
Photo by Leepaxton at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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ot On Our Dime, an anti-Zionist group, has submitted a petition to Allegheny County’s election division that, if approved by voters, would amend Pittsburgh’s Home Rule Charter and force the city to divest from doing business with Israel or any company that does business with the Jewish state. The organization gathered more than 21,300 signatures — 9,000 more than the 12,459 signatures required for the referendum to be added to the May ballot. The referendum faces several hurdles, including a review of the validity of the signatures gathered and possible legal challenges. If the referendum is passed, separate referendums approved by Pittsburgh City Council earlier this month — ordinances 1425 and 1426 — could render it illegal. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is “deeply concerned” by the proposed anti-Israel referendum, which seeks to advance the “discriminatory and divisive Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions agenda in our city,” Jeff Finkelstein, the Federation’s president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. The initiative, he said , is misleading, legally Please see Petition, page 18
Wollwerth Imagery/Adobe Stock
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor