February 6, 2026 | 19 Shevat 5786
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Local schools weather the storm
Snow days and Zoom rooms LOCAL
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Candlelighting 5:27 p.m. | Havdalah 6:28 p.m. | Vol. 69, No. 6 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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CMU’s relationship with Qatar JFCS CEO says immigration examined in federal lawsuit crackdown is shaking Pittsburgh’s immigrant community
Protecting our kids
p Part of Carnegie Mellon’s Education City campus in Qatar
Photo by Alex Sergeev, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Online risks Page 3
LOCAL Hostage Ran Gvili returns home
Pittsburghers react Page 4
LOCAL Comedy and music
Ami Kozak comes to the South Hills Page 15
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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arnegie Mellon University’s relationship with Qatar has come under scrutiny in a federal lawsuit. Qatar’s financial contributions to the university have been spotlighted as part of a 2023 lawsuit filed by Yael Canaan, a former CMU School of Architecture student alleging she was subjected to “pervasive anti-Jewish discrimination” during her time at the university. Canaan claims that at least some of that discrimination is related to the school’s relationship with Qatar. And now, a federal judge has said that the Middle Eastern nation may be exerting influence on the university. In a 30-page opinion issued in December, United States District Judge W. Scott Hardy wrote that “Qatar and its affiliates could be a source of antisemitic influence upon CMU. Indeed, the largess of Qatari funds supplied to CMU may permit a reasonable juror to infer, in light of logic and common experience, that significant amounts of money and the reliance on such funds serves to motivate CMU to abide by expectations and wishes of its generous donors.” CMU receives the third highest amount
of foreign investment of all U.S. universities — more than $2.9 billion annually — surpassed only by Harvard and Cornell, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Foreign Gift and Contract Public Transparency Dashboard. Qatar invests the most money of all foreign countries in American universities — nearly $6.6 billion. CMU, the lawsuit alleges, has received more than $5.9 billion between the years 2004 to 2019 and has a campus in Doha, Qatar. The lawsuit alleges that an agreement between the university and Qatar limits CMU’s “full operational control” and requires it to “recruit at least two-thirds of the Doha faculty from CMU’s Main Campus to serve in Qatar for terms of at least three consecutive years.” Canaan’s case centers around School of Architecture professor and associate head for design fundamentals, Mary-Lou Arscott, who, the lawsuit alleges, spent professional time in Qatar, although the suit doesn’t specify if Arscott was at CMU’s Doha campus. The alleged abuse began when Arscott purportedly denied Canaan a homework Please see Qatar, page 10
p JFCS Pittsburgh CEO Jordan Golin speaks at the ceremonial groundbreaking of UpStreet in 2022. Photo by Adam Reinherz By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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ittsburgh is known for spells without sun, but the current view from Jordan Golin’s vantage point is especially bleak. In recent months the president and CEO of JFCS Pittsburgh has watched the closure of nearly all legal pathways for immigrants into the U.S. “It’s been really tough,” Golin said. “We have immigrants who are on our staff. We have staff who have worked with immigrants for many years, who are American born, and all of us feel shaken up by the way in which immigrants in our country are now being treated.” Please see Immigrants, page 10
Education
Special section coming Feb. 13
LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS / Adobe Stock