April 18, 2025 | 20 Nissan 5785 Candlelighting 7:45 p.m. | Holiday ends Sunday April 20 8:48 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 16 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
NOTEWORTHY Brewery makes things right
LOCAL
Chag Sameach! Prosecutors Temple B’nai Israel readies unveil new for final Shabbat weekend evidence against defendant in Chabad and Jewish Federation vandalism case Eleanor/Adobe Stock
LOCAL
Racist performer canceled
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“Americans and the Holocaust”
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
come back to temple,” she said. “Coming back was this warm, wonderful feeling, a different building but the same people.” Iszauk served on the board and for the last five years worked in the synagogue’s office. Now she’s readying for a final goodbye. The congregation will celebrate its last Shabbat service on April 26 and spend the weekend recalling its historic legacy. Temple B’nai Israel was formed in 1912, eventually finding a home on Shaw Avenue in McKeesport. And while it might be hard to imagine now, the Mon Valley town was once home to more than 6,500 Jewish residents, had four synagogues, numerous Jewish auxiliaries and a community religious school with its own board of education, according to Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center, who spoke to the Chronicle about the synagogue earlier this year. The congregation moved to White Oak in 2000, after buying the Tree of Life Sfad’s building. At that time, the congregation had 170 family units. It now has somewhere between 30 and 40, according to the congregation’s president, Lou Anstandig, who noted that most members no longer live in White Oak. Please see B'nai Israel, page 10
Please see Evidence, page 10
Temple B’nai Israel will welcome community members the weekend of April 25 as the congregation celebrates its legacy before closing its doors. Photo by David Rullo
Exhibit showcased in Beaver Falls
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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LOCAL Diverse films come to Pittsburgh
JFilm begins April 24
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REGIONAL Jewish governor targeted
Josh Shapiro's residence firebombed
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ebbie Iszauk’s connection to Temple B’nai Israel goes back more than 65 years, when her parents joined in 1960. She’s readying for a final Shabbat at the Reform congregation, which has been a fixture in the White Oak/McKeesport communities since 1912. Iszauk said she couldn’t recall why her family became members of B’nai Israel. The area still had two additional congregations at the time of their joining — Tree of Life Sfard and Gemilas Chesed. “I don’t know why they made the choice,” she said. “I know my mother said it would be one of the two and not the third.” Iszauk has fond memories of her semiweekly trips to B’nai Israel for Hebrew school, recounting spending 15 cents for the bus after elementary school before stopping for a 10 cent treat on her way to class every Tuesday and Thursday. Friday night services, Sunday school, confirmation and youth group are among the connections she forged with the congregation before she left for college. When Iszauk returned to the region she joined another congregation with her family before finding her way back to B’nai Israel after her daughter was in college. “We had a discussion that I really wanted to
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rosecutors revealed new evidence last week regarding one of the defendants charged with vandalizing Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in July. According to a federal court filing, Mohamad Hamad, a Coraopolis resident who identified in a text message as a “Hamas operative,” shared an image of a firearm on Instagram in July with the text: “Alright yall say a prayer with me. Inshallah one day each bullet in this mag kisses the forehands of the Zionist oppressor, ameen.” Hamad was arrested along with Talya Lubit last fall and charged with damaging religious property and conspiracy to comment an offense against the United States. The defendants are accused of painting antisemitic graffiti on Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s building, including an inverted red triangle, a symbol used by the terrorist group Hamas to identify Israeli military targets, and painting anti-Israel graffiti on a sign outside the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s building. Hamad was a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard until Sept. 2024, when he was barred from the facility. Lubit is an Oakland resident. Search warrants were executed in August and September at both defendants’ residences and their cell phones were seized. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a review of the contents revealed messages between Hamad and Lubit “during which they planned their vandalism
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