May 8, 2026 | 21 Iyar 5786
Candlelighting 8:05 p.m. | Havdalah 9:10 p.m. | Vol. 69, No. 19 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Day school students take advocacy to Harrisburg in Teach PA trip
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Connecting teens to Israel
New Federation initiative Page 2
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A Land For All, coming to Dor Hadash, presents a new vision of the two-state solution By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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Honoring a legacy
according to a statement released by Teach PA. Etti Martel, a chaperone on the trip, said she learned about the opportunity from her daughter Naomi, an eighth grade Hillel Academy student. “I went because I feel like every parent deserves to send their child to a day school with confidence and to know that they are safe,” she said. “I want my kids to be safe and supported and to be able to focus on learning.” Martel said the Hillel girls were excited to spend time on the bus with students from other schools, and that after an initial period of nerves, the students were all confident when speaking with government officials. “They had a whole conversation with Dan Frankel, which was nice to see,” she said. “They talked about how they feel about their school and what they want from their school.” Yeshiva’s CEO Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum said the trip was a learning experience for the students. “It was great for them to see how government works and to meet real people and engage in conversations, and to meet the governor,” he said.
ay Pundak and Rula Hardal have a vision of a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It simply isn’t the one you may have in mind. Historically, when there’s talk of an independent Israeli state and an independent Palestinian state, it is centered around two countries existing separately without much integration and coordination. That’s not the way Pundak and Hardal see it. The two are co-directors of A Land for All, an organization whose members believe it’s possible for Israel and a Palestinian state to exist as “two sovereign states,” but “one shared homeland.” Congregation Dor Hadash is bringing A Land for All to Pittsburgh on May 13 at 7 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. A Land for All’s website envisions a “confederal model, grounded in international law, local needs and hard-earned lessons from failed negotiations.” It proposes a future “built with both peoples — not at the expense of either of them.” Pundak, an Israeli human rights attorney who lives in Israel and is the daughter of historian and journalist Ron Pundak, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, said the best example of the model is the European Union. “Think about France and Germany,” she said. “There is no question that they are two separate, independent sovereign states. There are two different governments, two different legal systems, two different economies, two different internal issues to different states, but they work under a shared framework that takes into account that the issues that they share deserve attention to such a degree that it needs another layer of system of shared institutions.”
Please see Students, page 15
Please see A Land For All, page 15
Holocaust remembrance Page 4
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p Gov. Josh Shapiro with Jewish day school students from across Pennsylvania, who visited the state capital as part of Teach PA’s Advocacy Day Photo courtesy of Etti Martel
Social life after high school
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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Advice from local experts Page 5
LOCAL The art of Glenn Greene
Stained glass virtuoso Page 7
eah Altein said a recent trip to Harrisburg was a “very cool and educational” experience. Day school students, she said, interacted with staffers and elected officials, and had the chance to see the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex. “Being with all the other schools was really nice,” Altein added. The Yeshiva Girls School seventh grader was part of an April 27 trip, organized by Teach PA, that brought more than 200 Jewish day school students to the state capital for the organization’s annual Advocacy Day. More than 50 fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade female students from Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools — Community Day School, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh — traveled together for the event and spent time with local and state officials, including state Sen. Jay Costa, state Rep. Dan Frankel and Gov. Josh Shapiro, among others. In addition to meeting with elected officials and the state’s judiciary, students and parents advocated for “stronger school security funding, greater access to scholarships and expanded educational opportunities,”
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Special section begins on p. 9
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