July 11, 2025 | 15 Tammuz 5785
Candlelighting 8:33 p.m. | Havdalah 9:39 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 28 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL The art of the beard
Israeli facial hair champ comes to Pittsburgh LOCAL
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PittsburghPittsburgh delegation joins national emergency mission to area teachers D.C. amid rising antisemitism inspired by national Holocaust education seminar By Deborah Weisberg | Special to the Chronicle
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“Justice and Freedom”
Please see Holocaust, page 10
Pittsburgh’s delegates to Washington, D.C., met with Rep. Chris Deluzio. Back row, from left: Andy Schaer, Cheryl Americus, David Ainsman, Sue Berman Kress, Meryl Ainsman, Rep. Chris Deluzio, CRC Director Laura Cherner, Larry Rosen. Front row, from left: Marjorie Manne, Sandy Rosen Photo courtesy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
Savoring stories
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
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WORLD Olympic aspirations
Israeli flag football
Please see Delegation, page 10
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Stuffed grape leaves
of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, according to Laura Cherner, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council. Convened around a “six-point plan,” the focus of the mission, Cherner said, was to pursue the support of elected officials for increased security funding for nonprofits; ensure houses of worship, schools and community centers have access to trained security personnel through federal support; strengthen the FBI and federal law enforcement’s ability to investigate and prevent hate crimes and domestic terrorism, with a particular focus on threats targeting religious communities; bolster support for state and local law enforcement so they can work in partnership with faith institutions to ensure safety; fully enforce existing hate crime laws, ensuring swift and
wo western Pennsylvania teachers spent part of their summer in an intensive academic program aimed at enhancing Holocaust education in classrooms. Hallie Leach of St. Therese School in Munhall, and Meg Frank of Riverside High School in North Sewickley Township are among 25 middle and high school teachers chosen from 10 states and Poland as 2025 Alfred Lerner Fellows by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. As such, they participated in the Foundation’s recent Summer Institute for Teachers, a highlevel five-day course that covers new techniques for exploring the Holocaust with students. Both women were nominated by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and have spent more than a decade engaged in professional development around Holocaust learning through a variety of venues, including Classrooms Without Borders, which has taken them to Eastern Europe. The Foundation seminar, in Newark, New Jersey, featured more than a dozen renowned Holocaust scholars and included lectures on antisemitism and anti-Judaism past and present. “It was a very deep dive into a complex subject that is going to shape my teaching this fall,” said Frank, who teaches 11th and 12th graders. “I’ve studied the Holocaust for 10 years, and thought I knew it all, as teachers do. But I learned a lot more.” Leach, a seventh and eighth grade teacher, came away from the seminar with 81 pages of notes and a new network of fellow educators committed to furthering Holocaust education
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delegation of Pittsburghers joined with about 400 other concerned Jews from across the country in an emergency mission to Washington, D.C., to address surging antisemitism in the U.S. The June 25-26 mission was organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Nearly 100 Jewish communities sent delegations, representing 7.5 million Jewish Americans, according to JFNA officials. The delegates met with congressional representatives and their staff to discuss the mounting security needs of Jewish Americans. The mission was organized as a response to a marked increase in violent antisemitic incidents in the U.S., including the June 1 firebombing in Boulder, Colorado, which resulted in one death and 13 people physically injured, and the May murders
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A new interfaith study group
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Real Estate
Special section begins on p.8