August 14, 2026 | 1 Elul 5786
Candlelighting 8:01 p.m. | Havdalah 9:01 p.m. | Vol. 69, No. 33 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
JFCS sues DHS on behalf of 6 children
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Welcoming athletic directors
Discussing antisemitism
Page 2
LOCAL Honoring Greensburg nun
$2
Hayli FirtellElgarten hopes to strengthen community of Jewish women entrepreneurs with new organization David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
p JFCS signage.
Sister Gemma Del Duca recognized for lifetime of interfaith work
Page 4
LOCAL New leadership at Hillel JUC
Oded Wilson steps up as assistant director
Page 10
LIFE & CULTURE Director Rachel Israel’s films
An exploration of Jewish joy
Page 20
David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
J
ewish Family and Community Services has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Markwayne Mullin on behalf of six children. The 159-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, argues that procedural changes adopted by immigration courts have eliminated due process protections Congress enacted in 1990 for abused, neglected and trafficked immigrant children. Dana Gold, JFCS’ chief operating officer, said that this is the first time in the organization’s history that it has been a plaintiff in a lawsuit of this kind but that they felt it was necessary to protect their clients. “What we’ve seen locally was a pattern of taking away their legislative protections,” Gold said. “When you have minor children who have no one to stand up for them, they do have the rule of law to protect them. We have to stand up for that rule of law to be applied as it was meant to be done.” Sarah Hough, JFCS’ director of immigration legal services, said that there have been attempts to limit the children’s access to counsel, curtail their opportunity to pursue legal cases and to “do an end around the
H
legislative protections they are entitled to under a number of categories.” “The only option left for some our clients was to take federal action to protest the policies themselves,” she said. JFCS’ participation as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Hough explained, isn’t litigating any individual cases, rather, it’s litigating against the policies themselves, which she said, has dramatically impacted the work of JFCS and the organization’s ability to perform work “ethically and do the things we are required to do for these kids under the law.” If JFCS wants to continue to represent the children in a meaningful way, she said, it was left with no option but to pursue a legal course of action. There have been issues, Hough explained, since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Beginning in February 2025 when, she said, JFCS received a stop work order from the administration cutting off aid and service to immigrants. In March, the government terminated JFCS’ and other organization’s contracts. That order has been a subject of ongoing litigation in which the courts have consistently said the federal government must pay for the services under the contracts and reaffirmed that children
ayli Firtell-Elgarten and her husband Yossi knew it would require more than a simple 9-to-5 job to raise their three children in the traditional Jewish life they desired. “My husband and I didn’t go to college but we’re both entrepreneurs,” Firtell-Elgarten said. “We dabbled in a lot of businesses.” The couple, she recounted, tried several different money-making opportunities, including starting an Airbnb in their basement (which they still own), renting out one of their cars and creating a business selling Amazon returns. “It was very labor intensive,” she recalled. “We decided we needed to work more with our minds than our bodies.” The pair decided to start a new venture, Debbie’s Room Jewelry, selling baby jewelry on Amazon. And while she said it’s nice to see dollar signs begin to get added to her family’s bank account, Firtell-Elgarten said it can be hard and lonely running a company alone. She longed to be able to create a community and build a network of business owners. “It’s what fuels me. Forgetting the sales and all that stuff, it’s being able to share with people what’s working and what’s not. Asking each other, ‘Do you have any tips? What’s your strategy?’” That’s when she discovered The Jewish Woman Entrepreneur, an organization created as a “place where Jewish women
Please see JFCS, page 16
Please see Firtell-Elgarten, page 16
Photo provided by JFCS
Back to School
Special section begins on p.8
Dmitry Pistrov/Adobe Stock