January 24, 2025 | 24 Tevet 5785
Candlelighting 5:11 p.m. | Havdalah 6:13 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 4 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Standing against antisemitism
Local community members express cautious optimism over hostage deal
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Pittsburgher Rona Kaufman joins Voice of the People’s first global cohort
National expert leads local training LOCAL
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A survivor's story Community members stand in solidarity with the hostages at a vigil in Squirrel Hill.
Photo by Sandy Zell
Irene Skolnick on trauma and resilience Page 3
LOCAL A Mt. Lebanon menorah?
Community addresses commissioners Page 6
HISTORY Looking back at Stanton Heights
A suburban-like community in the city
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lice Sahel-Azagury has spent countless hours since Hamas ignited its current war against Israel helping organize dozens of vigils in Squirrel Hill as part of a volunteer team helmed by David Dvir. She distributes posters of those in captivity, marks pieces of masking tape with the number of days the hostages have been imprisoned and helps arrange speakers to tell each hostage’s story for scores of community members gathered in solidarity. “Once you speak about someone, you just feel like it’s a connection,” Sahel-Azagury told the Chronicle. As a deal between Israel and the terrorist group took effect on Sunday, and the first three hostages, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, were released after 471 days of captivity, Sahel-Azagury felt a mix of emotions. “It’s what everybody wished for, just to see those moms hugging their daughters,” said Sahel-Azagury, who moved to Pittsburgh from France about eight years ago because of rising antisemitism there. Still, she can’t shake the anxiety that comes with not knowing how many of the 33 hostages scheduled to be released in the first phase of the deal will be alive. “So, I’m scared in the coming days,” she said. The ceasefire/hostage deal is complicated. It began with an initial six-week stage in which the fighting paused and the Israeli military began its withdrawal from Gaza. Israel is set to release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and
detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks, in return for 33 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip during the first, 42-day phase of the deal. A second stage of the deal, which has yet to be fully negotiated, would see a further Israeli military withdrawal and permanent end to the fighting in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages. In a third phase, the military withdrawal will be complete and reconstruction of Gaza would begin, as the bodies of deceased hostages are returned to Israel. In each stage, hostages will be freed in exchange for a much larger number of Palestinian security prisoners. If all goes smoothly, Palestinians, Arab states and Israel still need to agree on a vision for postwar Gaza, a massive task involving security guarantees for Israel and billions of dollars in investment for rebuilding. Local community leaders expressed relief and hope with the announcement of the deal, despite the high price Israel is forced to pay for the return of the hostages. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “You know, I think with any of these deals, there are always bumps in the road, and we saw that over the last few days, but I am cautiously optimistic that 30-plus hostages or their bodies will be returning to Israel [in the first phase of the deal].” Whether the deal will be good for Israel in the long run is unclear at this point, he said, but “it’s really good for the hostage families that have been looking for this. It seems to me, Please see Hostages, page 15
Senior Living Begins on p.8
Rona Kaufman Photo courtesy of Rona Kaufman By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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f you’ve seen Rona Kaufman’s videos on social media, you’ve seen her passion for Israel and Jewish identity. It comes as no surprise, then, that she was chosen to be part of the first 150-member cohort of Israeli President H.E. Isaac Herzog’s new initiative Voice of the People. Since Oct. 7, 2023, Kaufman, an associate professor at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Duquesne University, has produced videos battling the anti-Israel misinformation dominating college campuses and has become more involved in the work of strengthening Jewish identity. After learning about Voice of the People through LinkedIn, Kaufman applied to be part of the first cohort. The selection process included submitting a CV and a video explaining why she wanted to participate in the program. Several different interviews followed, beginning with an initial group interview that included 20 people. Early this month, she was “super excited” to learn she had been selected, she said. “The idea of the organization is to get diverse Jewish voices from across the world to come together and essentially strategize and network, compare ideas and collaborate for the purpose of confronting the challenges that world Jewry is facing in a post-Oct. 7 world,” Kaufman said. Herzog launched Voice of the People in April 2023, six months before Hamas’ terrorist attack Please see Kaufman, page 15
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By Toby Tabachnick |Editor