A view from Israel
Oren SpielmannNew P2G Director director visits Pittsburgh

A view from Israel

New Partnership2Gether director finds value in relationships

Director of Pittsburgh’s Partnership2gether region, Oren Spielmann visits Pittsburgh with Chronicle publisher Jim Busis. (Photo provided by Oren Spielmann)
Director of Pittsburgh’s Partnership2gether region, Oren Spielmann visits Pittsburgh with Chronicle publisher Jim Busis. (Photo provided by Oren Spielmann)

Oren Spielmann began his new job at an inopportune time.

Spielmann started as the director of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Partnership2Gether Global Network region — which includes Karmiel/Misgav in Israel; Warsaw, Poland; and Pittsburgh — on Oct. 8, barely 24 hours after the terrorist group Hamas killed 1,200 people and took another 200-plus hostage.

“Obviously, not the best day to start a new position,” Spielmann said. “I found the partnership in a very particular and unique state. For the first time, the focus was on saving lives instead of people and connections.”

Partnership2Gether is a network of 165 Jewish and Israeli communities in 40 city-to-city and region-to-region partnerships, according to its website. The network engages thousands of participants to strengthen Jewish communities in Israel and the world by creating ongoing engagement based on mutual endeavors and shared Jewish identity.

Or, to put it another way, it creates people-to-people relationships that foster strong, vibrant, connected Jewish communities, with Israel at their hearts.

Locally, the organization partners with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

The connections fostered by the partnership, Spielmann said, paid dividends following the attacks.

“For the first time in my life,” he said, “I think I felt what it was like to be hugged by someone you don’t know, from far away. To be honest, we really needed that hug.”

The hug, Spielmann said, came at a crucial time in history when the Israeli community needed to know it wasn’t alone.

Surrounded by unfriendly countries and terrorist organizations, and familiar with daily headlines that include bomb attacks and stabbings, Israelis were still shocked by the brazen attack of Oct. 7, he said.

The Karmiel Misgav region has proven to be an oasis in a desert of hostility over the years, where the Jewish and Arab communities have lived together in peace. Since Oct. 7, though, that foundation has started to crack.

On July 3, one person was killed in a terror attack that occurred at a shopping center in Karmiel. Another individual disarmed the assailant and shot him, but not before being severely wounded as well. The attacker was from a nearby Arab village, according to news reports.

Spielmann, who doesn’t live in Karmiel, said that things aren’t yet back to normal in the region.

“We haven’t had normality for nine months of war,” he said, noting that people feel tension walking in the streets.

“There’s always this feeling in the back of your head that you need to be alert, you need to watch out,” he said. “You’re in fear and you have to pay attention to things. It’s not normal.”

Helping to negate some of those feelings were the calls from partners like Pittsburgh’s Federation, which, he said, started pouring in before he even got to the office to begin work.

One of Spielmann’s primary concerns, he said, is ensuring those relationships stay as strong and as healthy as when he arrived, if not better.

To that end, Spielmann’s background may prove advantageous.

The husband and father of two studied political science before earning a master’s degree in teaching. After graduating and teaching for two years at an Israeli high school, Spielmann learned of an opportunity to work with the Jewish Agency for Israel as a shlichut, or emissary, in Rome.

“I was the director of a youth movement,” he said.

His family spent three years in Italy building relationships.

Spielmann returned to Israel in 2020 during COVID, then accepted a new role with the Jewish Agency in 2022, serving as the educational director for the Movement Shlichut.

Speaking of the practical nature of his experience and how it helped prepare him, Spielmann said that ultimately, Partnership2Gether “is about people-to-people relationships.”

The new P2G director said that he had already begun building relationships with Federation President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein and JCC CEO Jason Kunzman when the two visited Israel.

Earlier this month, Spielmann visited Pittsburgh for the first time.

“The city, just like the people, is beautiful,” he said. “The people are friendly. They are really welcoming, even beyond the stories I was told before coming. It’s really amazing.”

Spielmann said people have to visit Pittsburgh to understand the kindness of the community.

“My biggest surprise and pleasure were how friendly and welcoming members of the Jewish community are,” he said. “It’s something you have to experience to understand. I met a community that loves Israel and appreciates the connection. It’s people-to-people and it’s a healthy relationship with the Jewish Federation and the Jewish Agency.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

read more:
comments