A year of challenges, a year of strength

No one could have predicted what would unfold in the past year. As we brought in 5784, the three-month long Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial had recently concluded. The acute dangers of COVID were mostly behind us. And we were more than ready for a good, and peaceful, year.

Our optimism took a turn just a couple of weeks later, on Oct 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, committing unspeakable acts of barbarism, including sexual violence. Hamas murdered more than 1200 people that day and took more than 250 people hostage.

Israel’s fight to secure its borders and save the hostages, and the ensuing surge of antisemitism worldwide, made this a very difficult year for Jews everywhere, including in Pittsburgh.

In addition to our angst about the war and Israel’s future, we found ourselves again — still — worried for our own safety.

Since Oct. 7, our community has been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and repugnant rhetoric at campus rallies and online. Two University of Pittsburgh students were physically assaulted by a man wearing a keffiyeh (although the attacker’s motives have not been determined), and a Jewish business was targeted by a hammer-wielding vandal on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh were vandalized with anti-Israel slogans.

All this, on top of an antisemitic petition calling for a referendum on the November ballot for the City of Pittsburgh to boycott Israel, and continual campaigns to boycott or divest from the Jewish state coming from various antisemitic groups hiding behind masks and the anonymity of social media.

It’s been a lot, especially for a community still healing from the deep trauma of Oct. 27, 2018.

But it’s also been a year of strength, unity and resilience.

Immediately following Oct. 7, the Federation held rallies in support of Israel, drawing hundreds of attendees.

In November, more than 400 Pittsburghers traveled to the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. to call for the release of the hostages and to show support for the Jewish state.

Throughout the year, scores of Jewish Pittsburghers, led by David Dvir and Julie Paris, have gathered on a street corner in Squirrel Hill to mourn the soldiers killed defending Israel, remember the hostages and feel the power of community.

In August, the Federation brought together more than 100 community members who spent hours poring over more than 15,000 signatures — the vast majority of which were invalid — to prevent the antisemitic referendum from appearing on the November ballot.

Earlier this month, more than 300 Jewish Pittsburghers and their allies packed the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Levinson Hall, at an event organized by Karen Gal-Or and Marjorie Manne, to hear about the lives of six hostages shot multiple times at close range by Hamas terrorists.

These are just a few examples of the many occasions our Jewish community came together over the last year to stand against hate.

As we head into 5785, our Jewish homeland continues to face existential threats while battling terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon. And we are not so naïve as to believe that the antisemitism intensifying around the world — and in our city — will magically dissipate.

But we have seen the strength of our community, its determination and its courage. We are buoyed by what we have accomplished and our commitment to our people and to each other.

And so we head into the new year with pride, and with hope.

L’shana tova. PJC