Chronicle shut out as questions mount about Gainey ally
Gainey’s camp will not give Pittsburgh’s only Jewish newspaper access to our mayor.
Since January, the Chronicle has been unable to schedule an interview with Mayor Ed Gainey.
That is the same month that Emilia Winter Rowland became Gainey’s senior adviser and the Chronicle’s press contact. We have reached out to Rowland, and Sam Wasserman — Gainey’s campaign manager — several times in the last four months. Our requests for interviews have been ignored or denied.
Before January, Gainey spoke with the Chronicle several times. He also has been present at several Jewish community events.
Rowland served as communications director and senior adviser to Rep. Summer Lee from January 2023 until May 2024. During that time, the Chronicle reached out numerous times asking to interview Lee. Then, too, Rowland either denied our requests or ignored them.
We are seeing a pattern here, a disturbing if not dangerous one, and one that potentially disenfranchises Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
Last week, the Chronicle again reached out to Gainey’s staff asking to interview the mayor. We wanted to inquire about his relationship with Chad Collins, a pastor at Valley View Presbyterian Church and a national leader of FOSNA (Friends of Sabeel North America), which promotes boycotts of Israel. Some Sabeel adherents have charged Jews with deicide and “have compared Palestinians to a modern-day Jesus and accused Israel of engaging in a ‘crucifixion’ of these Palestinians,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Gainey posed for a photo with Collins, Summer Lee, and Sabeel’s Rev. Munther Isaac when Isaac came to Pittsburgh last August. Just one day after Hamas’ barbaric Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Isaac gave a sermon preaching that attack was a logical outcome of the creation of the state of Israel.
Collins’ daughter Micaiah Collins is facing federal criminal charges related to allegedly conspiring with Mohamad Hamad (who was arrested for vandalizing Chabad of Squirrel Hill last summer) to manufacture and possess an explosive device. Hamad has identified as a “Hamas operative.” Federal filings say the government suspects that Hamad attended Chad Collins’ church.
Another of Chad Collins’ children, Nesta Collins, is facing criminal charges in the Allegheny Court of Commons Pleas related to violent activity last year at an anti-Israel encampment, where Chad Collins served as a spokesperson.
In May 2024, Collins posted on Facebook and Instagram an image that included an inverted red triangle, a symbol used by Hamas to mark military targets. That symbol was allegedly spray painted on Chabad of Squirrel Hill by Hamad and another accomplice, Talya Lubit.
We are concerned. Chad Collins has been actively campaigning for Gainey’s reelection. In recent pro-Gainey posts Collins wrote: “Can’t let Trump and AIPAC win our Mayoral race!!” and “Help us defeat AIPAC AGAIN!!!!!”
It is common knowledge that neither AIPAC, nor the super PAC United Democracy Project, participates in either state or local elections. So what, or who, did Collins mean by referring to “AIPAC”?
We wanted to give Gainey the opportunity to clarify his relationship with Collins or to disavow him, if appropriate.
But Gainey’s camp will not give Pittsburgh’s only Jewish newspaper access to our mayor.
We urge Gainey to make this right and speak with the Chronicle. PJC
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