City controller Rachael Heisler inducted into White Rose Society
“Heisler has been a tremendous ally to the Jewish students and has really found her place as an ally of the Jewish community in college.”
Rachael Heisler went to Chabad at Pitt for a Jan. 30 Shabbat dinner expecting to talk with students about her experiences as a friend of the Jewish community and her work as Pittsburgh’s city controller. But when she opened the door to the Chabad house and saw her friends Julie Paris, Abby Rubin, Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein and hundreds of University of Pittsburgh students, she knew something different was happening.
“Rabbi Shmuli said there’s a special announcement. At that point, I hadn’t put everything together, so I was very confused,” Heisler recalled. “And then I realized what was happening and I just started crying.”
Unbeknownst to Heisler, her friends had nominated her for membership in The White Rose Society, an organization that honors non-Jewish individuals who have become “beacons of hope for the Jewish people.” They used a public dinner to surprise her with the award and present her with her rose.
“There’s no one more deserving,” said Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs. Paris has witnessed Heisler fight for the Jewish community — battling two attempts to have the city divest from Israel, and advocating more broadly for the Jewish community, with whom she has many deep relationships.
In fact, Heisler attended many Shabbat dinners at Hillel JUC while a student at Pitt.
When Paris spoke with The White Rose Society and learned that she and Rubin could design the ceremony themselves, holding it at the university seemed like a natural fit.
“I felt that it would be really powerful to do on campus,” Paris said. “[Heisler] has been a tremendous ally to the Jewish students and has really found her place as an ally of the Jewish community in college.”
Rothstein had already invited Heisler to attend Chabad’s Shabbat dinner. Paris and Rubin decided that would be the perfect opportunity to present her with the rose.
They didn’t, however, count on it being one of the coldest days in the recent history of the city.
“I felt so bad. I thought we were going to have a bad turnout,” Paris said. “When she opened the door though, there was just a sea of students. Hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish students came. About 20% weren’t Jewish. It was beautiful.”
Heisler and Rubin have been friends for nearly 20 years, since their time together as Pitt students. Since then, Rubin has been living in Philadelphia but reconnected with Heisler when Rubin decided to run for school board. She was only too happy to brave the cold and honor her friend, calling the dinner and ceremony a “wonderful surprise.”
“It warmed my heart to see this real community,” Rubin said. “When we walked into the room, [Heisler] was shocked. She saw me first, then Julie. She was confused but it was a wonderful ambush.”
Heisler said that having the ceremony at Pitt was especially meaningful.
“Everything I have done and said over the last 2 ½ years goes back to the fact that I have known and loved Jewish people and my Jewish classmates my entire life,” she said.
Even in the glow of receiving the white rose, when Heisler spoke with the Chronicle she wanted to talk about Pittsburgh’s Jewish community rather than herself.
“I believe wholeheartedly that Jewish safety is vitally important,” she said. “Everyone’s safety is important, but right now, what’s happening to my Jewish neighbors shouldn’t be tolerated. The language, the rhetoric, the behavior that incites violence, it’s wholly irresponsible.”
That is an expression of the feelings and attitudes of many who have been inducted into The White Rose Society, according to the organization’s Executive Director Julie Rau.
The White Rose Society, Rau explained, was started shortly after Oct. 7, 2023. It takes its name from the White Rose, a non-Jewish resistance group founded by students at the University of Munich in 1942.
“Our founder, Linda Selig, wanted to do something to help,” Rau said. “She gathered leaders from the Jewish community here in Atlanta — leaders of our foundations, some of the synagogues — and they sat around her dining room table and came up with The White Rose.”
Rau said that Rubin first nominated Heisler for the honor, and after vetting the Pittsburgh nominee, White Rose leaders were thrilled to induct her into the society that continues to grow.
“We’ve honored over 180 people across 22 states and 11 countries,” Rau said.
Heisler will be added to the White Rose Society’s website alongside other members, where their photos and stories are featured along with videos. There’s even a trip to Israel being planned, something they’ve done before with previous inductees, who met with Israel President Isaac Herzog and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Heisler’s induction ceremony and dinner was just one White Rose Society event Paris was involved with in recent weeks.
She also inducted musician Joshua Washington into the society at a Feb. 5 concert at Temple Emanuel of South Hills.
Washington is the director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel. His late wife, Olga Meshoe Washington, was also a White Rose Society inductee.
For Paris, the ceremony at Pitt was a “beautiful and powerful” recognition of Heisler’s efforts, but its impact was felt by more than the inductee and her immediate friends and family.
“It really meant something to the students, as well,” Paris said. And that is a message that Heisler hopes to amplify.
“I said to the students, you have to be proud Jews because for every non-Jewish person sitting next to you in class, you’re influencing them and teaching them about your values and your community. There’s a Rachael Heisler sitting next to you. I am who I am because I made a ton of Jewish friends at Pitt and those relationships are so meaningful,” Heisler said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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