Coming up

Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee is sponsoring a program to bring together Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim teenagers, Sunday, Feb. 20, at Oakland Catholic High School. The teenagers, who will come from all over the Pittsburgh region, will explore and share information on their various faith traditions. The program will include a tour of the Oakland Catholic chapel, social action project, tasting of traditional foods and workshop on how the four represented religions address death and the afterlife. Registration is at 1:45 p.m. and the event lasts from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Interested teenagers or youth group leaders should contact PAJC at (412) 605-0816 or at pajc@pajc.net.

Kollel Jewish Learning Center will present its 30th annual Melava Malka Dinner, Saturday night, Feb. 26, at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. Five people will be recognized as “Builders of the Torah” for their sponsorship of the Kollel’s new Torah. They are Abby Seigle, Marilyn Sindler, Ruth Ann Kaden, Dr. Geraldine Palkovitz and Norman Sindler. Contact Sara Weiss, executive administrator, at (412) 420-0220 Ext. 212 or at sweiss@kollelpgh.org for more information.

Congregation Beth Shalom will host over 100 Jewish teenagers from western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and West Virginia for Central Region USY (CRUSY) Specialty Kinnus, a regional convention that focuses on social action projects. Teenagers will visit the city from Thursday, Feb. 24 to Sunday, Feb. 27. Friday will be spent volunteering at various nonprofits around the city and participants will then return to the synagogue for the remainder of the weekend for Shabbat and other educational programming. Contact Carolyn Gerecht, Congregation Beth Shalom’s youth director at (421) 421-2411 or youthdirector@bethshalompgh.org for more information.

One of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, who rose to become arguably the highest-ranking American jurist in the world, is slated to speak in Wheeling, W.Va., in March. Thomas Buergenthal, who recently retired as the American judge to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, will give a talk at the Ohio County Public Library Friday, March 4, but that evening, he will speak at Temple Shalom following Shabbat services. He is coming to West Virginia to attend a Founders Day program at Bethany College, where he is an alumnus. Buergenthal, who served on the International Court from 2000 to 2010, recently published his memoir entitled, “A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy.” Services that evening will start at 7 p.m. The program itself will begin at 8:15. Rabbi Beth Jacowitz Chottiner will act as moderator.

Sherree Hall will lead a Jewish Community Center sponsored bike trip through Israel from March 6 to 17, 2011. Hall, JCC Sports and Wellness division director, will take the group from the Golan Heights to Masada, traveling nine to 32 miles a day, depending on the difficulty of the terrain. Part of the ride will be on the new Partnership 2000 Bike Trail in the Karmiel/Misgav region. The trip cost includes bikes, security, support cars, maps, insurance, accommodations, bike guides and all the logistics. Partnership 2000 and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh are co-sponsoring the ride. Contact Hall at (412) 521-8011 Ext. 374, or shall@jccpgh.org for more information.

South Hills JCC and Chabad of the South Hills will host a pre-Purim seniors concert and luncheon, Wednesday, March 16, 12:30 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center, 345 Kane Blvd, Scott Township. Contact Chabad at (412) 344-2424 or at Batya@chabadsh.com for more information.

JFilm: The Pittsburgh Jewish Film Forum will hold its 18th annual film festival from March 24 to April 10. Narrative and documentary films from around the world will be screened at the SouthSide Works Cinema and other venues throughout the city and suburbs. Film titles will be released in January. Tickets for all events go on sale March 3. JFilm is a program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Contact Kathryn Spitz Cohan at (412) 992-5256 or KSpitzCohan@JFilmPgh.org for more information.

(Angela Leibowicz can be reached at angelal@thejewishchronicle.net.)