Finding our political voice — and braving the consequences

Something meaningful is happening in Pittsburgh. For the first time in our generation, the local Jewish community is organizing — not quietly or timidly, but with clarity, pride, and purpose — to find our political voice. That voice, grounded in the very values that have enabled Jews to flourish in America, champions a strong, pluralistic, liberal democracy. And for the first time in a generation, we are holding our elected officials accountable for how they treat our community — and standing in support of those who stand with us.

We have learned to use our voices in the local political space because silence is no longer an option. In the past two years, we have seen antisemitism intensify around the globe — and Pittsburgh is no exception. While local officials shared content from Hamas on social media, Jewish buildings and bodies were attacked, and special interests twice targeted the Jewish community with anti-Israel BDS referendum attempts.

It became clear that we could not wait for others to step in. We had to act — and quickly.

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Through organizations like Beacon Coalition, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and StandWithUs, hundreds of volunteers across all segments of the Jewish community and our allies have come together to support democracy, inclusion and civil rights. And in just one year, we have seen results that few thought possible.

We must both hold our elected officials accountable and support leaders who are allies. This strategy works. In the most recent primary election, all six candidates supported by the new Beacon PAC won their races (with one race still undecided). Among them is Corey O’Connor, a Democrat and bridge-builder who opposes political extremism and supports the safety of all communities, including ours.

Perhaps even more importantly, our community championed two voter-approved ballot initiatives: one to strengthen the city’s anti-discrimination protections, and another to ensure Pittsburgh’s referendum process can’t be weaponized to target minority communities. Both passed decisively.

These were meaningful victories — not just for our community, but for democracy and civil rights more broadly.

Naturally, progress has met with pushback.

Instead of engaging on the substance of these issues, some on the far left have responded with familiar and deeply troubling rhetoric. They speak of “Zionist money” and falsely claim that AIPAC is influencing local elections — even though AIPAC has no involvement in municipal races. These aren’t policy critiques; they’re coded attacks. And when “Zionist” becomes a slur and a stand-in for “Jew,” we should all be concerned.

Within this dangerous rhetoric, one individual in our community is consistently singled out: Beacon’s Executive Director Jeremy Kazzaz. Over the past two years, Jeremy, who has 15 years of legislative experience from campaigns to Capitol Hill to the American Jewish Committee, has spent countless hours building relationships across Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania, relationships crossing political and cultural divides and rooted in mutual respect and shared values. He’s active in local synagogues, and he has been a tireless advocate for Jewish safety and dignity. And yet, extremists have relentlessly subjected him to false accusations — he has been accused of everything from stalking to doxxing to working with ICE. These false claims are repeated without examination because they fit into the long-standing, toxic narrative that the Jew is behind whatever threat the crowd already fears.

Of course, the consequences of widespread belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories are well known to us, especially here in Pittsburgh. We saw it from the far right in the conspiracy theories that fueled the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. Now we see a similar distortion from the far left, where “Zionists” are cast as shadowy agents of power. Both are lies. Both are direct pathways to violence. Both are classically antisemitic.

There’s a reason why these lies are spreading unchecked: Those who want to exclude Jews from public life will continue to slander the loudest amongst us to scare all of us off from organizing publicly and unapologetically in defense of our community and our democratic values.

But our momentum is proof that intimidation isn’t working. It is proof that when our community proudly organizes, we find allies who are also looking for leadership that unites rather than divides.

We’re here. We’re organized. We’re unafraid. And we’re not going anywhere. PJC

Majorie Manne is an attorney, community volunteer and a Beacon Coalition volunteer. Meryl Ainsman is a long-time leader in the Pittsburgh and national Jewish communities.