In praise of heroes
Pittsburgh is fortunate to have so many capable people who are committed to the well-being of our city and the safety of its Jewish constituents.
There are heroes in our midst.
In the span of just six days, more than 200 volunteers spent countless hours poring over more than 21,000 signatures collected by an anti-Israel organization seeking to prohibit the City of Pittsburgh from doing business with the Jewish state, or with any entity doing business with Israel (see story on Page 1).
Not On Our Dime, and its fiscal sponsor The Project for Responsive Democracy, needed to collect 12,459 signatures of Pittsburgh residents registered to vote in order to get their anti-Israel referendum on the May ballot.
But community volunteers found that more than 12,000 of the 21,000 signatures submitted were defective. For example, there were more than 1,000 duplicates and more than 3,000 signers residing outside of the city.
More than 6,000 signatures were gathered by canvassers who were not even residents of Pittsburgh.
The referendum question, if passed, could have seriously harmed the city’s finances and disrupted its operations, including services related to health and safety. It would have contributed to a groundless vilification of the Jewish state and very likely furthered the surge of antisemitic activity in Pittsburgh.
After the volunteers’ work revealed that Not On Our Dime did not gather the requisite number of valid signatures, the anti-Israel group acknowledged its failings through a signed stipulation.
This was the second time Not On Our Dime has submitted thousands of invalid signatures in an attempt to force the city to boycott Israel and the second time it has come up short.
It was also the second time community volunteers did the tedious and herculean work of reviewing those signatures, generously lending their time and energy to help quash an effort that was at best misguided and at worse motivated by hate. We applaud their dedication.
We also applaud those who organized the signature review, especially Beacon Coalition leaders Rebecca Elhassid and Jeremy Kazzaz, as well as leaders of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, including Jeff Finkelstein and Laura Cherner, and StandWithUs’ Julie Paris.
Pittsburgh is fortunate to have so many capable people who are committed to the well-being of our city and the safety of its Jewish constituents.
They are not our only heroes. We also are grateful to those elected officials who stepped up to the plate to defeat the anti-Israel referendum effort. City Controller Rachael Heisler filed a court challenge as to legality of the anti-Israel ballot question. City Councilmember Erika Strassburger introduced two other referendums to put on the ballot, ultimately passed by the majority of City Council (Councilmembers Barb Warwick and Deb Gross voted against one of the measures), that would safeguard Pittsburgh from future attempts to prohibit it from doing business with Israel or those doing business with Israel.
Others contributed support with their voices.
“I strongly reject any attempt to boycott, divest or sanction Israel, through a referendum or otherwise,” Sen. John Fetterman told Jewish Insider. “It’s the electoral manifestation of antisemitism that’s escalated after 10/7. For the region of the Tree of Life [synagogue] massacre, it’s truly reprehensible to target the Jewish community and Israel.”
A spokesperson for Gov. Josh Shapiro, told Jewish Insider that Shapiro “has long opposed plans to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, and he remains opposed to these efforts,” in reference to the proposed referendum.
We are disappointed and concerned that significant community resources — both time and money — had to be allocated to defeat an effort threatening the city’s ability to function. And we are frustrated that this had to happen twice.
We hope that local anti-Israel activists realize their campaigns to have Pittsburgh boycott the Jewish state — and essentially shut down the city — will not succeed. But if they have learned nothing from their two failed efforts, we implore city officials, including the mayor, to take the lead in challenging future attempts. PJC
comments