Interfaith beer hopes to bring a blessing
'We really want to bring these communities together. There’s so much common ground'
A Catholic and a Jew sat down for a beer. Less a punchline than a promise of friendship, “Catholics, Jews and Brews” is aiming to coalesce young Pittsburghers of faith. Hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Aug. 24 event at Walter’s BBQ Southern Kitchen is an outgrowth of decades of local Catholic-Jewish relations and a chance for younger community members to strengthen those bonds, organizer and CRC Assistant Director Beth Vander Stoep said.
“There needs to be more fellowship between the Catholic community and the Jewish community,” Vander Stoep told the Chronicle. “We have so much in common. We have all of these histories of living together. And yes, oftentimes those are fraught with tension, but there’s so many incredible stories of Catholic-Jewish collaboration and friendship and meaningful connection.”
“We really want to bring these communities together. There’s so much common ground,” fellow organizer and Diocese Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry Jonah Soucy said. “We share so many of our sacred texts. We share a lot of our roots.”
For both Soucy and Vander Stoep, the upcoming program is more than a feel-good attempt at harmonizing communities.
“This event matters,” Soucy said. “There’s a lot of antisemitism out in the world today. We want to take a stand against that in whatever way we can, and I think doing something in solidarity like this can help.”
Whether by grabbing a beer or simply sitting and chatting, social ills can be stymied, he continued. “One of the worst diseases that we face in this country is just a lack of an ability to talk to people that are different from you. I see this a lot with young people — teenagers especially. When I was younger, you were just kind of friends with everyone. You didn’t all have to share the same political party or religion. But there seems to be a lot of polarization right now.”
The goal is combating heightened public rhetoric, he said. “We just want to turn the temperature down on that and give people a space where they can meet people who have a different background from them, give them opportunities to learn how to dialogue, and really just socialize and form friendships.”
For Vander Stoep, “Catholics, Jews and Brews” has both personal and professional meaning.
“I became Jewish later in life. My family is predominantly Catholic, and my husband’s mother is Jewish, and his father is Catholic,” she said.
When conversations about offering this program began, Vander Stoep noted that she was “really emotionally connected to this.”
Along with an eagerness to host the program, organizers are pleased to support the city’s longstanding history of interfaith work.
Vander Stoep applauded CRC board chair Rabbi Jamie Gibson for dedicating 30 years to “Catholic-Jewish dialogue,” and said she hopes the next generation of Pittsburghers can follow suit.
“Our goal is to build a very meaningful community of people that are Catholic and people that are Jewish that want to be each other’s friends, that want to host each other at their shared communities,” she said. “And when organizations such as the Diocese and Federation take the lead, that’s how we’re going to build into these longer, more sustainable situations that will hopefully lead us into doing really great things.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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