Julie Paris fights anti-Zionism and antisemitism
With a passion for Israel and Jewish community
Julie Paris thought she was done with Judaism after her bat mitzvah.
Shortly after reciting the last blessing, the Fox Chapel native and Tree of Life Congregation member looked at the rabbi and said out loud what many 13-year-olds are quietly thinking: “I’m done with Judaism now, right? It’s done. I did it.”
Paris is the Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs, an international, nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism. She is a familiar sight to anyone in Pittsburgh who has attended a rally in support of Israel, or the hostages still held in Gaza, since Oct. 7. She routinely is interviewed by media, speaks at educational events and works behind the scenes or hosts programs to combat antisemitism.
Despite her frenetic schedule, Paris didn’t have a deep connection to Israel while growing up, though she was proud of being Jewish, she said.
Paris’ parents ensured that she and her brother were raised with an understanding of their Jewish heritage. They attended Hebrew school at both Tree of Life and a satellite campus near their home. Paris’ mother was one of the founding members of Adat Shalom and a former chair of Hadassah. Paris also spent a lot of time at her grandmother’s house in Squirrel Hill, learning the rhythm of Jewish life in the neighborhood.
Her passion for Judaism, though, was ignited as a teen when she attended BBYO meetings. Those tentative steps led to a full immersion in the organization, including traveling to Cleveland on weekends and staying with other BBYO families, as well as participating in the organization’s conventions and its CLTC (Chapter Leadership Training Conference) one summer.
“That was the beginning for me,” Paris said. “I was like, ‘This is fun.’ I credit BBYO for being my first introduction into Judaism as joy. That really spoke to me.”
If BBYO was the initial spark, Paris said a deeper connection to Israel was formed while attending Tulane University as a business and Spanish major.
During her junior year, Paris was supposed to go to Spain but got sick and missed the application deadline. The only country with a later deadline was Israel — and it didn’t have a language requirement. She spoke with her father about the change of plans, and he shared his experiences living with his cousins in the Jewish state.
‘He said ‘Jerusalem is the greatest place in the world. If I wasn’t living in Pittsburgh, I’d be living in Jerusalem,’” Paris recalled. “I said, ‘OK, he loves it, maybe I’ll like it’ and, on a whim, signed up to do a semester abroad.”
The impulsive decision paid dividends.
“That’s where my life changed,” Paris said.
Although she had never been to the country, and didn’t speak Hebrew, she immediately felt at home around so many other Jewish people.
By the time she returned to college, Paris had switched her major to Judaic studies and made plans to return to Israel after graduation.
In 2001, during the second intifada, she left for the Jewish state as part of Project Otzma, a yearlong fellowship. Because of the conflict, the program, which usually included nearly 200 participants, only had 18.
“It was a very challenging time to live in Israel and my first experience where I worked in Bedouin villages in the West Bank, Judea and Samaria, traveling freely and not even thinking about my own personal safety and security,” Paris said.
Notwithstanding the nearly daily bombings and stabbings, she called the experience “incredible.”
“I lived in Ashkelon at an Ethiopian absorption center teaching English while I learned Hebrew,” she said. “I lived in Karmiel, (Pittsburgh’s Partnership2Gether) sister city. Then I lived in Beit She’an. The whole time I was volunteering and then I stayed and did my master’s degree at Tel Aviv University in Middle Eastern history.”
A job opening for an overseas planning associate at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh led to Paris moving back to the States.
The ex-expatriate returned to Israel often, helming trips that included social workers, teens and women’s groups, as well as Mega Missions.
“It was a really wonderful experience to be able to see Israel through other people’s eyes — really beautiful,” Paris said.
Along the way, she met her husband, Rob. They married in 2006 and have two children.
After three years with Federation, Paris left to become the regional director for the Jewish National Fund.
She eventually left JNF to raise her children but stayed active in Jewish communal life, serving on JNF’s board and attending AIPAC conferences.
“It’s always been important for me to be engaged in what’s happening in Israel and making sure that our elected officials understand the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” she said.
Her newest role, with StandWithUs, she said, “found her.”
Paris was in contact with the former director of the organization in 2019, who asked to meet with her.
As Paris learned about StandWithUs and its work, she started to help build connections between the organization and people in Pittsburgh.
When the director decided to retire, she asked Paris if she would like to take on her role.
“It sounded like the kind of work I’m passionate about,” Paris said. “I couldn’t believe there was an organization out there doing exactly the work I believed in.”
Paris took the position because she felt that it would provide her the opportunity to be an effective leader in the fight against antisemitic incidents on college campuses and the rise of extremism on both sides of the political aisle, she said.
There was a need for more Jewish education and for advocates for Jewish students, she said, noting, for example, that a chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine recently was launched at Allderdice High School.
Then Oct. 7 changed everything, Paris said. The demand for StandWithUs’ work since then has been “unprecedented.”
“The cases that we’re seeing every day, the number of incidents, the methods of anti-Israel activists following Oct. 7 are extremely troubling,” Paris said. “I feel that StandWithUs is the right organization at the right time.”
Anti-Zionism, she said, is a form of antisemitism, which StandWithUs was created to combat.
“I feel really grateful that I have the ability and the resources and am working with the top experts to try and help,” she said.
And if she needs to be recharged, Paris knows that a trip to Israel, where she’s visited more than 20 times, will provide the needed respite.
“When I go there, I feel I get rejuvenated and reenergized,” she said. “My passion for Israel in the work that I do is reinforced by just being there and feeling positivity and engaged — feeling the (Western) Wall, floating in the Dead Sea, picking onions, doing whatever needs done — I have this very strong, tangible connection to the land, and I find new ways to fall in love with Israel every time I go.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
This story appears as part of Newsapalooza at Point Park University, Sept. 26-28 – celebrating local journalism in southwestern Pennsylvania.
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