Pittsburgh faith communities join forces for advocacy day in Harrisburg

For years, a contingent of Jewish Pittsburghers has traveled to Harrisburg to advocate for issues ranging from security to teen mental health. This year, following the establishment of Om Shalom — a Jewish-Hindu cohort that’s collaborated on various cultural programs — members of Pittsburgh’s multi-faith  communities will travel together to Pennsylvania’s capital later this month to promote freedom and create new bonds.

“The beautiful thing here is that for some people, this is going to be their first time in Harrisburg advocating for their cause, whereas for others this will be their third, fourth, fifth time,” Bhavini Patel, an Om Shalom co-founder, said.

Sending a diverse delegation to Harrisburg sends an important message and represents a critical step in building relationships, said Karen Gal-Or, an Om Shalom co-founder and Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle board member. Cultural programs, including a joint Passover and Holi celebration, have allowed Pittsburghers to “support one another.” But, she said, “we really felt like there was more that we could do to really make an impact together.”

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The Sept. 30 trip, which is being organized by Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, is far from the first time state representatives will hear from impassioned Pittsburghers seeking greater attention.

“In the past, our advocacy days have focused primarily on ensuring that Jewish voices and Jewish concerns were heard by legislators — that still remains critically important — but this year, we saw an opportunity to demonstrate something equally important, which is that combating hatred, protecting religious freedom and strengthening our communities are not solely Jewish concerns. They’re also concerns shared by people of many faiths,” David Knoll, the Federation’s associate vice president of public affairs, said. “A room full of Jewish advocates will always send an important message, but a room full of multiple faith leaders and advocates sends an even broader message, which is that protecting religious freedom, opposing hate, and fostering civil society are priorities that are shared across faiths, nations and communities throughout Pennsylvania.”

Gal-Or is looking forward to presenting a united front.

“A lot of times, the Jewish community does a lot of these advocacy days where we advocate for things like nonprofit security grant funding and strengthening hate crime legislation, but we do it kind of on our own,” she said. “We naturally thought it would make a lot more sense for us to do it together as communities.”

Topics to be addressed will include security grants as well as the rise in antisemitism, anti-Hindu hate, anti-Christian hate and violence directed against different faith-based communities.

A primary goal of the Sept. 30 gathering is “we want our legislators to enact legislation to provide protections,” Patel said. “We also just want to be able to create space for our legislators to meet us, so that they can put a face to the community, to humanize our stories, and to hear directly from us about the challenges that we’re facing.”

As much as the legislators should learn more about their constituents, organizers hope travelers to Harrisburg do the same.

Knoll said nearly 30 participants will head out around 6 a.m. in multiple cars and return to Pittsburgh that evening.

The hours traveling to Harrisburg are a chance to create friendships, Patel said.

“You can’t build organic relationships by putting people in a room. It has to happen in those unexpected moments,” she said. “Hopefully, from that advocacy day, it turns into a lunch or a dinner. It turns into a text message wishing each other happy holidays on certain holidays.”

Time together creates connection and offers opportunities to learn, she continued.

“Everybody sort of has a different journey and phase that they’re at when it comes to their own civic engagement. And something that I’m really excited about is being able to create a space for people to experiment with what their own civic engagement journey looks like,” she said. “If you can see other people in action, and you can feel it, then you ultimately also become comfortable doing it yourself as well.” PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.