Pittsburgh Jewish community members react to Chautauqua controversy
"This certainly riled up the Jewish population,” he said.
Harvey Wolsh has spent summers at the Chautauqua Institution for the last 50 years.
The community, located in southwestern New York state, is frequented by approximately 7,500 people each day during its nine-week summer season, and more than 100,000 attended public events each year, according to its website, which bills Chautauqua as an idyllic respite for “artists, thinkers, faith leaders, and friends dedicated to exploring the best of humanity.”
Wolsh, a former president of the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, and his wife, Carole, are entrenched in Jewish life at the enclave — he is the treasurer of the Everett Jewish Life Center and she is a former president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua. Antisemitism, he said, hasn’t existed in the community since it began allowing Jews to buy property in 1960.
“The first one was from Buffalo,” the Squirrel Hill resident said. “Since then, we’ve come to be maybe 20% of the population on any given day.”
That’s why Wolsh was surprised to learn of the controversy involving the Chautauqua Institution and its former director of religious programs, Rafia Amina Khader.
Khader, an interfaith activist, was hired in August 2023 to oversee summer programming related to religion, according to Jewish Insider.
The digital news source reported that earlier this year, Khader wrote an essay in “Interfaith America” calling Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack a “momentous day” and refused to condemn the terrorist organization.
It wasn’t the only contentious piece penned by Khader.
Before the start of 2024 summer season, Khader expressed her thoughts in an essay, since deleted from her blog, about overseeing a new interfaith cohort.
Jewish Insider reported that Khader questioned whether taking part in the cohort meant she was giving up her commitment to the Muslim community by being in the same room as Zionists.
“I was nervous about how I would interact with the Jewish members of the cohort,” she wrote, “knowing that at least one of them worked for a Zionist organization that has made very problematic outreach with the U.S. Muslim community.”
Concern was also raised about some of the speakers Khader selected for the institution, including a Palestinian whose opinion, according to Ben Handen, a long-time Chautauqua resident, was “very anti-Israel” and “disturbed a lot of people.”
A group of concerned Jewish leaders — including Rabbi Zalman Vilenkin of Chabad Lubavitch of Chautauqua, Leslie Adler and Esther Northman, the president and past president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, and Peter Silberstein and Richard Spivak, the director and president of the Everett Jewish Life Center in Chautauqua — met with the institution’s executive staff in September. The staff told the Jewish leaders that Khader would continue in her role. Another meeting was scheduled for January but never happened.
It was the publication of the “Interfaith America” essay, published in 2024, that became a bridge too far for many members of the Jewish community.
That essay not only called Oct. 7 a “momentous day” but contained suspect information about the toll of the war in Gaza.
In the essay, Khader said she had been counseled to condemn Hamas. She declined. Instead, she said her position at Chautauqua was “an incredible opportunity to do real change-making work.”
Chautauqua Institution President Michael Hill praised the essay in a Jan. 7 press release, since removed from the institution’s website.
Chautauqua Jewish leaders pushed for the removal of Khader. Their demands were met by emailed responses from Hill and Khader which apologized for any hurt caused but didn’t mention antisemitism, Hamas or Oct. 7.
The milquetoast reply prompted Jewish leaders to go public. By mid-February, Khader announced her resignation from the institution.
“There are many Jews that feel they’ve gone too far,” Wolsh said, before acknowledging that he wasn’t as bothered by the situation as some.
“But this certainly riled up the Jewish population,” he said.
South Hills resident Handen first visited Chautauqua 34 years ago. He owns a home there and enjoys spending time not only during its busy summer season but during off-peak periods in the fall and winter.
He said that he was surprised Khader didn’t grasp that her politics should be separated from her role as director of religious programs.
“In her writing she says, ‘Well, I can’t separate my politics from my work.’ I’m sorry but if your role is to bring people together then you can’t do that,” Handen said.
And while he understands the perspective of some, he didn’t think Hill’s response was all bad.
“He apologized and took responsibility,” he said. “It seemed like a better letter than the one I saw from the chairwoman of the board that was kind of mushy. Michael Hill’s letter seemed pretty straightforward. He said, ‘There’s a problem. This is unacceptable. We made a mistake. This is how we’re going to move forward.’”
Both Handen and Wolsh said they’ll continue to go to Chautauqua, viewing the incident as a one-time occurrence that doesn’t speak to the openness of the community.
Handen is taking one lesson as he moves forward, though.
“I need to stay on top of the things that go on there,” he said. “I need to get more involved. I just can’t take it for granted that everyone has the best intentions.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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