Rankin and Sharpsburg mayors attend 2025 North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism

Rankin Mayor Joelisa McDonald experienced the type of protests Jews have been enduring since Oct. 7, 2023.

McDonald was attending the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s 2025 North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism that took place in New Orleans early this month. It was while taking part in a second line — a celebratory parade associated with the city — that the mayors were confronted.

“There were protesters along the way,” she said. “We walked about a mile and there was a lot of shouts and people calling us Zionists and things like that.”

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McDonald wasn’t ruffled by the interaction. She said she had spent time leading up to the summit thinking of everything that someone might call her.

“I was already settled,” she said. “The protests didn’t shake me because I felt committed, like, ‘I’m here to combat hate in all forms, denounce hate in all forms.’”

McDonald attended CAM’s conference with Sharpsburg Mayor Kayla Portis. The pair, she explained, are members of the African American Mayor’s Association, which has a partnership with the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

It’s the second time she’s attended the conference through that partnership. But the mayor’s quest to find understanding and commonality with the Jewish community didn’t begin or end with the summit.

She visited Israel several years ago and was planning to take a second trip to the Jewish state, this time with CAM, earlier this year. That trip was canceled due to the war between Israel and Hamas.

McDonald also took a 16-week introduction to Judaism course to learn more about the Jewish faith and its history.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement was created in 2019 and, according to its website, has partnerships with more than 850 interfaith organizations, influential decision-makers and a network of more than 5 million activists and 250 social media influencers.

“We are a coalition dedicated to confronting antisemitism,” said Combat Antisemitism Movement Chief Government Affairs Officer Lisa Katz. “We work at every level, from grassroots engagement to strategic partnerships, and our Antisemitism Research Center tracks evolving trends and tactics so communities can respond with clarity and speed.”

Katz, a former New Castle, New York, town councilmember who later was elected to serve as town supervisor (a mayoral-equivalent role), first encountered CAM as an elected official by attending its summits.

“I left those convenings thinking this is serious, solutions-oriented work,” she said. “I remember saying, ‘I’m not running again. I want to dedicate my skills to fighting antisemitism with CAM.’ Thankfully, they said yes, and now my focus is partnering with mayors across North America.”

Mayors, Katz explained, are indispensable to this fight because they are closest to what residents are experiencing and can act quickly.

“City leaders set the civic tone,” she said. “A mayor can look a community in the eye and say, ‘Hate has no place here’, and then back that up with action.”

“Our conversations start with what mayors are seeing and facing on the ground,” Katz said. “We look at what’s happening in their cities through the lens of where and how antisemitism is showing up, and we also talk about hate more broadly, because you can’t build safer, more cohesive communities if you only confront some forms of hate and ignore others.”

CAM, she added, designs programs based on what mayors face and stay engaged throughout the year, meeting with leaders one-on-one and in regional settings to keep momentum and support real implementation.

The impact of CAM’s work is evident by the growth of its mayoral summit. Last year, the convention took place in Beverly Hills, California, and approximately 50 mayors attended. This year, the summit hosted more than 200 mayors.

Cross-community partnerships are essential to lasting progress, Katz said.

“We’ve built a strong collaboration with the African American Mayors Association,” she said. “There’s a historic legacy of solidarity between Black and Jewish communities, and we’re working to renew it by standing together as communities that understand what it means to be targeted and choosing partnership over division.”

The communities, she said, have a history of supporting one another — pointing to the relationship between Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King Jr, as well as the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964 while advocating for voting rights in Mississippi McDonald concurred.

“I feel like we have a shared history of oppression,” she said. “Even just the longstanding alliance with the Civil Rights Movement marching in Selma. The Jewish community supported the NAACP and helped dismantle segregation. I think we have shared values of justice and liberation. I live my life in by the golden rule, treat people how you want to be treated, period.”

One of McDonald’s plans, now that’s she back in Rankin, is create a cultural day in the borough that will allow all cultures and religions to come together and learn about one another.

At the end of the day, she said, CAM’s 2025 North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism was important and left an impact.

“I left inspired,” McDonald said. “Education empowers you.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.