Righteous Among the Neighbors: Arlene and Jeff Berg
Mt. Lebanon High School students interviewed non-Jewish Pittsburghers who support the Jewish community and take action to uproot antisemitism.
Righteous Among the Neighbors is a project of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh that honors non-Jewish Pittsburghers who support the Jewish community and stand up against antisemitism. In partnership with the LIGHT Education Initiative and Mt. Lebanon High School, student journalists interview honorees and write article-length profiles about their efforts. To learn more, visit hcofpgh.org/righteous-among-the-neighbors.
When moving to a new school, most kids strive to follow the crowd in order to make friends. Jeff Berg did the opposite.
After entering a new school in fifth grade, Berg decided to befriend a Jewish boy who was being bullied.
In the years before social media, bullies took a more physical approach than hiding behind a screen. People would call the young boy names and pick fights with him after school.
“I mean, at that young age, there was just something in me that I just felt really bad for,” Berg said. “So, I said, ‘He needs a friend.’”
As they became good friends, the boy invited Berg to his bar mitzvah, which allowed Berg to experience his first taste of Judaism.
Later in life, this same friend introduced Berg to Arlene, the woman who would become his wife.
Thanks to this friend, Berg forever will be indebted to the Jewish community, he said.
“I’m just trying to share the benefits of befriending somebody,” Berg said about his work fighting antisemitism today.
Due to their work, Arlene and Jeff Berg have been named Righteous Among the Neighbors honorees for 2024. This award is designed to honor people who are allies with the Jewish community, actively fighting antisemitism.
Although the Bergs practice Christianity, they take responsibility to fight antisemitism by educating various ages, groups and ethnicities.
One way they work to defeat antisemitism is by talking to their local churches. Their goals when speaking to church congregations are to spread awareness about antisemitism and to teach people to love and accept the Jewish people and religion.
“We are encouragers,” Arlene Berg said.
When the Bergs bring their message to Christian churches, they show that many of the New Testament messages are rooted in the Hebrew Bible. They note that the Apostle Paul quoted many Psalms when he spoke.
Jeff Berg emphasized that an important way to spread love for the Jewish people is by teaching younger generations.
“When we’re in churches, if we can, we try to teach the children,” Jeff Berg said.
The call to love the Jewish community and culture has created paths that have helped shape people’s lives. In the 1990s, Arlene Berg taught at a junior church in Cleveland. She spoke about the Jewish community and encouraged young people to love and accept Jews for who they are. Later, she discovered that a girl she taught traveled to Israel.
“She said, ‘Oh I’ve always remembered you two for what you taught me about Israel,’” Arlene Berg recalled.
The Bergs have visited Israel four times in an effort to experience Jewish culture. On a recent trip, by visiting sites and towns that most visitors don’t see, they gained a priceless experience that they will forever cherish, they said.
“Even just by seeing the architecture from synagogues, we learned a lot,” Arlene Berg said.
On that trip, the couple collected funds and gifted them to the head of a Jewish community there.
“We wanted to show love to the Jewish people,” Jeff Berg said. PJC
Lucy Pryor is a junior at Mt. Lebanon High School.
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