Righteous Among the Neighbors: Bill and Mardi Isler

Righteous Among the Neighbors is a project of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh that honors non-Jewish Pittsburghers who support the Jewish community and take action to uproot antisemitism. In partnership with the LIGHT Education Initiative and Mt. Lebanon High School, student journalists interview honorees and write profiles about their efforts. This year’s Righteous Among the Neighbors honorees are Dr. Joshua Andy, Terri Baltimore, Arlene and Jeff Berg, Josiah Gilliam, Bill and Mardi Isler, James Lucot, Bill Peduto, Lynne Ravas, and Selina Shultz. To learn more, visit hcofpgh.org/righteous-among-the-neighbors.

Squirrel Hill has been home to Bill and Mardi Isler for more than 40 years, and during that time, the couple has made it their mission to further their community in service, support and connection through associations like the Jewish Community Center and the Center for Loving Kindness. Their work toward improving their neighborhood has undoubtedly benefited the Squirrel Hill area, and they are determined to use the connections encouraged by the JCC to unite people beyond religion.

In recognition of their efforts, Bill and Mardi Isler have been honored as Righteous Among the Neighbors by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

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While both share a love for Pittsburgh, their story began outside of the city. Bill Isler grew up in Brookline and joined the Army for a couple of years while Mardi Isler grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. They met and bonded over their similar standpoint on education.

“We both ended up in early childhood education,” said Mardi Isler, who was awarded an early Head Start grant.

After dedicating years to education, the Islers returned to Pittsburgh from Harrisburg and Bill Isler began working with the Fred Rogers Company in 1983. It was during this move that the couple settled in Squirrel Hill.

“Mardi wasn’t keen about living in the city, but we discovered Squirrel Hill,” Bill Isler said. “My friend was head of the JCC at the time, living two blocks from me, and I could walk to work. The distinctive nature of Pittsburgh is just absolutely amazing. The friendliness of Squirrel Hill — you didn’t have to be Jewish to be part of the JCC.”

The couple began their journey working on various community service projects. Today, Mardi Isler serves as president of the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition. However, it was after a visit from her brother more than a decade ago that she was inspired to do something for the community.

“In 2008 my brother came to visit,” she said. “He said, ‘That’s the worst looking entrance to a community I’ve ever seen, and your neighborhood is so beautiful; you should really do something about that.’ We put together a series of community meetings and they said, ‘We want a welcome sign.’ I had to do it through the coalition, and of course they were interested. I became chair of the Gateway Committee.”

Bill Isler began his service to the community through the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness. The Center For Loving Kindness began before the massacre on Oct. 27, 2018, originating as a project seeking to end violence against young women. The center then grew from its original mission when its leaders realized that the community needed to work on kindness and civic engagement.

“People don’t talk anymore,” Bill Isler said. “If you disagree, you don’t talk. [People] develop attitudes on their own and they don’t want collaboration. So, the JCC started the Center for Loving Kindness and the results have been phenomenal. As [the community has] stood up for the Jewish community, the Jewish community has stood up for them.”

The Center for Loving Kindness has been involved within the community through book readings and holiday services.

While based on Jewish values and holiday traditions, Bill Isler explained the inclusivity of the JCC.

“It’s called the Jewish Community Center, but it’s the community center,” he said. “The idea for Center for Loving Kindness is really a regional type of project, rather than just for Squirrel Hill.”

To Bill and Mardi Isler, Squirrel Hill is a community without insulation. For that reason, their service to the community exemplifies the importance of maintaining and nourishing connections with everyone in the community, even in the hardest of times.

“No one knew what to do during the pandemic,” Bill explained. “But we decided to do something to connect people, even if it was from a distance.”

The couple encouraged their neighbors to participate in “porch parties,” in which they’d set up a time where everyone could bring drinks and food to their porches and have socially-distanced celebrations. They’d sing songs, have conversations and try to bring back a sense of normalcy that everyone missed. Bill and Mardi Isler knew the importance of neighborly connection and refused to sacrifice the power of community even in the face of an ongoing pandemic.

This wasn’t the first disaster that challenged the community. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, occurred at the Tree of Life building, just blocks from the Islers’ house. The victims included friends, family and neighbors, and the tragedy left many members of the Squirrel Hill community grieving.

The couple didn’t want to just focus on the bad, though. Instead, what they took away from the shooting was the astonishing community response, specifically from Allderdice High School. Within hours after the shooting, high school students had organized a vigil for which thousands of Pittsburghers gathered in the street, showing their grief and support for the victims and their families.

“We say there’s no degree of separation, and in western Pennsylvania that’s true,” Mardi Isler said. “This was not a Jewish event. It was a community event that happened to people in your community.”
No matter what the world has thrown at them, Bill and Mardi Isler, and their surrounding community, have grown stronger from the hardships they’ve faced. They credit this strength not to their efforts, but the power of the connections they’ve found here in Pittsburgh.

“You go into some communities, and it’s very isolated, but this community is anything but,” Bill Isler said. “The fact that young people are involved, there’s a lot to be learned. You are the future; we’re counting on you.” PJC

Natalie Morgan and Annabelle Thomas are seniors at Mt. Lebanon High School.