Righteous Among the Neighbors: Josiah Gilliam

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.

Josiah Gilliam, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project since last January, is aiming to make Pittsburgh a more diverse and peaceful city for all races and faiths.

Gilliam, 37, has been selected as a Righteous Among the Neighbors recipient due to his work in community outreach. Gilliam’s father was a pastor, instilling in him from a young age the value of fellowship and community.

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Gilliam was a fan of PUMP for many years before joining, admiring how its members get other adults involved in community outreach through recreation. He worked various nonprofit and civic jobs in Pittsburgh before PUMP’s CEO stepped down and Gilliam took charge with his plans of expanding and creating a more welcoming community.

“[We need] a chance to experience community where you are welcomed and accepted for who you are and where you still have a sense of being welcomed as who you are in community,” Gilliam said.

He used the experience he gained working on collective impact projects with networks of partners at different levels of government, having collaborated and served Pittsburgh’s most recent mayors, Bill Peduto and Ed Gainey.

In the wake of the attacks on three synagogues in Squirrel Hill in 2018, Gilliam recognized strengthening community bonds beyond friendship as one of the most important aspects of Pittsburgh’s future.

“We’ve seen antisemitic comments and sentiments and memes and tropes,” he said. “It’s unacceptable.”

In 2019, to address the rise of antisemitic and racially-charged violence throughout communities, he traveled to Birmingham, Atlanta, Montgomery and Selma on a civil rights mission trip organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. His goal was to bring together young Black and Jewish community leaders to learn about the solidarity of the two communities to help build a better world.

Shortly after the mission, Gilliam became one of the leading members of the 412 Black Jewish Collaborative, an organization focused on building an alliance between the two communities. In the collaborative, Gilliam hosted Passover- and Shabbat-related events, connecting people through Jewish holidays.

“I have [benefited from] simple things like breaking bread and spending time together,” he said. “It’s been really wonderful to learn more about Jewish history and culture.”

Helping others is a familiar concept for Gilliam. He joined My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a national organization founded by Barak Obama in 2014 that helps boys and men of color improve their lives. He also participated as an Allegheny County Meals on Wheels provider, allowing him to explore local neighborhoods alongside volunteers throughout Allegheny County, offering help to senior citizens in need.

“Working in the city, working in nonprofit space, sometimes it’s very hard to come to a resolution or next steps on an issue that’s presenting itself, so I always appreciate moments where there’s that solidarity, there’s that friendship, that camaraderie, and it’s future-focused and action-oriented,” he said. “It’s definitely improved my life.”

Gilliam wants everyone in Allegheny County and in Pennsylvania to have the chance to live in a community with peace.

“We need to be clear-eyed about reality and what’s happening in the world and in our city,” he said. “It’s about repairing the world. It’s about more justice and more opportunity and more peace and more prosperity.” PJC

Greta Stern is a sophomore at Mt. Lebanon High School.