South Hills Jewish Festival to celebrate culture and community
Music, food and fun
Chabad of the South Hills is hosting its first-ever Jewish Festival on Sunday, June 22 — a family-friendly celebration of Jewish culture, tradition and community open to all residents of the South Hills and beyond.
The festival will be held at Chabad’s Bower Hill facility on Sunday, June 22, from 1 to 4 p.m.
The festival, which organizers say is the first of its kind in the South Hills, will include live music, a fun zone for kids, kosher wine tasting and food, a petting zoo and much more.
“We’re trying to make it an event … not only for Jews, but for Jews especially, to come out and feel proud to be Jewish in a fun and exciting and educational way,” Rabbi Levi Rosenblum said.
Since becoming a part of the Chabad of the South Hills’ leadership team, Rosenblum and his wife, Hindy Rosenblum, have directed all children, youth/teen and family programming.
The Rosenblums, who are coordinating the festival, said it’s geared toward people of all ages.
Levi and Hindy Rosenblum both emphasized the desire for the festival to draw the wider Pittsburgh community, not just the South Hills, and not just Jewish residents. They hope the event can help showcase Jewish culture in a positive light.
“There’s a lot of … misconception of Jews and who we are,” Hindy Rosenblum said. “This is a great way to come for a fun, light summer afternoon, where you get to meet people from the Jewish community, the wider community, and just see some of our culture.”
Planning for this event began several months ago with the Rosenblums taking inspiration from similar festivals in other cities around the United States.
“We’ve heard of them, and so we thought that would just be really nice to bring to our city,” Hindy Rosenblum said..
While this is the first event of its kind in the South Hills, the Rosenblums said, there is no intention of it being the last. The amount of interest flooding in about the festival has sparked hope that it could be an annual occurrence.
The festival is being held at Chabad of the South Hills’ new building, 1700 Bower Hill Road, which the organization purchased in early 2024.
Levi Rosenblum discussed plans to eventually move all operations of the Chabad of the South Hills from its current facility on McFarland Road to the new location.
“For now, we pretty much have moved everything over there, except for services on Shabbat,” he said, adding that he expects all programming, including religious services, to be moved to the new location within two to three years
Tickets for the festival are free and can be acquired on the Chabad of the South Hills’ website, chabadsh.com At the event, food, drinks and other items will be available for purchase. PJC
Andrew Rich can be reached at arich@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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