Strong Cities holds inaugural mayor retreat to fight hate in Pittsburgh
The retreat featured more than 78 participants from across the United States
After Oct. 27, 2018, Bill Peduto needed to heal.
Following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the then-Pittsburgh mayor was looking for a way to change the narrative of the city he loved from the home of the worst antisemitic attack in United States history to a place working to find a solution in the fight against hate and extremism.
His search led him to Strong Cities Network.
The organization is an independent global network of more than 240 cities dedicated to supporting local government-led efforts to prevent hate, extremism and polarization within a human rights framework.
For Peduto, the network’s goals of dialogue, discussion and finding ways toward peace seemed like the answer and, he said, have become his passions.
The former mayor became a senior advisor with the network and less than a year after leaving office was a speaker at the Peace Palace built by Andrew Carnegie at the Hague, Netherlands. The talk was turned into an illustrated film that was nominated for the best short animated film at the Cannes Film Festival.
In addition to his work with Strong Cities, while still in office, Peduto worked with mayors in Orlando, Florida, Parkland, Florida and Dayton, Ohio, all sites of mass shooting incidents, on a checklist for mayors to follow if they ever had an incident like the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting and made it available through the U.S. Conference on Mayors to make sure it was available to every city.
In a 2023 interview with the Chronicle, Peduto said he wanted to expand the training to every U.S. mayor and one critical person and their staff across the country.
“I’m working to create the center for this new institute in Pittsburgh,” he said.
Peduto’s vision took a bold step forward earlier this month when the city hosted Strong Cities Network’s inaugural “Mayoral and City Leadership Against Hate, Extremism and Polarization: Putting Communities First, A Retreat for U.S. Mayors and Other Local Leaders” at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
The retreat featured more than 78 participants from across the United States and included leaders from various local governments, federal government departments, private and community organizations, religious organizations, think thanks and academics.
During the conference’s introduction, Strong Cities Network Executive Director Eric Rosand announced the formation of the organization’s North American Regional Hub.
Thirty member cities have joined the hub so far, whose initial focus is in Canada and the United States. Harkening back to what Peduto hoped to create, it and Strong Cities offer “local government leaders and practitioners a consistent and sustained resource to advance their prevention efforts and leverage the benefits of the global network,” according to literature published by the network.
Regional hubs will be operated by small, dynamic teams of local staff in each region, harnessing the Network’s global resources and expertise at the local level, accessing local perspectives, responding to specific city needs and engaging local stakeholders.
During the announcement, Rosand said the hubs will work across five pillars of activity: empowering mayors and elected local leaders, city-led action in prevention, peer-to-peer learning, partnerships for prevention and response and data-driven threat analysis and mitigation.
The hyper-local focus Rosand discussed in his introduction to the retreat was on full display the first day of the program, which focused on the city during two sessions: “The Pittsburgh Prevention Model-Views from City Hall and Community-Based Organizations” and “Public-Private Partnerships for Prevention-The Pittsburgh Model.”
Moderated by Eradicate Hate Global Summit’s co-board chair Laura Ellsworth, the first session featured familiar names including Michael Bernstein, board chair of Tree of Life, Inc.; Nick Haberman, founder and director of the Light Initiative; and Jason Kunzman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.
During the more than hour long session, each of the participants spoke of the resiliency of the city after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the role their organizations played in assisting the entire Pittsburgh Jewish community.
The second session, moderated by Peduto, included Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation Executive Director Yvonne Maher, Senior Vice President and Chief Government Affairs Officer at UPMC Alison Beam, Associate Director at The Andy Warhol Museum Dan Alaw and Allegheny Conference Chief Equity Officer Majestic Lane.
Acknowledging that Pittsburgh has one of the largest philanthropic communities in the country, the presenters each discussed how private organizations can help respond to hate and how partnerships between the local government and non-profit organizations continue to evolve and serve the community.
Rosand said it’s this type of local focus that separates Strong Cities Network from other organizations working in the anti-hate space.
The fight, he said, isn’t only about hate but community wellbeing and resilience.
“It’s the core things that cities do, whether it’s violence prevention, working in school on anti-bullying, digital literacy, that’s not linked to a specific incident, but creates the foundation for resilience and social cohesion” he said.
Rosand said that after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Peduto saw the value in getting all parts of the city involved — and leveraging the strong sense of community across the city that long pre-dated the attack — and has been instrumental in the idea of the North American hub and Pittsburgh’s role in it. He also said it was appropriate not just to host the retreat in Pittsburgh, the home of television’s Mr. Rogers, but on the campus Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where Fred Rogers attended and was ordained. He said Strong Cities will be returning to the campus for follow-up retreats over the next three years as part of its strategic partnership with the seminary.
“Bill is passionate about it,” Rosand said. “He thought a great way to get more cities and mayors invested in this endeavor is by showcasing not just a single initiative or effort but the way different parts of the Pittsburgh community have operated for many years, building these communal bonds and private-public partnerships.”
The retreat, sponsored by the National League of Cities, Eradicate Hate Global Summit, Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College and the Muhammad Ali Index, included a screening of the documentary “City of Ali” and nearly a dozen sessions, including “The Role of Faith Leaders and Interfaith Cooperation in the City-led Prevention and Response” and “Global Crises, Local Protests-Balancing Free Speech and Public Safety.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
comments