(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) — On August 13, the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh and a coalition of four local Jewish clergy filed a legal challenge to a petition filed last week seeking to place a question on the upcoming ballot to amend the Pittsburgh City Home Rule Charter. The ballot question asks whether the city should participate in a boycott against Israel and prohibit investments and public funds to “entities that conduct business operations with or in the state of Israel unless and until Israel ends its military action in Gaza.”
Such a referendum could target the city’s Jewish institutions, synagogues, organizations, almost all of which have strong bonds, historical, religious and commercial, with the state of Israel.
As observed by Jeff Finkelstein, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, “The proposed referendum is not only illegal, but also a dangerous and insidious attempt to target local entities connected to the State of Israel.” It could endanger city funding to security agencies entrusted with protecting synagogues, potentially leaving Pittsburgh’s Jewish community’s vulnerable to future attacks, such as the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting (2018), the “deadliest antisemitic attack” in both Pittsburgh and American history.
The referendum item, if passed, would align the city of Pittsburgh with the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) and fly in the face of the city’s anti-discrimination policy.
Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic Director of StandWithUs and Pittsburgh resident, noted, “If passed, the ballot item would not only embrace national-origin discrimination at the city-level, and endanger Jewish communities locally, but also legitimize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, whose very founder opposes Israel’s existence, and whose Palestinian BDS National Committee includes U.S.-designated terrorist groups such as Hamas, whose stated goals are the destruction of Israel and murder Jews worldwide.”
For the past several months, StandWithUs has been regularly monitoring and assisting the Pittsburgh Jewish Community in responding to this misinformation-turned-political campaign—launched by “ No War Crimes On Our Dime ” and supported by the Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists of America, both extremist groups with long histories of anti-Israel animus.
StandWithUs remains steadfast in its efforts to support the Pittsburgh Jewish community and its campaign to oppose this ballot item. To learn more about the antisemitic BDS Movement, please click here .
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, nonprofit, and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films, and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs throughout the U.S., Israel, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, the Netherlands, and Australia.
For the last eleven years, StandWithUs has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator and GuideStar, two charity watchdog groups that assess hundreds of thousands of charities in the United States.
www.standwithus.com and www.facebook.com/standwithus and www.twitter.com/standwithus and www.instagram.com/standwithus.com
StandWithUs is an international, non-partisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism. StandWithUs empowers and energizes students and communities with leadership training and educational programs on hundreds of college campuses, high schools, and middle schools. StandWithUs informs through social media, print and digital materials, films, weekly newsletters, and missions to Israel. StandWithUs takes legal action through the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and offices throughout the U.S., Israel, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. More at www.standwithus.com.
