Community Relations Council Director Laura Cherner (left) stand with attorneys Efrem Grail, Carolyn McGee and Ronald Hicks, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic Regional Director Julie Paris and Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein (Photo provided by Julie Paris)
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) — On August 19, StandWithUs, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, and a coalition of four local Jewish clergy, successfully defeated a petition seeking to place a question on the upcoming ballot to amend the Pittsburgh City Home Rule Charter.
“No War Crimes On Our Dime”—a campaign supported by the Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) —withdrew its petition after a legal challenge proved that it fell short of the required number of signatures necessary to place this dangerous proposal on the ballot. The Jewish Federation and local clergy acted as plaintiffs in the case.
The ballot question would have asked 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 would have targeted the city's synagogues and Jewish organizations, almost all of which have strong bonds, historical, religious and commercial, with the state of Israel.
For months, StandWithUs had been monitoring this campaign and preparing this challenge, and extends its sincere thanks to its pro bono legal counsel, including Ron Hicks and Carolyn McGee from Nelson Mullins and Efrem Grail from Grail Law Firm, and the 150+ volunteers, recruited by StandWithUs, the Jewish Federation, and the Beacon Coalition, who spent countless hours reviewing each signature.
StandWithUs extends its sincere gratitude to Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler, who filed a separate legal challenge to the referendum on the grounds that it violated state law. StandWithUs is also appreciative to State Representative Dan Frankel and US Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman for strongly opposing this referendum.
Julie Paris, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic Regional Director stated, "This success was truly a community effort that required time, resources, and dedication to defeat the first attempt to put an anti-Israel boycott proposal on a US city ballot. We are grateful for this result and to our partners in this work, and we will continue to fight back against all attempts to harm our community and attack the State of Israel. At a time of rising antisemitism, these efforts have never been more important."
To learn more about the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (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.
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