Metro Briefs September 24

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will hold its annual meeting and dessert reception on Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. in Levinson Hall at the Jewish Community Center. Registration begins at 6:15 p.m. There is a $5 fee to register in advance, $7 at the door.

The evening will celebrate the past year and honor Eileen Lane with the Emanuel Spector Memorial Award, Rabbi  Yossi Rosenblum, the Doris & Leonard H. Rudolph Communal Professional Award and all of the 2015 Jewish Community’s Volunteers of the Year.

Visit jfedpgh.org or call 412-681-8000 for more information.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

WorkAble, a partnership of the Career Development Center of Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh (JF&CS), North Hills Community Outreach (NHCO), South Hills Interfaith Ministries (SHIM) and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, will hold a career fair for adults throughout the region on Thursday, Oct. 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bethel Park Community Center, located at 5151 Park Ave.

Launched in the fall of 2012 and supported by the United Way of Allegheny County, now part of United Way of Southwestern PA, WorkAble is a countywide employment and critical needs service for struggling adults. WorkAble serves unemployed and underemployed individuals throughout Allegheny County at NHCO sites in Allison Park, Millvale and Bellevue, SHIM offices in Bethel Park, the Oakland location of the Carnegie Library and JF&CS offices in Squirrel Hill.

The upcoming career fair will include employers from Allegheny County, Allegheny Health Network, the Caregiver Connection program of JF&CS, Highmark Health, St. Clair Hospital, UPMC and others.

The career fair is appropriate for all levels of professional experience and available positions range from entry level to director level. Available positions include jobs primarily in the healthcare fields, and additionally those in administration, finance, customer service, among other opportunities. Attendees can expect to meet one-on-one with recruiters for brief in-person interviews.

Individuals wishing to attend the career fair are encouraged to dress professionally, bring multiple copies of their resume and research employers and available positions beforehand. Attendees should be prepared to discuss specific positions that they have found and applied to online in advance.

Those wishing to attend the career fair must register in advance by calling 412-854-9120, ext. 107. Those who are struggling and need assistance can call the WorkAble hotline at 412-904-5993 or visit workableac.com.The Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee will hold the next Christian-Jewish Dialogue on Thursday, Oct. 1 from noon to 1:15 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Guest presenter Rev. Richard Freeman will discuss “The Role of Social Justice and the Black Church.”

Contact pajc@pajc.net or 412-605-0816 or visir pajc.net for more information.

Chabad of the South Hills in Mt. Lebanon will hold two programs in the Sukkah on Thursday, Oct. 1. Seniors in the Sukkah will be at noon and will include sandwiches, music, shaking the lulav and etrog and a holiday program. There is a $5 suggested donation. Call Barb at 412-278-2658 to preregister.

Salad in the Sukkah, a women’s night out under the stars, will be held at 7:30 p.m. There is no charge. RSVP to batya@chabadsh.com or call 412-344-2424.

Resonance Works Pittsburgh, a collaborative, multimodal performing arts company, will present “The Bernstein Project,” a mosaic of Leonard Bernstein’s works exploring themes of life, love and peace. The centerpiece of the program is the one-act “Trouble in Tahiti,” which is a critique of American post-war materialism and an expression of the universal longing for love and meaning. The balance of the program will include selections from “Candide” and “West Side Story,” art songs, short instrumental works and several vocal arrangements by Robert Page.

The program will be held Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 4 at 3 p.m. in Levy Hall at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Visit resonanceworks.org for more information.

The Rodef Shalom Sisterhood begins the 81st year of the Solomon B. Freehof Book Reviews on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Barbara Burstin, history professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, will review her two newest books, “Steel City Jews: A History of the Pittsburgh Jewish Community from 1840-1915” and “Steel City Jews in Prosperity, Depression and War 1915-1950.”

Contact 412-621-6566 for more information.

Jewish Residential Services will hold its 2015 Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Jewish Community Center in Levinson Hall. Registration and dessert reception are at 7 p.m.; the program will begin at 7:30 p.m. Matthew Keller, guest speaker, will speak on “Building an Inclusive Community.” There will also be a special remembrance of Sally Levin.

There is a suggested donation of $5 at the door. Contact 412-325-0039 or visit jrspgh.org to RSVP.

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh will hold the grand opening of its new location in Squirrel Hill Plaza, 826 Hazelwood Ave., on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 5 to 7 p.m. The evening will include the premier of the exhibition “In Celebration of Life: Living Legacy Project” and the presentation of the first Holocaust Educator Award to Barbara Burstin. Reservations are due by Wednesday, Oct. 7. RSVP at HCPgh.org.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh announced a record-breaking fundraising year. In 2014-2015, the Federation’s total financial resource development reached $46 million. The 2015 Annual Campaign raised $13.63 million, thanks to more than 4,250 donors, including more than 650 new donors. The Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation added $25.3 million to its resources this year, the most ever in a single year.

The Giant Eagle Foundation matching grant of $125,000 inspired donors and provided a critical boost to the Annual Campaign. Corporate-event giving resulted in an additional $133,000. Innovations that contributed to the record-breaking year were the launch of the Men’s Philanthropy initiative, to provide more opportunities for men to get involved, and the creation of POW! (Power of Women!), a series of women’s volunteer events.

This year, assets under management in the Foundation exceeded $225 million. Nearly 200 new funds were added. The total number of funds is now more than 1,200. These assets enabled the Foundation to distribute $700,000 from its unrestricted endowment to fund programs and projects that foster a strong Jewish community. The Centennial Fund for a Jewish Future, launched in 2012 to strengthen the Jewish community by supporting Jewish learning and engagement, made distributions of more than $560,000 this year.

Two state tax credit programs — the Educational Improvement program and the Opportunity Scholarship program — helped raise more than $4.9 million, an increase of $600,000 over last year. These funds support Jewish day schools in Western Pennsylvania.

In addition to the Annual Campaign, the Federation raised $510,000 for the Israel Emergency Fund in 2014 as Israel faced more than 4,500 rockets fired on civilian areas. Federation also raised $11,000 for emergency assistance to earthquake-ravaged areas in Nepal.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh announced that Joshua Sayles will join the staff as director of the Federation’s Community Relations Council on Oct. 7.

Sayles comes to Pittsburgh from the position of assistant director of the Connecticut regional office of the Anti-Defamation League, a job he held since 2012. Prior to joining the ADL, Sayles was a reporter with the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, where he covered hate crimes, interfaith relations and Israel. He reported for Villagers Newspapers of Putnam, Conn., and served as a freelance sports reporter. As a volunteer, Sayles’ experience includes organizing and running the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in St. Louis and raising funds for the Jimmy Fund of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Sayles is a Boston area native and holds degrees in psychology and writing from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kim Cohen joins the organization as Women’s Philanthropy director. Most recently, Cohen worked in direct marketing for DICK’s Sporting Goods. Prior to moving to Pittsburgh, she spent four years with the UJA–Federation of New York, managing integrated and direct-marketing campaigns. At advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, Cohen served as assistant account executive on the IBM account. Cohen holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in business administration from Boston University. During college, she interned with North American Federation of Temple Youth.

Haley Chizever joins the Federation as program associate of the Jewish Fed-eration Volunteer Center. Chizever is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Honors College. She holds a degree in psychology and certificates in global studies with a focus on the Middle East; gender, women and sexuality studies; and Jewish studies. Chizever was the Jewish National Fund Campus Fellow and interned with the World Zionist Organization and with the Interdisciplinary Journal of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, in Jerusalem.