Pittsburgh Jews Plan Protests Of Trump Visit

Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 30, 2018

Progressive Jewish groups in Pittsburgh are planning two separate protest actions during President Trump’s controversial visit to the mourning city.

Local activists with the progressive Jewish organization IfNotNow are organizing a public mourning ceremony and rally at intersection in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at 3 p.m. Tuesday, while activists with the local chapter of the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc are organizing their own gathering three blocks away at 4 p.m.

President Trump is expected to arrive in Pittsburgh at 3:45 p.m.

“We certainly don’t want Trump to feel welcome, should he come to Squirrel Hill,” said Ella Mason, an IfNotNow activist who lives nearby the Tree of Life congregation, where a gunman massacred eleven Jews on Saturday morning. “He needs to take responsibility for the fact that his dogwhistle politics has helped enable the kind of violent action we saw at Tree of Life.”

The IfNotNow gathering is at the corner of Darlington Road and Murray Avenue, while the Bend The Arc gathering is at the nearby intersection of Forbes Avenue and Beachwood Boulevard. The Bend the Arc group will then march to meet the IfNotNow group, according to a Facebook page announcing the event.

“We are going to be holding a public shiva and rally for all the victims of white supremacy in Pittsburgh and across our nation,” Mason said.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO