As I write this, I've just returned home from a moving Yom Hashoah commemoration at the JCC in Squirrel Hill.  It was inspiring to hear six different Pittsburghers’ stories of their personal experiences during the Holocaust.  From a Schindler Jew to a child during this absolutely tragic period of Jewish history, I was touched by their bravery and strength.

Next week we will commemorate Yom Hazikaron, for all of Israel's fallen, on Tuesday, April 24th at 8:00 pm at the JCC .  And on Thursday, our JFEST, a celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut, will take place in Schenley Plaza starting at 4:00 p.m..  I know that Yom Hazikaron will be another inspiring and touching program and that JFEST will be an absolute blast.  I want to encourage your attendance at both these programs to not just mourn and to not just celebrate, but for an even more important and inspiring reason – to be together as a community.  Moments like these are those when it is great to be as one community.  There is nothing better than seeing an old friend or making a new one.  Celebrating and mourning best happens with one’s community and these two special programs, like Yom Hashoah this past week, offer us that opportunity.
 
And if you want one more great chance to be with community, Tuesday, May 1st will be the inaugural Robinson International Short Film Competition Awards evening.  If you click here, you can see the shorts which will be shown that evening.  In this very first year of this new program, we had a tremendous amount of interest and submissions.  This is an evening you won’t want to miss. 
 
I hope to see you at all of these programs, each sponsored by and organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.  The Federation's Vision statement states that we are trying to create a "thriving, vibrant and engaged Jewish community".  Programs such as the above give us all a "low threshold" opportunity to help make that vision a reality.

Shabbat Shalom.

Jeff Finkelstein

President & CEO