A year after two separate attacks on Jewish students at Pitt, Jewish organizations on campus are rebuilding and expanding their community.

At the start of the 2024 fall semester, two Jewish students were attacked on Friday, Aug. 30 on their way to a weekly Shabbat dinner. A month later, on Friday, Sept. 27, a Jewish student was physically and verbally assaulted in South Oakland for wearing a Star of David necklace. Since then, Jewish organizations on campus have been a communal space for students practicing Judaism. 

The two main spaces for Jewish life at Pitt are Hillel at Pitt and Chabad at Pitt. Each of these organizations offer resources and events for Jewish students to explore and practice Judaism, including Shabbat dinners, weekly brunches, holiday celebrations and more relaxed group gatherings. 

After the attacks, some Jewish students were overcome with feelings of anxiety and disbelief, according to Harrison Romero, a senior political science student involved with Jewish organizations on campus.

“After the assault, there was a lot of anxiety,” Romero said. “The month after that, it was kind of looking over our shoulders, scared. Like, ‘what does this mean? Is this going to keep happening?’”

Noa Solomon, a sophomore communications major, was a first-year student when the attacks took place. Solomon remembers feeling scared, but was reassured by Pitt’s Jewish organizations. 

“Initially [after the assaults], it was very, very scary,” Solomon said. “But I think [the Jewish] organizations handled it pretty well. They had walking groups for us if we felt unsafe. I think that just having people, like other Jewish students with me, made me feel safer.”

To help Jewish students feel safer on campus, some Jewish-based organizations, including Chabad at Pitt, promoted self-defense classes last year. 

According to Romero, some Jewish students still have anxiety about making their faith publicly known. 

“A lot of people don’t want to just be known as the ‘Jew in class,’” Romero said. “To feel like we have to hide that just because of political events going on or things like that — it’s really sad to see. For me, it’s very sad. But that’s a reality we face.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, a Hamas-led attack began the Israel-Hamas war in Israel and Palestine. Since the war began, more than 60,000 people have been killed in the Middle East. As the war wages overseas, tensions have risen in the U.S. Similarly, both antisemitism and Islamophobia have increased dramatically since the war began.

Jewish organizations and the University have both condemned antisemitism on campus. According to University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer, student and community safety is at the core of Pitt’s mission.

“The safety and wellbeing of all our students and community members is a priority embedded in everything we do at the University of Pittsburgh,” Stonesifer said. “We are concerned about safety in every sense of the word — both physical protection and broader efforts to foster a safe and welcoming campus climate.”

Stonesifer said that Pitt “works closely” with both campus and local Jewish organizations, along with law enforcement agencies, in the wake of last year’s attacks. Both Hillel and Chabad also have security guards at events to ensure student safety.

“We try to remind students that we have security on premises, that we also have really good relationships with the police,” Romero said. 

Last year, Pitt also developed the Working Group on Antisemitism to analyze and address antisemitism on campus and within the Pittsburgh community. According to Stonesifer, the Working Group will be meeting “even more intensely” with the start of the fall semester.

Despite previous safety threats and concerns for Jewish students at Pitt, Romero said that the Jewish community on campus “has just been on an upward trajectory.” 

“I think this year has been on a totally new footing,” Romero said. “The new freshmen have come in very, very enthusiastic, not with a little voice in their head about what happened last year. But even for the students who returned, like for me, I haven’t thought about [the attacks] in a while.”

According to Romero, Pitt’s chapters of Hillel and Chabad are remarkably collaborative compared to other universities’ Jewish organizations. Instead of competing for attendance or student participation, Pitt’s organizations focus on being “cohesive,” Romero said.

“It’s quite rare to find, where Hillel and Chabad work so well together,” Romero said. “Usually, there’s a lot of competition and a lot of throwing competing events, not much collaboration between the two, and so we’re very lucky to have a lot of that.”

Shabbat dinners attract the most attendees, according to Romero. The weekly meals are open to people who are or are not Jewish and can draw up to 250 attendants. 

“For our end of year Shabbat last year, we ended up tearing down a wall to make more room for people,” Romero said. “I think that really speaks to the direction that we’ve been heading.”

As the new year kicks off, Romero is hopeful that the Jewish community on Pitt’s campus will only continue to grow. 

“We’re getting more comfortable again, and it’s definitely been just such a great turnaround to see in the Jewish community,” Romero said.