November 12, 2021 | 8 Kislev 5782
Candlelighting 4:47 p.m. | Havdalah 5:47 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 46 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Jewish climate activists react to COP26
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Dedication
Communal ‘cornerstone’ Alan Mallinger retires from JCC Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
Temple Sinai celebrates Rabbi Jamie Gibson, and a new Torah
I She also spent time speaking with representatives of the Israeli government, including Tamar Zandberg, minister of environmental protection. Although politicians from around the world are attending COP26, Mayo said that, for her, talking to those from the Jewish state was particularly important. Many Israelis are of the belief that Israel is an “island country, and that’s not the case,” she said. “Nature doesn’t have boundaries.” The Arava Institute is predicated on that principle. With students hailing from Jordan, Israel and other countries worldwide, the institute focuses on regional and global environmental challenges. Mayo said she hoped her efforts at COP26 made clear that Israel “can’t survive with tech alone.” Climate justice in the Middle East branches into issues of tech, security and morality, Mayo told the Chronicle, adding that climate change “is already a major stress for underserved populations, causes political unrest and leads to refugee overflow.” When countries think about their responsibilities, Mayo said, they shouldn’t do so myopically. “Either you’re working on those issues with your neighbors or you’re not really solving things.” Squirrel Hill resident and climate activist Howard Rieger said he followed COP26 while he was visiting civil rights sites in the American South.
t’s hard to estimate the number of times a ball bounces during a basketball game, but it’s a safe bet the total is fewer than the number of lives Alan Mallinger has touched during his career at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. Mallinger retired last week after 27 years of service to the JCC. To many, he was the first face seen in the morning while dropping children off for preschool. To others, Mallinger — or “Mal” — was an afternoon workout companion. But whether welcoming visitors to the Family Park in Monroeville, chaperoning young athletes to the JCC Maccabi Games, delivering meals to homebound seniors during the pandemic or serving as a sounding board for generations of colleagues, Mallinger remained a steady and smiling presence within an organization priding itself on bettering community. Mallinger, 66, began his affiliation with the JCC, like many do, as a child. During the 1960s, he walked to the Squirrel Hill center to play sports and fraternize through the JCC’s youth clubs. Mallinger was a member of a club called the Bullets, which competed against other JCC clubs in basketball, flag football and softball, and which also worked on community service projects. As he got older, Mallinger began frequenting the YMWHA building on Bellefield Street in Oakland — the JCC sold the building to the University of Pittsburgh in 1984 — where he became friends with Lenny Silberman. Mallinger and Silberman had first met years earlier at the Squirrel Hill JCC — Mallinger’s Bullets often competed against Silberman’s Royals — but in their late teens the two developed a bond. “He was my go-to guy,” Silberman said. Shortly after being hired by the JCC to
Please see Climate, page 14
Please see Mallinger, page 14
Page 2
LOCAL ‘Justice, justice, you shall pursue’ Eliza Mayo stands beside a sign at COP26. Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
Pittsburgh’s first out nonbinary judge Page 3
LOCAL Remember, reflect
CMU students pay tribute to victims and survivors of Oct. 27 Page 7
$1.50
W
hile waiting inside a gate at London’s Heathrow Airport on her way back to Israel, Eliza Mayo mulled over her experience at COP26 and how the global climate change conference could benefit her work at home. Mayo, a former Squirrel Hill resident, is deputy director at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a nongovernmental organization located in southern Israel. Along with her colleague, Tareq Abu Hamed — the institute’s executive director — Mayo spent three days networking, listening and learning along with fellow climate activists, change agents and politicians. Global leaders, including President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, commanded much of the media’s attention at COP26, but a record number of nearly 40,000 other individuals from almost 200 countries participated in the Scotlandbased two-week summit. Mayo spent most of her time at the conference meeting with representatives of other NGOs and attending panel discussions, including one on strategies for keeping young people optimistic — a landmark survey of 10,000 16- to 25-yearolds published in Nature found that negative feelings about climate change can spur psychological distress.
Photo courtesy of Eliza Mayo
keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL
A new space for CYP
LOCAL
Showcasing Israel
FOOD
Shiva food