I’m disappointed in the lack of broader context for quotes in the article “Allegheny County politician’s social media post on war in Gaza stokes divisions” (June 8, 2025).
For example, Lauren Berry-Kagan, quoted toward the end, is an organizer and local leader for Jewish Voice for Peace, a national organization with thousands of members working for a free Palestine. Civil rights icon Angela Davis was the keynote speaker at its recent national member meeting.
In contrast, Jeremy Kazzaz heads a small group with an outsized role in Pittsburgh politics. The article’s inadequate context falsely legitimizes him as someone who speaks of and for Jewish people.
The Beacon Coalition, which he leads, boasts that it works to preserve democracy and pluralism, according to its website, yet it actively conjures a Jewish monolith. It claims pluralism without accepting the vast diversity of Jewish voices.
Kazzaz’s group also claims to work against “anti-democratic values.” But not only did it work to ensure that thousands of signatures for the Not on Our Dime (NOD) ballot referendum would be tossed, it also supported the Jewish Federation’s punishing lawsuit against NOD. Hilariously, the same lawsuit accuses NOD’s Jewish spokesperson of antisemitism.
County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, an ally in the fight against actual antisemitism, is surely in the Beacon Coalition’s political crosshairs. Another win for pluralism, democracy and combating antisemitism.
Callie DiSabato
North Side