Pittsburgh Jewish Federation Raises Money For Christchurch Victims

A picture left outside the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis March 18, 2019

The Jewish community ravaged by a white supremacist massacre late last year is raising money for the Christchurch, New Zealand victims of the latest episode of white supremacist violence.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, which serves the community where a white supremacist killed 11 Jews in a synagogue in October, created an emergency relief fund on Friday to raise money to help the victims of the white supremacist massacre at two mosques in New Zealand last week, which killed fifty people.

The federation is still deciding on where to send the funds raised. But a spokesman for the federation told Haaretz that the drive had raised $20,000 in its first six hours alone.

“In the wake of the Tree of Life shooting, the Muslim community banded together and raised over $240,000 for us,” Josh Sayles, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council told Haaretz. “Given what they did for us, we did not have to think twice.”

The federation’s campaign is titled the “New Zealand Islamophobic Attack Emergency Relief Fund,” and says it will help the Muslim victims of the attacks. The federation says that all of the money raised through the fund will go to “help people in need.”

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]

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

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