Mission
J'Burgh is an initiative of the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh with support from Shalom Pittsburgh and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. It is designed to serve the needs of the approximately 2,500 Jewish graduate students and young professionals in their twenties living in Pittsburgh. Our mission is to bring together Jewish grad students, young professionals, and their friends to create opportunities for them to build a community together, celebrate their Judaism together, and network for professional opportunities and development. J'Burgh's goal is to provide a gateway for Pittsburgh's young Jewish adult population to explore and develop their personal Jewish identity within our city.
Staff
David Katz has spent the past three years living in Pittsburgh and working as the Youth Director at Congregation Beth Shalom. Prior to this, David spent 5 years at The Ohio State University, and was lucky enough to witness the amazing exploits of The Ohio State Buckeye's football team. Oh, he also received a B.A. in English. A native of Dayton, Ohio, who has slowly but surely developed a surprising love for the City of Pittsburgh, David enjoys darts, foosball, pool, trivial pursuit, and going to Israel. David also enjoys discussing programming ideas and professional networking ideas for young adults and grad students. David will always be happy to meet with you and take you out for a cup of coffee!
Sara Heal hails from Youngstown, Ohio and has recently relocated to the amazing city of Pittsburgh. In 2009, she earned her degree in Marketing and Retail Merchandising at Ohio University (Go Bobcats!). After graduation she went on a 5 month Israeli adventure where she lived on Kibbutz Yehiam up North and volunteered teaching high school students English. It was the experience of a life time. Sara also enjoys doing crafty things (scrapbooking is a fave), taking pictures, reading, music and meeting new people. She is beside herself with excitement to be joining the J'Burgh team!
J'Burgh Strategic Plan
Our 2009-2010 strategic plan highlights our goals at recruiting and retaining young Jewish adults to the city of Pittsburgh. Learn about our metrics, the dynamics of the J'Burgh planning board and everything else J'Burgh.
Read the J'Burgh Strategic Plan >
Recent Press
In December of 2009 J'Burgh was awarded the greatnonprofits.org Jewish Choice Awards for best small nonprofit in the Northeast Region. Beating out other small nonprofits from D.C. to NYC, our Pittsburgh participants came out in droves to review the organization.
Article in Pop City - Pittsburgh's premiere online magazine paid J'Burgh a visit, and sat down with Director David Katz for an in depth discussion on the affect our organization is having on the Western PA region. Check out this recent article in their For Good section.
Testimonials
"I've had an amazing experience being involved in J'Burgh for the past year. I am mostly involved in the sports activities J'Burgh participates in. Win or lose its great to get together with young Jewish adults like myself. I think David Katz is doing a fabulous job with J'Burgh. From shabbat dinners to kickball on mondays there are so many activities for a variety of people."
"As a recent graduate in the pittsburgh area J'Burgh has proven a great way to stay connected with the young Jewish community while moving away from the university setting."
