Partner Spotlight:
Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement
A JCC Cultivates Civic Empathy in Pittsburgh and Beyond
What does it look like when a JCC makes civic belonging part of everyday life? The JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement explores this question every day. As Melissa Hiller, Community Engagement and Development Officer with the Center shares, the goal is to turn everyday interactions into opportunities for connection and dialogue, helping Pittsburgh neighbors show up for one another and build understanding across differences.
The Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement was founded in direct response to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, a moment that underscored the urgency of combating hatred and bigotry. Tensions in the community revealed the immediate need for structured spaces for dialogue. With support from Pittsburgh’s philanthropic community, the Center developed programs that bring Jewish values into civic engagement.
Action Plan: Turn everyday interactions into opportunities for connection and dialogue
Partners since: 2022
One recent initiative of the Center is its partnership with the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh entitled Unity in Community, which features the “Curious Conversations” series. Marking the first time the YMCA and the JCC have collaborated, these gatherings bring adults together to explore pressing issues, cultivate meaningful dialogue, and deepen understanding across differences — practices that are vital to a healthy democracy and vibrant civic life.
“Curious Conversations,” which is a six-part series of facilitated dialogues, explores topics ranging from antisemitism and extremism, to hate, belonging, and identity. Through these sessions, participants explore difficult questions in community with one another that push them to think thoughtfully and more openly. The “Curious Conversations” series is designed for community members to discuss pressing topics and build connections across diverse perspectives – practices that mirror democratic participation and collaborative problem-solving.
“We catalyze hard conversations — conversations where people might not necessarily agree. And that’s uncomfortable. But it’s so important to learn about one another… because when you understand someone’s lived experience, it shifts how you show up in community with them.”
As part of the Unity in Community partnership, adolescents from JCC and YMCA day camps ages 12–14 will participate in a three-week immersive experience designed to build empathy, reflection, and a sense of belonging. This summer 2026 program is strategically scheduled to overlap with Camp Kindness Day, providing an anchor for shared civic learning and reflection. These intentional, relationship-based experiences help youth navigate complex social issues and form habits of thinking that support long-term civic engagement.
The experience culminates in a walk across Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente Bridge to a Pirates game; both a literal and symbolic moment, with young people choosing connection over division. As Hiller reflects, “When our campers walk across that bridge, it’s more than a field trip. It’s a reminder that building community means being willing to cross toward one another.”
What makes this series of initiatives successful is a culture that welcomes discomfort as part of learning.
“The Center for Loving Kindness had a specific origin story, when we as an agency began noticing that people couldn’t go to the gym without arguing about whether to watch CNN or Fox. So even internally, there was this friction,” Hiller said. “But the idea was that we want to create spaces where we're showing up for one another with curiosity, rather than judgment.”
“A former colleague once told me something that has really stayed with me,” Hiller said. “You may have partners with whom there are wounds or fractures in the relationship. You may not want to be on the same stage with that person. But if a trusted anchor invites you both, you want the relationship to be strong enough that even if you’re not in a place to work closely together, you can still show up. Sometimes there are bigger, more profound issues at stake.”
The work is grounded in the belief that civic belonging is built locally, in the spaces where people live, gather, and form relationships. Through these bridges, literal and figurative, the JCC fosters resilience and strengthens community ties. The programs engage participants in hard conversations and help them build relationships across differences.
Through this approach, the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement demonstrates that civic belonging is not only a policy outcome but a practice embedded in everyday life. When institutions model how to disagree respectfully, stay connected, and show up for something larger than themselves, they help fortify the democratic culture that policies alone cannot sustain.
“Showing up in the same spaces — especially spaces that aren’t naturally your own — can help all of us grow in ways that we might not yet have identified … Growth doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in relationship.”
Cultivating empathy and connection in local communities is not a small task; it is a critical investment in the resilience and strength of civic life. By turning ordinary interactions into opportunities for understanding and belonging, the JCC creates a model for other communities seeking to bridge divides and build durable, empathetic connections.
Hiller closes with a fitting metaphor for her work:
“Pittsburgh is a city of bridges, and those bridges have two purposes. One is that they connect people. A bridge is that connector. But that bridge is also the way to somewhere else.”
By fostering stronger civic relationships, JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement is helping the Pittsburgh community get to that somewhere better.
Not a partner yet? Join today for free.