Before the deaths of Antwon Rose and George Floyd, Josh Sayles was part of a collaborative created to engage the Jewish and black communities in Pittsburgh with each other. “We’ve known for years that we really needed to strengthen ties with the black community,” said Sayles, director of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “A few weeks after October 27 [2018], we were getting the same message from our black partners over and over again: ‘It’s really great that the Jewish community is getting everything they need in wake of the shooting, but we have young black men dying in the streets of Pittsburgh several times a week and no one is doing anything for us.’ That dichotomy caused us to act.” Read more.