Dominican Allies & Jewish Resilience

David N. Wecht was elected to a ten year term on The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in November 2015. He was retained for a second ten year term in the November 2025 election.

Pennsylvania’s courts are among the oldest in North America, long predating the

nation’s independence. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was formally established by the Commonwealth’s Judiciary Act of 1722, and traces its roots to the Provincial Appellate Court created in 1684 under the auspices of William Penn.

Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice Wecht served as a Judge of The Superior Court of Pennsylvania from January 2012 to January 2016, and as a Judge on The Court of Common Pleas for Pennsylvania’s Fifth Judicial District from February 2003 to January 2012.

From January 2009 to January 2011, Justice Wecht served by appointment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as Administrative Judge of the Fifth Judicial District’s Family Division, which encompasses both domestic relations cases and cases of juvenile dependency and delinquency. As Administrative Judge, Justice Wecht designed and implemented several reforms and innovations, including the Unified Family Court, the local rule on parenting coordination, and improved conflict counsel appointments in juvenile cases.

Prior to taking the bench, Justice Wecht was twice elected as the Allegheny County Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court. In that capacity, he pioneered innovations that included creation of a free will consultation program for seniors and authorship of a state law that prevents accused murderers from controlling their victims’ estates.

Justice Wecht is a 1984 Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale, where he was a National Merit Scholar and earned Yale College Distinction in both history and political science. At Yale Law School, Justice Wecht was selected as Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and as an Editor of both the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Yale Journal of International Law. While a law student, Justice Wecht also volunteered as a certified legal intern in the Office of the State’s Attorney in New Haven, Connecticut, and provided pro bono legal assistance to inmates of the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York.

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1987, Justice Wecht served as Law Clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge George MacKinnon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington, D.C., and received the Award for Distinguished Service in that position. From January 1989 until taking the bench in February 2003, Justice Wecht continuously practiced law, first at Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC, then at Katarincic & Salmon in Pittsburgh, PA, and finally at The Wecht Law Firm in Pittsburgh, PA. He was licensed to practice in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., and was admitted to the bar of numerous state and federal courts, including The Supreme Court of the United States.

A frequent lecturer to bench, bar, and community groups throughout Pennsylvania and in several other states, Justice Wecht also served for many years on the faculties of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University, the College of General Studies of the University of Pittsburgh, the Harry Radzyner Law School of Reichman University (Israel), and the East China University of Political Science and Law. Justice Wecht’s extra-judicial writings have appeared in a number of publications, including the Yale Law Journal, Gonzaga Law Review, Widener Commonwealth Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Duquesne Law Review, Pennsylvania Bar Quarterly, Pennsylvania Lawyer, Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, Pittsburgh Legal Journal, Tablet, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Midstream, and others. Justice Wecht also has served as a Fellow or Member of several professional organizations, including the American Law Institute, the Allegheny County Bar Foundation, and the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. He has volunteered his time to a number of governmental, civic, and community boards and groups, including the Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership Center, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee, the Law Enforcement Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee of the Community College of Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission, and others.

Justice Wecht was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill section, and graduated from Shady Side Academy in 1980. Justice Wecht and his wife Valerie were married at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation, on whose Board of Trustees he served. Justice Wecht and his wife continue to live in Allegheny County, where they raised four children, all of whom are now adults.

Pedro Rodriguez is President and CEO of Café Don Pedro, a Philadelphia-based specialty coffee roasting company he founded in January 2024. A seasoned public-sector leader and community builder, Rodriguez brings decades of experience at the intersection of government, nonprofit leadership, and grassroots organizing.

Rodriguez previously served as Director of Partnerships for Philly Counts 2020, a mayoral initiative to ensure a fair and accurate count in the decennial U.S. Census. Before that, he was Director of the Office of Human Resources for the City of Philadelphia, appointed in 2016 by the Civil Service Commission following six years of service as a Commissioner under Mayor Michael Nutter. He currently hosts the podcast Neglected Stories: People, History, Movements, airing on Gtownradio.com and available on all podcast platforms.

His career reflects a deep commitment to community empowerment. Rodriguez has led and strengthened numerous organizations, including serving as Director of Open Borders Project (Proyecto Sin Fronteras), where he expanded access to English language instruction, digital literacy, and youth programming in North Philadelphia. Earlier, he spent a decade with the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens, rising from Legislative and Healthcare Organizer to Executive Director. His public service career also includes roles as Assistant Director of the Philadelphia Empowerment Zones under Mayor Ed Rendell and Legislative Director to City Councilman Dan McElhatton.

Rodriguez holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the State University of New York at Oneonta and has completed advanced training in community organizing, human resources, and community economic development.

A respected civic leader, Rodriguez serves on the boards of several prominent organizations, including Germantown Relief Society, Northwest Victim Services, G-Town Radio (92.9 FM), World of Opportunities, Building Our Lives Together (BOLT), Bread & Roses Community Fund, and the Union Benevolent Association. He has also contributed as an AIDS educator with Congreso de Latinos Unidos and as Associate Editor of Community Focus/Enfoque Comunal, Pennsylvania’s largest bilingual newspaper in the 1990s.

In addition to his executive leadership, Rodriguez has spent more than 17 years as a part-time professor of Spanish language and literature in Center City Philadelphia. In 2021, he was elected Chairman of the Germantown Relief Society, one of the nation’s oldest charitable institutions.

Rodriguez’s contributions have been widely recognized. He was named Citizen of the Year by the Dominican Parade and Festival Committee of Philadelphia and serves as President of the Dominican Electoral Commission for Pennsylvania and Delaware.

He is married to Pamela Waltz and is the proud father of two children: Anadelia, a graduate of Philadelphia University, former Peace Corps volunteer, and public servant in Washington, DC; and Daniel Rodriguez, a graduate of Princeton University, now working in Washington, DC.

Outside of his professional and civic commitments, Rodriguez is an avid racket sports enthusiast, enjoying padel, squash, pickleball and other court sports in his free time.