Rabbi[1] Josh Wander is the international spokesman for the Israeli search and rescue agency ZAKA[2] and was the Republican nominee for Mayor of Pittsburgh in the 2013 general election.

As the international spokesman for ZAKA, Wander was part of the active response for Hurricane Harvey, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the Mariana dam disaster, the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 disaster, the Surfside condominium collapse, humanitarian assistance during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, and most notably the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel,[6] which Wander described as "a horror movie.

[9] In the 2013 election for Mayor of Pittsburgh, Wander stated his "only chance of actually winning in the race is if the Democratic nominee drops dead.

Wander insisted he would continue his campaign for mayor of Pittsburgh from Israel, though some experts questioned the legality of such an arrangement.

[8] In an episode of the National Geographic Channel program Doomsday Preppers, Wander was quoted as saying that he was concerned "about a series of catastrophic terrorist attacks which will fundamentally change our lives as we know them.