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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTree of Life Massacre, Three Years On: How Pittsburgh's Jews Overcame the Tragedy
It was the worst antisemitic attack in American history, but the 2018 massacre also showed the strength and resilience of a city, a neighborhood, and a diverse Jewish community
Haaretz
By David B. Green
Oct. 27, 2021 2:11 PM
the portrait offered by Mark Oppenheimer in Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood, his book about the way this Pittsburgh community responded to the horrific assault on Jewish worshippers on October 27, 2018. Eleven people, each of whom had come to celebrate Shabbat at one of three different synagogues that met in a single building, were murdered that day, and another 11 were wounded.
Their alleged killer was a middle-aged white man who was outraged that one of the congregations, the Reconstructionist Dor Chadash, had expressed support for refugees and immigrants at a service several weeks earlier.
Oppenheimer is not a Squirrel Hill native, but his father grew up there, and a great-great-great grandfather was among the founders of its first burial society, in the 1840s. He not only agrees with former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor David Shribman (who lost his job after he decided, on the day of the first funeral, to splash a banner headline across the top of the papers front page with the first words of the Mourners Kaddish, in Hebrew letters) that Pittsburgh may be the least antisemitic city in the country, but he also suggests that the Jews of Squirrel Hill, with their dense settlement, deep roots, economic vitality, robust Jewish life, and warm relations with their Jewish neighbors, could very well offer a model of resilience.
To what extent is antisemitism on the rise in America (or elsewhere), and what is the proper way to respond to the threat? These are not questions that find their answers in Squirrel Hill. But if the Talmud tells us that the Temple was destroyed by sinat hinam (baseless hatred), Mark Oppenheimers book is a welcome reminder that baseless love can help keep a community together, as well as serve as a salve for the pain of individuals. Its lessons are not likely to prevent the next racial terror attack, but they contain some of the antibodies that could help a community to withstand an assault.
It is a long and heartwarming article and my edits can not do it justice. More here
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-tree-of-life-massacre-three-years-on-how-pittsburgh-s-jews-overcame-the-tragedy-1.10325986
We need those antibodies to withstand the storm we are living through.
Deep State Witch
(10,350 posts)I went to college just down the street from there, and used to walk and drive past the synagogue a lot. One of the people killed was my friend's dentist. Another one was a graduate of the local high school where my Dad was principal back in the 80's. The media used my college's parking lot by the old gym as a broadcasting point.
I was at our local grocery store picking up last-minute items for our Samhain circle when I saw the news on the TV as we were leaving. I was horrified that it was not only in Pittsburgh, but so close to where I went to college.
Behind the Aegis
(53,831 posts)harumph
(1,871 posts)They have to be resilient in this country because sooner or later
some fuckwit with a gun is going berserk. I'd like to live in a country
where less resilience is called for.