Community commemorates Pittsburgh synagogue shooting seven years later
"Seven years later we are still fighting the hate that led to the attack. We are still working to ensure that no community, Jewish or otherwise, faces such terror again."
Seven years after the most violent antisemitic attack in American history, Pittsburghers gathered at the Jewish Community Center to remember the 11 victims of the Oct. 27, 2018, synagogue shooting.
Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger were murdered by a white supremacist the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, while celebrating Shabbat at three different congregations in the Tree of Life building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha.
The solemn ceremony held Monday night at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill included participation from family members of the victims, survivors of the attack, those who work to keep the Jewish community safe, a U.S. attorney and Pittsburgh’s CAPA high school.
Relatives of those murdered began the event by lighting 11 candles in memory of their loved ones, followed by Tree of Life’s Rabbi Jeffrey Myers chanting El Maleh Rahamim, the prayer for the souls of the departed.
This is Myers’ final year as rabbi at Tree of Life, a congregation he led during the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. He will retire next year.
“We pray for the elevation of their souls … Let the earth not cover their blood and let there not be a place sufficient for their cries,” Myers told the hundreds in attendance, his voice filled with emotion.
Members of CAPA’s vocals program performed two songs: “True Love” by Sheila Hunt-Johnson and “Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood. The music was followed by Barbara Caplan, Barb Davis and Eleanor Wible — representing New Light, Tree of Life and Dor Hadash, respectively — reading the poem “Epitaph,” which is often recited before Kaddish.
Rabbi Amy Bardack, the spiritual leader of Dor Hadash, and Soo Song, who was one of the prosecutors that worked on the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Pennsylvania, recited Mi Sheberach, the traditional Jewish prayer of healing.
Psalm 23 was read by Audrey Glickman, Deane Root, Rabbi Doris Dyen, Stephen Weiss, Lou Fineberg, Augie Siriano, Andrea Wedner and Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, survivors of the attack.
The traditional Prayer for Our Country was recited by Paul Hilterbrick and Darren Cook, members of the Pittsburgh security community. Amy Mallinger and Steven Wedner, grandchildren of Rose Mallinger, read the Prayer for Peace — the same prayer Mallinger led for the Tree of Life Congregation each Shabbat.
Concluding thoughts were offered by Frederick, Maryland, Police Department Chief Jason Lando. Lando previously served as a police officer for 21 years in Pittsburgh and was the incident commander during the response to the Oct. 27 attack.
Lando’s connections to the Jewish community are deeper than that of most first responders called to action that day. He is Jewish, grew up in Squirrel Hill and attended Tree of Life.
The police chief spoke of his grandfather, a Tree of Life member who typically attended Shabbat services. He missed services the day of the attack because he wasn’t feeling well.
“Oct. 27 is a date that Pittsburgh will never forget,” Lando said. “It is a wound in our heart, a break in the fabric of our lives and a day that redefined what it means to be a part of the Tree of Life and, more broadly, a member of the Pittsburgh Jewish community.”
He said those murdered weren’t simply victims, but were parents, siblings, friends, neighbors and pillars of the community.
Lando recalled when the initial call came in reporting the attack, which he believed to be a “cruel joke.” Only after asking the 911 center how many calls came in about Tree of Life, and learning that it was “flooded” with calls, did he begin to reckon with the gravity of the situation and the reality that his grandfather was most likely in the building.
Remembrance, Lando told those in attendance, isn’t only about looking back.
“It’s also a commitment to move forward with purpose. Seven years later we are still fighting the hate that led to the attack. We are still working to ensure that no community, Jewish or otherwise, faces such terror again,” he said. “The work is hard, and it can feel endless, but it is important.”
The 10.27 Healing Partnership, led by Maggie Feinstein, organized the ceremony with a working group dedicated to planning the event. Feinstein closed the commemoration by noting that a period of seven years is significant in Jewish tradition.
“During this time, the land is left to rest, certain agricultural activities are forbidden, and it is a year of remission of debt. It is also a time to bring awareness to the burden we carry in many aspects of our lives,” she said.
Feinstein told the Chronicle there is a purpose to remembering tragic events.
“Carving out this one small window where we can put our focus is incredibly healthy for the rest of our lives,” she explained.
The 10/27 commemoration, Feinstein said, is like the anniversary of Kristallnacht, where we remember a specific horror.
“It allows us to look at other things in the world in a different lens,” she said. “I feel that same way about 10/27, especially for our local community. Holding out and carving out the space of remembrance is really important. It’s a place where we can put that emotion and keep going in a world with many other things going on.”
The event was attended by hundreds of community members, including several first responders and spiritual leaders, as well as many elected officials, including City Councilperson Barb Warwick, City Controller Rachael Heisler, former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Mayor Ed Gainey, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, State Rep. Dan Miller, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, State Supreme Court Justice David Wecht and Sen. John Fetterman.
And while many chose to remember the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting through the commemoration ceremony or by taking part in volunteer opportunities offered on Oct. 26, the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace used the day as an opportunity for self-promotion.
As the wider Jewish community marked seven years since the antisemitic attack, JVP filmed its members outside the local Israel Bonds office, delivering a petition signed by fewer than 4,000 people — less than 1% of the population of Pittsburgh and less than .03% of the state’s population — calling on Pennsylvania to “divest from genocide, war, and apartheid and invest in our communities by sunsetting the state’s investment in Israel Bonds.”
Despite JVP’s attempts to divert attention from the 11 victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the commemoration ceremony served as an apt reminder that, as Feinstein said as she closed the event, “There’s far more good in the world. May we continue to live faithfully.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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