Beth Kissileff is co-editor of Bound in the Bond of Life: Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy and author of the novel Questioning Return. She is at work on a book about Jewish wisdom on healing from trauma and grief and lives in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh with her family.
Beth Kissileff
By Beth Kissileff
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Opinion The Tree of Life shooter is eligible for the death penalty. Only God can truly punish him
While I am grateful for the jury's decision, no human action can repair what the shooter destroyed
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Fast Forward Judah Samet, survivor of the Holocaust and the Tree of Life shooting, dies at 84
Samet, a Holocaust survivor who spoke about his experiences in Pittsburgh and beyond, died Sept. 27
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Opinion My husband survived the Tree of Life shooting. The Texas synagogue attack reopened our wounds
I found out that Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three others had been taken hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Tex. when many other observant Jews did: after the end of Shabbat. There was a knock on our door. It was someone from the 10.27 Healing Partnership, a grant-funded organization that provides resources and support…
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Opinion My husband survived the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. Pursuing the death penalty for the shooter would make things worse
The capital murder case against the perpetrator of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is dragging on; the Poway shooter who committed his synagogue attack six months later has already received a sentence of life in prison without parole. This week’s two-day evidentiary hearing was filled with testimony from police officers recounting antisemitic comments made by…
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Opinion Jewish law should guide us in November: Choose life (not Trump)
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik famously said that when someone comes to him for a decision on a matter of Jewish law, he can easily give them a ruling. But when someone seeks advice in choosing between two options that do not violate Jewish law, he said, individuals must make a personal decision. Though a democracy defines…
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Life After The Shooting In Our Synagogue – Torah Study Helped Me Heal
The night after my husband narrowly avoided being shot in the Pittsburgh synagogue where he is a rabbi I couldn’t sleep. I needed something to read, to keep my mind occupied — to keep it away from the panicked thought about how closely he missed death, and what if my daughter and I had gone…
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Opinion It’s The Jewish Day Of Mourning. But In Pittsburgh, We Never Stopped.
It’s the time of year that for one day, the ninth of Av, Jews think about being displaced and exiled. We think of what was lost with the destruction of two Temples, and our historical exile from Jerusalem. This year, I am in the unenviable position of feeling this uprooted aspect of Jewish history in…
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Life How One Faith Group Fights Abuse — One School At A Time
When Dr. Shira Berkovits worked as a consultant for the Orthodox Union, among other Jewish organizations, in synagogue youth programming, she was asked to give presentations that trained synagogue staff members in keeping children safe from abuse. “I thought I was going to do it for one year and walk away,” she says. Yet when…
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