Pittsburgh Synagogue Leader: Trump, Don’t Come

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By Helen Chernikoff October 29, 2018

Lynnette Lederman, past president of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, knew many of the victims of the Shabbat-morning shooting by Robert Bowers that killed 11 people and wounded others.

She’s heard that President Trump is talking about visiting the city and the synagogue and has one word for him: “Don’t.”

“He is the purveyor of hate speech,” she said. His words of sympathy are “hypocritical” and meaningless, she added.

The rabbi of the synagogue, however, said Trump is welcome, but hate is not.

“We’ve got to stop hate and it can’t just be to say we need to stop hate,” he said. “Hate is not welcome here in Pittsburgh. It should not be welcome in our borders at all.”

Contact Helen Chernikoff at [email protected] or on Twitter @thesimplechild

Helen Chernikoff is the Forward’s News Editor. She came to the Forward from The Jewish Week, where she served as the first web director and created both a blog dedicated to disability issues and a food and wine website. Before that, she covered the housing, lodging and logistics industries for Reuters, where she could sit at her desk and watch her stories move the stock market. Helen has a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University and a BA in History and French from Amherst College. She is also a rabbinical school dropout. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @thesimplechild.

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