Trump Visits Pittsburgh Synagogue As 2,000 Protesters March
Image by Getty Images
By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 31, 2018
President Trump visited the Pittsburgh synagogue where eleven Jews were massacred Saturday as growing protests of up to 2,000 people also converged on the scene Tuesday afternoon.
They were greeted by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who led them inside the temple. Emerging about 18 minutes later, the president went to a memorial outside the building, where the first lady placed a flower and the president placed a small stone on a marker for each of the shooting victims.
Trump briefly chatted with Myers then got back into his motorcade. Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer was also outside the synagogue, along with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
At least two marches in protest of Trump’s presence in Squirrel Hill, organized by local progressive Jewish groups, are ongoing. According to CNN’s correspondent on the scene, the protests are growing quickly, with thousands of marchers participating.
Sounds of chanting could be heard at the synagogue.
The president, who opponents say has stoked a toxic political climate conducive to acts of violence, planned to visit hospitalized police officers and other people wounded in Saturday’s attack by an avowed anti-Semite at the Tree of Life temple
Trump’s visit to the Pittsburgh synagogue has been controversial, with some local elected officials and Jewish community members asking him not to come.
“We certainly don’t want Trump to feel welcome,” Ella Mason, an IfNotNow activist who lives nearby the Tree of Life congregation and helped organize one of the marches, told the Forward early on Tuesday.
The IfNotNow called one protest at the corner of Darlington Road and Murray Avenue. Local activists with Bend The Arc, another Jewish group, called their own gathering at the nearby intersection of Forbes Avenue and Beachwood Boulevard. The groups were scheduled to meet up.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
