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

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO