Families of Pittsburgh synagogue victims to get $3 million from donated funds
Tree of Life synagogue, Pittsburgh Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — The three congregations housed at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue will distribute more than $5.4 million donated in the aftermath of the deadly October 2018 shooting there.
In a news release Monday, the congregations announced that they planned to distribute just over $3 million to the families of the 11 people killed in the attack by a lone gunman and two seriously injured worshippers. Another $1.2 million will be directed toward the rebuilding of the Tree of Life building.
Most of the remaining funds will go to support memorialization and honoring first responders, as well to the two congregations that rented space in the building, Congregation Dor Hadash and New Light Congregation.
The funds were donated between the attack on Oct. 27, 2018, and the end of April 2019, and are separate from those collected by the Pittsburgh Jewish Federation’s Victims of Terror Fund, which were distributed by April 2019.
The distributions were based on the recommendations of an independent committee convened by the federation that delivered its report in February.
“One of the principles that guided the committee’s deliberations relative to the funds received by Tree of Life was ‘shalom b’bayit’ — the need to arrive at recommendations that would foster healing in the congregations, among victims’ families and harmony throughout the wider Jewish community,” said Barbara Caplan, co-president of New Light Congregation.
The post Families of Pittsburgh synagogue victims to get $3 million from donated funds appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
