I just moved to Pittsburgh. I’ve been checking out the congregations in my new city and went to a shul around the corner from Tree of Life Or L’Simcha a couple of weeks ago. This attack, along with recent attacks against African Americans, immigrants and the transgender community have filled me with anger and grief….
Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal were named Sunday as two of the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue the day before. Cecil, 59, “was kind of a fixture in our community,” Rabbi Seth Adelson of nearby Congregation Beth Shalom told the Forward. Cecil and his brother David, 54, lived together in…
Dear Jewish Trump supporters, first let me say I’m a proud Jew and a progressive. I’ve watched with horror, but only a modest amount of surprise, as you have embraced the presidency of an unspeakable individual. You have looked aside at evidence of debauchery, ceaseless lying, likely treason and much else. Because, you have claimed,…
The chief technology officer of Gab.com, the site the alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter used to express anti-Semitic views, stepped down from his role Sunday. “The attacks from the American press have been relentless for two years now and have taken a toll on me personally. I wish Gab nothing but the best and will do…
Etz Chaim: The Tree of Life. How painfully ironic. The metaphoric expression “Tree of Life” ( Etz Chaim in Hebrew) is a mystical symbol within the Kabbala of esoteric Judaism used to describe the path to God. Yesterday’s unredeemable act of evil within the walls of The Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburg is physically,…
There are three Conservative Jewish congregations in Pittsburgh’s heavily Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Two of the congregations, both based in the building of the Tree of Life synagogue, were attacked Saturday by an anti-Semitic gunman who killed eleven people. It is unclear when they’ll be allowed to return to their building, which is still an…
Sometimes, maybe it is the same for you, I come to shul on Shabbat and just look around. I am trying to understand the stories of all the people who have come to pray. There are the wide-eyed newcomers, so polite. There are the insiders, and the ones who came for the bar mitzvah, unmistakable…
Judah Samet was four minutes late to synagogue. Services at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh start at 9:45 A.M. Samet, who is 80 years old, pulled into a handicapped spot in front of the building on the morning of October 27 at 9:49. “Somebody knocked on my window,” Samet said the next day. “There…
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