My name is Johanna Reiss. You may already know it; I am the Author of the memoir The Upstairs Room and other books about my experiences as a Jewish child hidden in Holland during World War II and how I managed to live through it. Since 1945, I thought I was done with my old…
Before October 27th, if anyone told us that Pittsburgh’s Jewish community would be thrust into the national spotlight as the target of the deadliest attack on Jews in American history, we would not have believed it. For the past two years, under the banner of Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh, we had been organizing locally in…
On October 27, 11 Jews were murdered at the hands of a white nationalist named Robert Bowers. When I heard the news of this horrific defilement, I felt paralyzed with fear and despair. I cried and said Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, as my partner held me. Upon hearing the news of the attack,…
The United States midterm elections did not quite yield the much-anticipated “blue wave” that Democrats had hoped for. The Democrats flipped just enough seats to take back the House of Congress, while losing their most high-profile races, including Beto O’Rourke’s race in Texas and Andrew Gillum’s in Florida (Stacey Abrams in Georgia has not yet…
At no time in the last half century have American Jews had more of a reason to worry about their safety. As the campaign of Donald J. Trump gained momentum in 2016, the dark, wriggling fringes of the white nationalist right molted and spread new wings, incubated by a candidate who nursed their anger and…
News of the largest attack against Jews in the history of America was devastating. 11 people were murdered during Sabbath services at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. Many rabbinic colleagues and I knew we just had to be there. As soon as we arrived, we made our way to the makeshift memorial in…
The Jewish community isn’t going to forget Saturday, October 27, 2018 anytime soon. A gunman, armed with an AR-15, burst through the doors of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. Shouting anti-Semitic slurs and exclaiming “All Jews must die,” he opened fire, killing 11 members of our community who had gathered to pray and celebrate Shabbat….
When one enters a house of mourning to pay a condolence call, Jewish tradition posits that one waits for the mourners to initiate the conversation. If the mourners wish to just sit silently, so too are we supposed to sit silently with them. If they have no words for you, that’s fine. This visit is…
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