When I heard about the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue, the first thought that ran through my mind was, “I wonder if I know the attacker.” Growing up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, I was often the only Jew that any of my classmates had met. I began to receive death threats…
On Saturday, a man entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 Jews. It was a horrific, heinous crime. Sadly, rather than bringing Jews closer together, it seems to be only dividing us apart. In the past, after terror attacks in Israel, I have looked at my Instagram feed just after a terror attack in…
One victim murdered and one who remains in the hospital following Saturday’s mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh were members of the chevra kadisha, an organization of Jewish men and women called upon to ensure that deceased Jewish bodies are properly prepared to be buried. Jerry Rabinowitz died in the rampage and Dan Leger…
Elementary school students at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh had a few surprise guests during recess: Mayor Bill Peduto and two police officers newly assigned to protect the Jewish school. “I wanted to introduce you to two of my friends,” Peduto told the children in the play area on Monday afternoon. “They’re Pittsburgh police officers. They’re…
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack at the Tree of Life shul in Pittsburgh last Shabbat, many Israelis weighed in with messages for American Jews. The responses to the attack ranged from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sympathetic condolences to Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau’s patronizing insults. But Zionist Union chief Avi Gabbay’s contribution –…
Jews guard Shabbat. We observe it, in ways ranging from halachic to self care-centric. We kindle its lights, we make it beautiful, and we keep it holy. And this week, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a Jewish advocacy group, is encouraging us to “#showupforshabbat.” The social media initiative has taken off as Jews and non-Jews…
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press briefing on Monday that the president and first lady are traveling to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, following the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue over the weekend, staff at the Washington Post live-tweeted. Sanders began the briefing with a note about the 11 people who…
In the wake of the horrific massacre of 11 Jews at prayer this Shabbat, I have found myself wondering what it means to be a Jew in the age of Trump. It was a question that preoccupied me on the day he won the presidential election in 2016, on the strength of a campaign that…
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