(JTA) — In a speech about the dangers of bigotry at a memorial for the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Bernie Sanders included Israel in a list of countries where authoritarianism is rising. Sanders, the democratic socialist Vermont senator, was the keynote speaker at a virtual memorial event hosted by Bend The Arc, a progressive Jewish…
A global pandemic isn’t keeping the Pittsburgh Jewish community from coming together for a virtual commemoration to honor the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre. The event on Oct. 27 marks two years since the mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania claimed the lives of 11 people, the deadliest…
The attack on October 27, 2018, lasted 83 minutes from the moment the gunman entered the synagogue until the moment the police apprehended him. In the 18 months since that Saturday morning, I have collected 189 boxes of things documenting the impact of those 83 minutes on the Jewish population of Western Pennsylvania. “Things” in…
(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…
After a day of community service, Torah study and community gathering, Pittsburgh residents say they are closing a chapter in their healing after last year’s deadly synagogue shooting. Sunday was the one-year mark, a date loaded with significance. There was a long roster of activities and ceremonies that, amid tears and unanswered questions, enabled the…
In Terre Haute, Indiana, a man named Marvin Gabrion has been in prison awaiting death for 17 years, seven months and 11 days. He committed his crimes in 1996 and 1997, then was tried, convicted of murder and sentenced in 2002. Gabrion is currently the longest-serving inmate on federal death row, and though he terrorized…
Sometimes, when he has a spare moment, Eric Lidji ducks into a storage room, takes a box off a shelf, sits on the floor and reads letters sent to Pittsburgh after last year’s synagogue shooting. “I find it cathartic to go through the stuff, to be honest,” he said. “This is part of the hope…
This Sunday marks one year since the shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which 11 people were killed. Anniversaries of deaths have great significance in Judaism. They are commonly called the _yahrzeit,_ a Yiddish word which simply means “the time of the year.” Jewish organizations across the country have organized…
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