One year ago today, October 27, a shooter killed 11 people from 3 congregations in the Tree of Life building in Squirrel Hill. So many thoughts are circling in my mind and the best way to process them? Write!
First of all, how has it already been a year? When I heard the news, my daughter and I were at a Girl Scout volunteer event. (Read that post, “We are all refugees,” here). We rushed home and checked on everyone we could think of who we knew from Pittsburgh. We lived there over 15 years ago now, but so much of our sense of community comes from living and working in Pittsburgh.
Of course mass shootings happen all too frequently. Columbine. Virginia Tech. Newtown. Charleston. Christchurch. Dayton. El Paso. Poway.
The increase in antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ, anti-minority attacks in the last 4 years in America makes it apparent that no one can take for granted that they are safe.
As you’ve probably heard already, Squirrel Hill is a small, melting pot neighborhood where many faiths and ethnicities live and work together seamlessly and respectfully. In my work there in community relations, I was privileged to be a monthly fly on the wall during a longstanding Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as a Muslim-Jewish dialogue.
Just this past week, as she was learning a prayer, I heard my daughter ask her Hebrew tutor why some people don’t like Jewish people. My heart seemed to stop. I think I paused my breathing until I heard the answer she would give. She said it was a good question and one that people have been asking for thousands of years. She paused to think and then said that there are lots of ways to be different and that it’s important that we learn from everyone. We must try to understand that all people are connected and are similar in more ways than different. I would probably have added something in there about love always being better than fear. My daughter accepted the answer and moved on.
But really… I don’t understand either why such hatred and lack of reason exists, sometimes leading to senseless violence. What unrest is happening in our society that is causing these events? I have read books about the economy, racism, politics, etc. and still don’t really have an answer I like. I have been hearing my daughter’s little voice ask her question over and over in my head. What is a parent to tell a child?
A positive outcome of any event like this is the coming together of community to be even stronger than before. Huge numbers of people from all over the world reached out to Pittsburgh to help those going through this trauma and grief. I’m reminded of a mosque here in Houston that was burned to the ground in a hate crime a few years ago and how contributions came from far and wide to help rebuild. We see one individual reaching out from their heart to another so frequently that we barely register such generosity of spirit.
The threat to the safety of Jewish, Muslim, Black, Latino and any other vulnerable community anywhere in the world is echoed with our unity against white nationalists. More security is in place, changes in legislation are occuring, and people are healing. Pittsburgh’s strong interfaith community is a model of how unity and strength can highlight goodness, not hatred.
Community is what pulls people through any trauma. In my experience, it is the people who stand beside you to help you through that really make a difference. But community, in this case, is also about actively engaging in Jewish life. It’s not enough to attend the rally or sign the petition. Each of us needs to take it upon us to find some way to engage in our own Jewish community and to sustain the wider, global Jewish People. Yes, we are a long-standing, resilient people, but we must continue to build community in order to remain so. How can I best ensure that there will be a Jewish community for my child or my grandchild unless we reverse the trend toward isolation and un-affiliation? I fear the outcome should we remain on the current trajectory.
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Virtual Moment of Remembrance
The Pittsburgh community invites friends from around the world to pause — wherever they are — and share in a collective moment of remembrance.
Sign up to receive a text message at 5:00 pm that will contain a video with a mourning prayer and the names of the 11 people who lost their lives.
Join this virtual moment of remembrance by visiting www.pausewithpittsburgh.com.
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AJC’s 2019 Landmark Survey on Antisemitism in America
(Photo taken at Muir Woods July, 2018.)
