October 4, 2024
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jewish communities everywhere reacted with horror at last year's Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas on Israel, but the approaching one-year commemoration of the assault hits home particularly hard in Pittsburgh's Jewish community, which already marks a grim anniversary each October.
It was here on Oct. 27, 2018, that a gunman carried out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, killing 11 worshippers from three congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue.
Adding to the intense feelings is the arrival of the Jewish High Holy Days — days that bracket the Oct. 7 anniversary with rituals focused on mortality and recalling the deaths of loved ones and ancient martyrs. Many are taking consolation in the rituals as they mark an emotionally fraught milestone.
“The trauma here runs deep in our community,” said Rabbi Seth Adelson of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative synagogue near Tree of Life in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh. “You can’t really separate the trauma of Jews being attacked in Pittsburgh and Jews being attacked in Israel.”
The attacks do have differences.
The Pittsburgh attack was carried out by a right-wing extremist who targeted Jews for their aid to immigrants. It was followed by widespread civic support for the Jewish community.
The Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered a still-ongoing war in Gaza. Israel is now intensifying attacks on Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, while Iran has attacked Israel with missiles.
The attacks have common threads, say local Jewish leaders. The synagogue attack violated the sanctuary of a place of worship. The Hamas attack has been followed by an upsurge of antisemitic incidents around the world.
“The similarity of what Oct. 7 and Oct. 27 hold together is a question of safety for Jews,” said Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, which aids those traumatized by the 2018 attack.
Nationally, nearly two-thirds of Jews feel less secure than they did a year previously, according to an American Jewish Committee survey earlier this year.
In Pittsburgh, a man was charged in September for allegedly attacking two university students wearing yarmulkes, the skullcap worn by observant Jews.
A synagogue and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh office were targeted with graffiti. Parents of Jewish college students say their children have endured antisemitism amid protests critical of Israel.
Rabbi Daniel Yolkut of Congregation Poale Zedeck in Squirrel Hill said it's become “unremarkable” for his children to hear antisemitic slurs shouted by motorists.
Rabbi Adelson said that unlike in 2018, local Jews haven't felt widespread community solidarity.
“There’s this feeling that Israel was attacked and then the attacks just continued here,” he said.
Many in Pittsburgh have lived in Israel or have friends or relatives there. For Yolkut, one connection is especially poignant.
As a rabbi in Virginia years ago, his congregants included the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who in 2023 was taken hostage by Hamas.
“I remember him just as a small child running around my synagogue,” Yolkut recalled. He was devastated to learn weeks ago that Goldberg-Polin was killed by Hamas at age 23, along with five other hostages.
As Oct. 7 approaches, Feinstein said Pittsburgh Jews are already familiar with the “anniversary effect” — the emotional churn around a traumatic calendar date. Each year since 2019, the community has held memorial services honoring the 11 lives lost on 10/27, as the synagogue attack is known locally.
She reminds people that emotions around anniversaries are natural: "Whatever we’re feeling, we shouldn't feel shame.”
Members of all three congregations worshipping at Tree of Life were killed that Sabbath morning in 2018 — the host congregation, Dor Hadash and New Light.
News of last year's Hamas massacre arrived on another Sabbath, just weeks after the conclusion of a lengthy federal trial in which the Pittsburgh assailant was sentenced to death on 63 criminal counts.
“The timing was very difficult because some people had not calmed down from their very high level of anxiety from the trial,” said Rabbi Amy Bardack of Congregation Dor Hadash. Both attacks raised gut-level questions: “Are Jews safe in the world?"
Jewish community members acknowledge broad differences within their families and congregations, though most support Israel as a Jewish state and safe haven for Jews.
“Everybody wants peace,” Adelson said, “But there is a strong feeling that Israelis deserve to live in peace and not to be subject to the threats and rocket attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah.”
The disputes have flared locally, such as a recent failed effort by some Pittsburgh organizations to bar the city from doing business with entities linked to Israel.
Rebecca Elhassid now volunteers for the new Beacon Coalition, which researches local politicians’ views on Israel and Jews.
She said her congregation has had hard discussions about the war and Israeli policy. She sees her job as helping congregants navigate the complex moment.
“We can’t control the Israel-Hamas war, and we can’t control antisemitism,” she said. “There’s only one thing we can control, which is how we treat each other, how we keep loving and kind connections to each other across differences of ideology.”
