Squirrel Hill congregation discovers bond with South Carolina church that was attacked
Two congregations of different faiths separated by 655 miles melded over the holiday weekend, united in grief, their bond forever forged by unspeakable tragedies.
Members of the New Light Congregation from the Tree of Life/Or L’Simcha synagogue in Squirrel Hill, where 11 worshippers were killed by an alleged anti-Semite in October, traveled to Charleston, S.C., to pray with members of Emanuel AME Church, where nine black worshippers were killed in 2015 by a white supremacist.
The Pittsburgh group consisted of 10 people — seven from New Light, two from Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church in East Liberty and one member of the Lord’s Church in Monroeville.
“It was a very ecumenical group.” said Beth Kissileff, organizer of the trip and the wife of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, who leads New Light Congregation. He is among the survivors of the synagogue slaughter.
A donor whom Rabbi Perlman had met at an annual awards dinner last month in New York City paid for the group to fly to Charleston.
They attended Jewish services on Friday and Christian services on Sunday and marched in Charleston’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade through Downtown on Monday.
The trip was moving and powerful, Ms. Kissileff said.
“There were two goals to the trip. One was to help with the healing process from a traumatic experience and the other goal was to make a statement about our fellowship with Mother Emanuel Church and the larger African-American community,” she said, using a name the Charleston church is often referred to.
“Unfortunately, in 2018 and 2015 there are still victims of hate crimes, there are still people who can’t accept the beautiful varieties of Americans we have in our country. We don’t want to turn back the clock to anytime prior when any group was oppressed for any kind of ethnic, religious or physical difference.”
“I thought it was an incredibly moving and healing weekend,” Rabbi Perlman said. “I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about the power of faith and how it can affect people, especially after a tragedy.”
On Friday, he stood at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, a Reform congregation, with Emanuel shooting survivor Polly Sheppard. She had traveled to Pittsburgh on Jan. 7 to meet with members of New Light, Tree of Life and Dor Hadash, the three congregations whose members were worshipping in the Squirrel Hill synagogue during the attack Oct. 27.
“[In Pittsburgh], she facilitated a dialogue to see our way through a hate crime and attack on our place of worship. We very much wanted to see her [in Charleston],” Ms. Kissileff said. “She knows what we’re going through.”
On Sunday, Rabbi Perlman stood at Emanuel’s altar rail, hugging its senior pastor, the Rev. Eric S.C. Manning. Rev. Manning, who flew to Pittsburgh to comfort synagogue members shortly after the attack, said he wanted to break with protocol and called the entire Pittsburgh contingent up. And then he asked the more than 100 worshippers to come and embrace the group.
Emotion spilled forth as tearful church members did so, enveloping the Pittsburghers in a massive group hug.
“It was just such an emotionally charged moment that the tears were just flowing,” Ms. Kissileff recalled. “We felt so loved by that congregation.”
In the group was Carol Black, who survived the shootings at Tree of Life by hiding in a closet. The gunman killed her brother, 65-year-old Richard Gottfried of Ross, a dentist. Also in the Pittsburgh group were Peg Durachko, Mr. Gottfried’s widow who came up with the idea for the trip, and Mr. Gottfried’s twin sister, Debi Salvin.
In addition to Mr. Gottfried, two other New Light members were among the 11 people who died inside Tree of Life on Oct. 27 — Melvin Wax, 87, and Daniel Stein, 71, both of Squirrel Hill.
On Monday, the Pittsburgh contingent marched in the annual Charleston Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, among 200 groups and floats. About 3,000 watched from the street.
Rabbi Perlman and Rev. Manning marched the parade route linked arm in arm— in homage to Rev. King and Jewish theologian, philosopher and social activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who did the same in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.
The group carried banners from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and posters that said, “No place for hate — Squirrel Hill.”
They sang in Hebrew a passage from Psalm 131, which translates, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.” They sang in English “We Shall Overcome” and chanted, “We’re Pittsburgh strong. No place for hate.”
Ms. Kissileff said it was a moving experience. “People cheered and clapped and waved and smiled. I felt very honored.”
“They were waving,” Ms. Black said. “As we chanted, they chanted.”
“It was really gratifying to feel unified with the city of Charleston. In front of us was a garbage truck. We gave him one of our signs and he put it in the window of his truck. It was very, very nice.”
Following the parade, Rev. Manning met privately with the group for about an hour.
“He talked about the things we were experiencing, about things to prepare for the trial, paving a road map for us, which was very helpful,” Ms. Kissileff said. “It is tremendously heartening to know someone who shares our experience.”
The entire holiday weekend was one of unity, support and love, Rabbi Perlman said.
“People came up to me and personally embraced me, saying they know what we’re going through, they stand by us. Whether it was on the street, in the church, it was very powerful.”
Ms. Black agreed: “My whole intention was to hug those people, to just be in solidarity with them. I was able to accomplish that.
“We’re at the beginning of this journey, even though it’s been a couple of months. It was really the first step toward healing to be around people who have experienced the same thing we experienced.”