‘ Remember. Repair. Together.’
Tree of Life commemoration to have 3 themes
They won’t be calling it an anniversary but rather a one- year mark or commemoration.
They’re not holding any official events at the crime scene itself, which many find to be too fraught with traumatic memories.
They’re compressing the official community events to one day, rather than dragging them out.
And while they drew on the experiences of other survivors of mass casualty attacks in the United States, they knew this required a unique response as the deadliest anti- Semitic attack in U. S. history.
So one of the ways that Jews and non- Jews alike will be marking Oct. 27, 2019, is by doing precisely what victims in the Tree of Life synagogue building were preparing to do on Oct. 27, 2018, before the shots were fired — reading and studying the Torah, the ancient sacred Jewish text.
Organizers felt since this was an “explicitly anti- Semitic mass casualty event, that it was
important to have an explicitly Jewish commemoration,” said Rabbi Amy Bardack, who is coordinating the planning for the events and is director of Jewish life and learning for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
She and others with the federation outlined the plans at a webinar on Wednesday and in an interview.
Rabbi Bardack said the planners closely followed the wishes of those most directly affected by the attacks last Oct. 27. On that date, a gunman who authorities say voiced anti- Semitic and antiimmigrant hatred killed 11 worshippers from three congregations that met at the Tree of Life / Or L’Simcha synagogue building in Squirrel Hill.
The official commemorations will have three components: community service projects, Torah studies and a memorial service held at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. An overflow crowd at the hall last year commemorated the victims a day after the massacre.
Rabbi Bardack, who chairs the committee planning the events, said members were “really looking for the people most directly affected to lead us,” including surviving relatives of the slain and those who survived and witnessed the attacks.
They told the committee they wanted events to be dignified and respectful.
“That’s the tone we wanted for these official events,” she said.
People are asked to register at www. pittsburghoct27. org for the communityservice and Torah study elements. The site will be updated with more information as the date draws nearer.
Even with these opportunities, “nobody should feel a sense of obligation” to attend anything, Rabbi Bardack said. “These activities are to be for those who want to be in community.”
For those who want something more low- key, but who also don’t want to be alone, plans are in the works for counselors and chaplains to be available at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, she said.
The Torah studies will take place in various rooms at Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside, which has housed two of the displaced congregations since the shootings.
Rabbi Bardack noted that last Oct. 27, the attack happened at the start of the morning Shabbat events. Congregations New Light and Tree of Life were just beginning worship services and had not yet reached the point in the service when the Torah is read. The third congregation, Dor Hadash, was about to start a Torah study session.
One option for this year’s Torah study is to focus on the passage that was scheduled to be read that day in the Tree of Life building, Rabbi Bardack said. Or participants could focus on one of the three themes of the commemoration: “Remember. Repair. Together.”
No official commemorative events are planned near the Squirrel Hill synagogue building, a scene that some of those most affected have not been to since the shootings, Rabbi Bardack said. But planners anticipate the site will attract individual visitors, and there will be a security plan in place that would enable people to pay respects in ways such as leaving a note, Rabbi Bardack said.
She added that all events would be protected by security personnel.
The planners aren’t calling Oct. 27 an “anniversary,” since that connotes happy memories of events such as weddings. Words such as “commemoration” are being used instead.
Oct. 27 comes after a string of other major events on the Jewish calendar: the high holy days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, followed by Sukkot.
Rabbi Bardack said these observances, the first of these holidays since the killings, may prompt traumatic memories for some participants.
And Oct. 27 isn’t the last landmark date on the horizon. According to the lunarbased Hebrew calendar, the massacre occurred on the 18th day of the month of Cheshvan, which this year lands on Nov. 16. Jews traditionally use the Hebrew calendar to mark the yahrzeit, the date of a loved one’s death. That one- year mark will be commemorated privately by the loved ones of the deceased, rather than in a communitywide event, Rabbi Bardack said.