New cemetery chapel honors victims of synagogue attack

SHALER, Pa. (AP) — Until recently it was a garage with a dirt floor. But what had been an outbuilding for the cemetery of New Light Congregation has been transformed into a chapel with stained glass windows and other mementos honoring victims of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre.

At a private ceremony last weekend, the congregation dedicated the chapel and honored the 11 people killed in the massacre, with a particular tribute to three of its own members who had served as “the religious heart” of New Light, congregation Co-president Stephen Cohen said.

New Light was one of three congregations targeted at the Tree of Life synagogue building on the Sabbath morning of Oct. 27, 2018, by a gunman who authorities say spewed antisemitic hate online and at the scene.

The chapel, and New Light’s cemetery, are located in this small suburb several miles north of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where the congregation has worshipped for decades. The congregation opened the chapel to a media preview on Wednesday.

The New Light Memorial Chapel includes a display of religious items that had belonged to the three martyrs — a shofar used by Richard Gottfried for High Holy Day services, a travel prayer book used by Melvin Wax and a biblical study guide used by Daniel Stein.

The three “were our leaders for the most important aspect of congregational life,” Cohen said.

The chapel includes displays about New Light’s founding by Romanian immigrants fleeing 19th century antisemitic persecution. And it includes a stained glass window that has three stars honoring Gottfried, Stein and Wax and that depicts a scene from the Torah passage that would have been read on the morning of the attack.