Tree of Life pays it forward to Wilkinsburg School District
Pittsburgh rallied around the Tree of Life synagogue following the anti-Semitic mass shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, that left 11 innocent worshippers dead and an entire congregation homeless.
Now Tree of Life is giving back to the region that took care of its constituents during those dark days. Members of the synagogue’s Good Neighbor Committee delivered a cache of notebooks, pencils, ear buds and more school supplies to grateful employees of the Wilkinsburg School District on Jan. 16.
“We were seeing so much community support after Oct. 27, just waves and waves of love, support and healing,” said Barb Feige, Tree of Life’s executive director. “Now that we’re looking at our own healing, part of that is giving back to those folks who helped us.”
Tree of Life’s Good Neighbor Committee, which was formed with the express purpose of reciprocating the kindness the congregation received, wanted to help an organization in the Pittsburgh area that was struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to committee cochair Jessica Nock. One of its members happened to have a connection to the Wilkinsburg School District, which, like all school districts, has been trying to educate its students under extraordinary circumstances since March.
The committee decided to put a call out for school supply donations via an Amazon gift registry, to which its members happily contributed. Ms. Nock collected those items, worth nearly $1,000, and organized them into two 45-gallon tubs and four boxes that were distributed to families throughout the district. Wilkinsburg Superintendent Linda Iverson said the district was “honored.”
One of the folks on hand to receive the supplies was Joe Maluchnik, principal of Turner Intermediate School, which has been doing only online instruction all year. He said there was almost a sense of guilt in accepting a gift of this magnitude from a group that’s been through everything Tree of Life has, and he was moved by the synagogue’s “generosity and their compassion and empathy.”
Wilkinsburg also wants to pay it forward by getting its older students together to brainstorm ways to help Tree of Life and the community at large, according to Mr. Maluchnik.
“They reached out to us, and now I think it’s time for our students ... to give back to them,” he said. “That’s what I asked them to do. ... Wewant to build upon that.”
Ms. Nock also hopes that Wilkinsburg and Tree of Life can form a “long-lasting partnership” that extends far past the pandemic and will continue benefiting both the Jewish and education communities.
“We are a strong group,” she said. “I think we are all very much focused on supporting our community through this.”