Lee requests funds from government spending bill to aid Jewish projects
$1.5M earmarked for Tree of Life building, other care
WASHINGTON —A $1 million grant to help rebuild the Squirrel Hill synagogue that housed the Tree of Life and two other congregations is part of the giant government funding bill expected to clear the Senate by the end of the week.
The money is earmarked for construction to convert the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack on
U.S. soil into a memorial and education center. The synagogue, which had housed three congregations — Dor Hadash, New Life, and Tree of Life — has remained empty since then.
In addition, another $547,000 would go to the 10.27 Healing Partnership, which helps those traumatized by the shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, that left 11 worshippers dead. The shooter, Robert Bowers, was convicted and sentenced to death.
The earmarks were requested by U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, whose district includes Squirrel Hill. They are included in a $459 billion spending bill to fund several government agencies through Sept. 30 and avoid a threatened shutdown this weekend. A second bill will need to pass later this month to fund the rest of the government.
The House passed the legislation on Wednesday, with all five Western Pennsylvania lawmakers voting for it. The Senate is under a deadline to clear the spending bill by the end of the day Friday, when the current temporary legislation keeping parts of the government open expires.
Ms. Lee described the Squirrel Hill project as “a critical space to educate on antisemitism, revitalize a community hub that has sat empty for five years since the antisemitic attack, and will create a positive economic impact in the community by attracting visitors, students, and educators from around the world.”
Ms. Lee, an outspoken opponent of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, has faced criticism from leaders of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community for her positions since Hamas broke an existing cease- fire and launched an attack against Israel on Oct. 7. Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages.
Ms. Lee has joined other progressive lawmakers in demanding an immediate ceasefire without requiring the remaining hostages to be released and has engaged in rhetoric that more than 40 Pittsburgh-region rabbis and cantors said they “perceived as openly antisemitic.”
The clergy raised those concerns this week in a letter to Ms. Lee, the second such letter in three months.
“You have continued to oppose measures before the House of Representatives that condemned antisemitism, and you have continued to call for an unconditional ceasefire from one side of the conflict, a position that devalues the lives and beliefs of one group,” they wrote.
Last month, Ms. Lee dropped plans to address the Council on American-Islamic Relations Philadelphia chapter’s annual banquet after facing blowback from both Democrats and Republicans. Some of those involved in the event reportedly made antisemitic comments after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
Ms. Lee, who is running for re-election this year, faces a primary challenge from Edgewood Borough Council member Bhavini Patel.