October 31, 2025 | 9 Cheshvan 5786
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Literature, culture, community
Candlelighting 6:00 p.m. | Havdalah 6:58 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 44 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Community commemorates Pittsburgh synagogue shooting seven years later
Jewish Book Festival begins Nov. 8 HISTORY
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Day school students from Pittsburgh and Cleveland embrace lessons of Oct. 27
Remembering the voice of "Israel Sings"
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting survivors read Psalm 23 before 11 candles that were lit in memory of those murdered on Oct. 27, 2018. Photo by David Rullo
A look back in time Page 3
LOCAL Outing Zionists online
Pittsburghers listed on controversial site Page 4
LOCAL Senior Living
Special section Page 8
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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even years after the most violent antisemitic attack in American history, Pittsburghers gathered to remember the 11 victims of the Oct. 27, 2018, synagogue shooting. Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger were murdered by a white supremacist the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, while celebrating Shabbat at three different congregations in the Tree of Life building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha. The solemn ceremony held Monday night at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill included participation from family members of the victims, survivors of the attack, those who work to keep the Jewish community safe, a U.S. attorney and Pittsburgh’s CAPA high school. Relatives of those murdered began the event by lighting 11 candles in memory of their loved ones, followed by Tree of Life’s Rabbi Jeffrey Myers chanting El Maleh Rahamim, the prayer for the souls of the departed. This is Myers’ final year as rabbi at Tree
of Life, a congregation he led during the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. He will retire next year. “We pray for the elevation of their souls … Let the earth not cover their blood and let there not be a place sufficient for their cries,” Myers told the hundreds in attendance, his voice filled with emotion. Members of CAPA’s vocals program performed two songs: “True Love” by Sheila Hunt-Johnson and “Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood. The music was followed by Barbara Caplan, Barb Davis and Eleanor Wible — representing New Light, Tree of Life and Dor Hadash, respectively — reading the poem “Epitaph,” which is often recited before Kaddish. Rabbi Amy Bardack, the spiritual leader of Dor Hadash, and Soo Song, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Report recited Mi Sheberach, the traditional Jewish illegal prayer of healing. discrimination Psalm 23 was read by Audrey Glickman, today. Deane Root, Rabbi Doris Dyen, Stephen Weiss, Lou Fineberg, Augie Siriano, Andrea Wedner and Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, survivors of the attack. Please see Commemoration, page 15
Students light memorial candles on Oct. 27, 2025. Photo by Adam Reinherz By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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ours before adults commemorated the events of Oct. 27, 2018, at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, seventh and eighth graders from Jewish day schools in Pittsburgh and Cleveland gathered to honor the 11 people who were murdered in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. The Monday morning program welcomed more than 70 participants from Pittsburgh’s Community Day School and Cleveland’s Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School. Standing outside the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, young learners heard from Alan Hausman, Tree of Life Congregation’s president, about past atrocities and necessary steps toward a better future. Refusing to mention the shooter’s name, Hausman recalled the events of Oct. 27, Pittsburgh Commission 2018, describing how a gunman entered on Human Relations the Tree of Life building and murdered 11 Education · Collaboration · Enforcement Jews from Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash congregations. Please see Students, page 15
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