May 31, 2024 | 23 Iyar 5784
Candlelighting 8:26 p.m. | Havdalah 9:34 p.m. | Vol. 67, No. 22 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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LOCAL Lenda volorei ciendi Adapting post-Oct. 7 non re nus
Tree of Life secures $1 million in federal funding for K-12 education
Pittsburgh provides twoweek respite for wounded Israeli war veterans
Hillel JUC increases programming andodictiumqui security Et andae amusam quistium si de net voloritat Page 2 LOCAL
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Conflict in Etna LOCAL Ovit, ommodi remos ero
Cease-fire resolution draws criticism Page 4
LOCAL Fodictiumqui aut entis andae asimuss Spreading LIGHT in the South Hills
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Photo by Adam Reinherz
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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LOCAL Minto volupta ssimim
Mt. Lebanon students show what it means to be a good neighbor Page 7
LOCAL A history of parking in Squirrel Hill Lenda nus dolorum re pro mi, cuptati ntibus.
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The controversy over meters
Barbara and Sandy Zell, front row, provided a relaxing setting for Israeli guests.
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ome came to sit. Some came to speak. The reasons why seven wounded Israeli war veterans visited Pittsburgh varied. What united the group, they said, were their feelings about being here. Housed by community members, feted by elected officials and respectfully greeted by Jewish day school students, the delegation said they were treated like royalty throughout their May 12-26 stay. “This is a big, supportive, very welcoming and strong community,” Roy Levy, 42, said. Speaking about their hosts, or about what it was like joining strangers in a solidarity march from Beth Shalom Congregation to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh on May 19, was easy. Speaking about the situation in Israel since Oct. 7, or what it’s like leaving family — and a country at war — was harder. “In Israel, I feel alone all the time. This is how the world makes us feel,” Otniel Danzinger, 37, said. “Back home, you feel alone — that there’s
loneliness everywhere,” Levy echoed. Shlomi, 42, donned opaque glasses and asked that his last name be withheld due to continued military service. The simplest tasks can lead to difficult feelings, he said: “If I go in the street, I need to look around 10 times a minute.” “In Israel, everybody has PTSD, maybe not with the diagnosis but behaviorally everybody has it,” Danzinger said. “Every time a child hears a boom — even if it’s a door — the dog, my child, they wonder what happened.” “I tell people we can’t even imagine this,” Point Breeze resident Sandy Zell said. “Imagine every night having rockets coming over, having to sleep in a safe room, or McKnight Road being missiled, Carson Street getting attacked? Imagine if they wiped out the population of Cranberry, or if they kidnapped 4,500 people in Cranberry, what would we do?” Zell and his wife, Barbara, co-chair 412 Friends of Zahal. Launched by the late Sylvia Robinson, the nearly 50-year-old group
Sen. Bob Casey announces $1 million in federal funding for Tree of Life, Inc.
Photo by David Rullo
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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he future of Tree of Life, Inc. became a little clearer last week as Sen. Bob Casey announced $1 million in federal funding for K-12 educational programming to be developed at the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. The funding was announced on May 24 beneath a bright mid-morning sun in Tree of Life’s Zittrain Garden. Casey was surrounded by survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, family members of the victims and other community members. It was the first activity on the site since much of the synagogue was razed to create a reimagined space, designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. A groundbreaking is scheduled for June 23. The focus, Casey said, is on uprooting antisemitism. “That’s part of what we’ve tried to do with this $1 million appropriation, which
Please see Veterans, page 10
Please see Tree of Life, page 10
keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL
Reflections upon graduation
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A change for Beth Israel
HISTORY
The letters of Judge Henry Ellenbogen