December 27, 2024 | 26 Kislev 5785
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Building leadership on wheels
Attorney's bike trips empower teens LOCAL
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Local paper awards anti-Zionism
Candlelighting 4:43 p.m. | Havdalah 5:47 p.m. | Vol. 67, No. 52 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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Biden commutes death sentences Momentum of 37 federal prisoners — but not from tour the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter leaves Pittsburghers with unified message: Visit Israel Still from “Repairing the World: Stories from The Tree of Life”
Photo courtesy of "Repairing the World"
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
P StandWithUs responds Page 5
HISTORY A Kennywood mystery
The origins of Noah's scroll Page 7
LOCAL “Funny Girl” to open at the Benedum
Hannah Shankman plays Fanny Brice
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resident Joe Biden is taking 37 people off federal death row. That leaves just three federal prisoners awaiting execution, including the man who murdered 11 Jewish worshipers in the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018. Those whose sentences Biden commuted will now serve life sentences in prison. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” Biden announced in a statement released Monday. Along with the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, Biden did not commute the sentences of two other people whose crimes included mass shootings or acts of terrorism: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, otherwise known as the Boston Marathon Bomber, one of the two brothers responsible for killing three people and wounding 281 others in 2013; and Dylann Roof, a white nationalist who murdered nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.” The Biden administration announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment in 2021 in order to study the protocols used. Most of the 37 prisoners whose sentences were commuted were convicted for “less high-profile offenses, such as murders tied to
drug trafficking or the killings of prison guards or other inmates,” according to CNN. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in his statement. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” Anti-death penalty activists, as well as 67 congressional Democrats, including Rep. Summer Lee, who represents Squirrel Hill, had urged Biden to use his executive powers to grant clemency for all 40 federal inmates on death row, including the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. A Nov. 20 letter to Biden signed by Lee and other members of Congress said exercising those powers granted in the Constitution would “address longstanding injustices in our legal system, and set our nation on the path toward ending mass incarceration.” The letter encouraged Biden to help “broad classes of people and cases,” including the elderly, chronically ill, those on death row, people with “unjustified sentencing disparities” and women punished for defending themselves against their abusers. In a series of open letters, a group of human rights activists, former correction officials and crime victims asked the president to commute the death sentences of federal prisoners, noting that President-elect Donald Trump supports the death penalty and restarted executions
Tara Surloff stands near the Western Wall.
Photo courtesy of Tara Surloff
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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efore last week, Tara Surloff had never been to Israel. The Richland Township resident and mother of two ventured to the Jewish state after a spot opened on Momentum’s Unity Trip. Momentum, a group that defines itself as empowering women to “change the world through Jewish values that transform communities,” takes mothers, wives and other women from across the U.S. on trips to Israel, where participants engage with residents of the Jewish state and bolster identity by developing advocacy skills. Though Momentum dates to 2008, Pittsburghers began formally participating in 2017. Since then, Chani Altein, co-director of Chabad of Squirrel Hill, has led four of Pittsburgh’s five contingents, including the recent Dec. 2-8 experience. In years past, Momentum’s trips brought 650-700 women to Israel; this year, because of
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Please see Momentum, page 10
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