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As trial begins in Tree of Life massacre, Pittsburgh’s Jews struggle with what to reveal and what to conceal
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — On Friday afternoon, Squirrel Hill was suffused with spring breezes and pink dogwoods, and alive with the movement that typifies the coming of Shabbat.
Toddlers scrambled up the jungle gym in the JCC playground, while the chatter in cafes was about a looming storm that could soak the walk to synagogue on Saturday. Murray Avenue Kosher was emptying out of challahs.
Barely present, at least on the surface, was any indication that Monday morning would hold a turning point in the community’s greatest trauma. That’s when jury selection was to begin in the trial of the man accused of shattering Shabbat on Oct. 27, 2018, with gunfire. His massacre of 11 worshipers, in a synagogue building a 10-minute stroll from the downtown of this leafy, heavily Jewish neighborhood, was the deadliest-ever attack on U.S. Jews.
But behind the scenes, there are clear signs that the trial’s proximity is being felt. Maggie Feinstein, the director of the 10/27 Healing Partnership, which provides post-traumatic therapy for the community, said that as the trial nears, requests for treatment have spiked.
“The trauma cues that for a while bothered us right after the shooting — for some people it might be ambulances, for other people it might be media, for some people it might be the sound of multiple police cars — you get to a place where they don’t bother you as much,” she said. “But the increased media attention and the increased awareness of this upcoming trial for a number of people is bringing back for them that maybe they didn’t do their own healing the first time around.”
A Starbucks in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh is decorated with a memorial for the victims of the 2018 massacre at the city’s Tree of Life synagogue, April 21, 2023. (Ron Kampeas)
There were three congregations in the building: Tree of Life and New Light, both affiliated with the Conservative movement, and Dor Hadash, which is Reconstructionist.
The 11 victims were brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, couple Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Rose Malinger, Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Jerry Rabinowitz, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger. Seven were from Tree of Life, three were from New Light and one was from Dor Hadash.
For their families, their friends, their congregations and their broader Jewish community, the legacy of the massacre is a deep-seated longing for control, a longing to never have to think again of the gunman and of the anguish he left in his wake, while grappling with tender memories of the dead, of the decades spent in celebration and in prayer in the building.
Who narrates this story, the gunman or his victims? That struggle now looms as the alleged gunman goes to trial. The community is wrestling with questions such as where and whether to put the bullet-riddled artifacts, whether to worship at the site, whether to even speak of the massacre and how and whether the gunman lives or dies.
”We believe strongly that this antisemitic attack should not stop people from practicing and being Jewish,” Feinsten said. “For a lot of people, that’s an active choice that they have to work at. It doesn’t come easily after feeling unsafe in that environment to then work to find safety in it. But a lot of people have chosen to do that.”
On Friday, Feinstein was organizing support services for families who would, if they so choose, be sequestered in a separate room in the court where they could view the trial. (Family members may also ask to be seated in the courtroom.) She assigned six therapists to be present with the families.
Compounding the revisited trauma of the event, the families are divided over whether the gunman, should he be convicted, deserves the death penalty. The accused has a lawyer, Judy Clarke, known as “the attorney for the damned” for her determination to keep her clients from execution.
What’s clear is that the Jews of Squirrel Hill are taking the trial on with their characteristic spirit of collaboration. The community has hired public relations specialists to handle media inquiries ahead of the trial, in part to safeguard locals from being pressed to answer questions that could harm them or shatter the sense of unity. Congregants reached by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency dutifully deferred to the list of approved contacts on a list distributed by a PR agency.
On Friday afternoon, signs of unity that flooded the city in the immediate aftermath of the shooting were still visible. In a tobacconist’s window a sign with the slogan “No place for hate/Stronger than hate,” which had proliferated throughout the neighborhood after the attack, remained propped up next to a flag and an ad for the lottery. A Starbucks had on its window white paint drawings depicting “love,” “kindness” and “hope” in English and in Hebrew, alongside symbols: the Star of David, a heart and a dove.
A tobacconist window includes a poster of the “No Place for Hate” slogan that proliferated after the Tree of Life Massacre in 2018, in Pittsburgh, April 21, 2023. (Ron Kampeas)
Representatives of the community talk about “doing Jewish” as a means of coping, including redoubling the very activities — allying with the city’s Black minority and advocating for immigration, refugees and gun control — that fueled the rage of the alleged attacker.
The attacker allegedly was driven in part by the partnership between Dor Hadash and HIAS, the Jewish refugee aid group, and the congregation’s sponsorship of refugee families.
“We have, if anything, doubled down on our commitment to immigrants and refugees,” said Dana Kellerman, the chair of the communications committee at Dor Hadash. “We are currently coming up on the end of our first year working with a new resettlement program to resettle a Congolese immigrant family in Pittsburgh, and we have every intention of when the year commitment is up of working with a second family.”
Kellerman said the shooting had “honestly become part of the background of our existence at this point.” In keeping with her congregation’s rules aimed at protecting their community, Kellerman declined to talk about the day of the massacre, the death penalty or about details of the trial. But she was open about the ways in which her congregation has leaned into the values it has long held, and that the gunman so reviled.
“We have become louder and more public about practicing our Judaism,” she said. Now, she said, the congregation incorporates advocacy for refugees into its service, with liturgical readings on immigration.
There are other changes. “We even have hats now! We have baseball caps!” Kellerman said with a smile, unearthing a photo of herself in a white cap with “Dor Hadash” and a stylized Magen David in blue, standing alongside gun control advocates.
“Previously we all would have shown up as our individual selves, and now we show up in our Dor Hadash baseball caps,” she said. “Mine kept blowing off.”
Steve Cohen, the co-president of New Light, said the congregation’s relationship with Black churches in the city has reached new intensity since the massacre. The congregation’s rabbi and congregants who know Hebrew partner with the churches to analyze sacred texts in the original.
“We would bring our Tanachs [Hebrew Bibles], and the Christian congregation would bring their Bible and then we would talk about the Proverbs and go through it, not just what the intention of the author was, but how different ways the same words can be translated in order to imply different things,” he said. “And so we went through the whole Book of Proverbs with the Rodman Street Baptist Church, and this past winter, we did the selected Psalms with the faith and Destiny Church on the north side.”
The interior of the new sanctuary of the New Light congregation, four and half years after a gunman massacred three of its congregants, in Pittsburgh, April 21, 2023. (Ron Kampeas)
New Light took its cue from survivors of the 2015 attack on the Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in which a white supremacist murdered nine Black worshipers, Cohen said. Leaders of New Light traveled to the church and heard from its elders that it was not enough to tend to the traumatized individuals, but to the community; they emphasized outreach, bringing congregants back in.
“That’s a lot of the reason why we have an outpouring of members who never attended shul now attending shul,” he said.
Feinstein, too, said she had an intensification of religious and ritual observance among her clients: more frequent attendance at Shabbat services, forming a daily minyan, finding a study partner for daily Talmud study.
Kellerman said the community has become closer; she sees it in congregants who linger. “It shows up in things like people showing up for Friday night services, and hanging out to chat or getting on a little early to chat,” she said.
A rendition of architect Daniel Libeskind’s plans for the interior of the new Tree of Life synagogue. (Tree of Life)
In the days leading up to the trial, the community bid farewell to the most salient relic of that painful day: the hulking synagogue building on the corner of Wilkins and Shady that has stood empty since then. All three congregations have decamped to nearby synagogues, leaving behind the chain-link fence draped with paintings from children across the country wishing for strength.
“Nobody has been meeting in the synagogue since the day of the shooting,” said Carole Zawatsky, the Tree of Life CEO who is overseeing the plans to replace the building. The only people to have been inside at all, she said, were survivors and “special friends” — donors to the rebuilding and politicians.
Zawatsky said it is wrenching to even contemplate returning for some. “You can walk through the building and see where the gunman was destructive,” she said. “You can see where the gunman was apprehended, where the gunman opened fire. It’s devastating to witness.”
But some intend to: Tree of Life lost seven congregants but plans on returning once the building is rebuilt as a museum and education center focused on the dangers of extremism.
On Sunday, the Tree of Life congregation had an outdoor ceremony to say “L’hitraot,” Hebrew for “until we meet again,” to the building as it has existed up to now.
“We are grateful to God for the thousands of blessings that have passed through these doors,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi who sheltered congregants and alerted police, said at the ceremony. “We cannot, we must not, permit one day … to define us, nor outweigh all the good.”
The new center is being designed by Daniel Libeskind, the architect who designed the master plan for the World Trade Center site reconstruction in New York and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
But Dor Hadash and New Light decided their moves were permanent in part because families of their victims swore never to return to the building.
New Light is now ensconced in what once was a secondary chapel at the Beth Shalom synagogue, as if it has been there for decades: Plaques honoring past donors and presidents adorn the walls of the sanctuary. The only signs of the massacre are the 1,000 paper cranes Pittsburgh’s Japanese community gave the congregation, reflecting a Japanese tradition that folding cranes will make a wish come true. They hang at the entrance to the sanctuary, unexplained by any plaque. There is a stained glass monument to the three victims at the cemetery where they are buried.
Even with Tree of Life’s commitment to return, many questions remain about what that will look like. The congregation has yet to decide what objects will stay in the sanctuary, what will stay in storage and what will be part of a separate exhibit, Zawatsky said.
“The first work that’s had to be done for the synagogue is ‘What are the things that need to be saved and go into storage during construction?’” she said.
In some ways, she indicated, the work of rebuilding could bear some resemblance to the balancing act that the community will have to navigate during the alleged shooter’s trial.
“We are thinking deeply about how you exhibit some of these materials,” Zaslavsky said, “in ways that are both teachable moments and don’t retraumatize.”
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Iran Calls on Spain to Lead Sports Boycott Against Israel
Anti-Israel demonstrators release smoke in the colors of the Palestinian flag as they protest to condemn the Israeli forces’ interception of some of the vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nacho Doce
Despite the ceasefire in Gaza taking effect, Iran is urging Spain to continue pushing for Israel’s suspension from international sports, as Madrid leads international efforts to boycott and isolate Jerusalem on the world stage.
In a letter to his Spanish counterpart, Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth Ahmad Donyamali praised Spain’s government for condemning “the genocide perpetrated by the Zionist regime in Gaza,” according to Iranian state-run media.
The Iranian official asked Spanish Minister for Education, Vocational Training, and Sports Pilar Alegría to lead efforts to build a global consensus to bar the Jewish state from international sports.
“Today, the world is faced with a serious challenge. The presence of the Zionist Regime of Israel as the biggest violator of international law in global sport arenas is undermining the credibility of sport values and principles,” Donyamali wrote in his letter.
“The continuation of such a situation turns sports, which should be the common language of nations for convergence, into a tool that serves to legitimize a system based on discrimination and apartheid,” the Iranian minister continued.
“Spain can play a significant role in global consensus to suspend the Israeli regime in sports,” he said.
Purportedly to protest the war in Gaza, both Iran — with its official policy of refusing to compete against Israeli athletes — and Spain are pushing efforts to boycott Israel, falsely accusing the Jewish state of genocide.
Last week, Israel and Hamas reached a US-backed ceasefire deal, ending a two-year conflict that began after the Palestinian terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has become one of Israel’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified in recent months, coinciding with a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents targeting the local Jewish community — from violent assaults and vandalism to protests and legal actions.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has faced increasing backlash from his country’s political leaders and Jewish community, who accuse him of fueling antisemitic hostility. The Spanish government has also been a leading force in the anti-Israel sports boycott.
Last month, Sánchez called for Israel to be barred from international sports events after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the finale of the Vuelta cycling race in chaotic scenes in Madrid.
“The sports organizations should ask whether it’s ethical for Israel to continue participating in international competitions. Why was Russia expelled after invading Ukraine, yet Israel is not expelled after the invasion of Gaza?” Sánchez said while speaking to members of his Socialist Party.
“Until the barbarity ends, neither Russia nor Israel should be allowed to participate in any international competition,” the Spanish leader continued.
Spain has also announced that it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, citing the country’s military offensive against Hamas in the war-torn enclave.
Israeli officials have repeatedly criticized the Spanish government’s actions and remarks, accusing Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state internationally, as relations between the two countries continue to spiral downward.
This increased hostility comes as anti-Israel sentiment rises in Spain, with the local Jewish community being increasingly targeted.
On Wednesday, anti-Israel protesters clashed with local police in Barcelona and Valencia during a general strike in support of Gaza.
During the protest, roughly 15,000 people took part as some demonstrators set containers on fire and threw stones at businesses accused of supporting Israel.
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‘Just Too Many Examples’: Starmer Announces Antisemitism Review at UK’s National Health Service
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer reacts as he meets with Britain’s Defense Secretary John Healey (unseen) and Member of the House of Lords George Robertson (unseen) at 10 Downing Street, in London, on July 16, 2024. Photo: Benjamin Cremel/Pool via REUTERS
Following a series of episodes involving allegations of antisemitism in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), Prime Minister Keir Starmer revealed a new plan on Thursday to counter hate targeting Jews seeking medical care.
“There are just too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively,” Starmer said in a statement. “We’ve already put in place management training in relation to the NHS, but I think we need a wider review, because in some cases, clear cases are simply not being dealt with, and so we need to get to the root of that.”
Starmer noted that John Mann, who serves in the House of Lords and as the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, would lead the review into the NHS’s handling of these cases.
“The NHS and the health sector pride themselves on being welcoming, inclusive, and professional in dealings with every one of us, as we are all patients at different times and in different ways throughout our entire life. Everyone in the country should be confident in these underlying principles at all times,” Mann said. “This review will look at the issues that can undermine the confidence of individuals when seeking or receiving health care.”
Mann stated that “ensuring that the systems and culture of regulation across the health service match, at all times, the universal principles and ethics that underpin our NHS will be the sole focus of this work.”
Wes Streeting, who serves as health and social care secretary, described his shock at the severity of the problem.
“The NHS should be there for all of us when we need it – regardless of income, race, or religion. Discrimination undermines everything our health service stands for, and undermines its ability to provide quality care,” Streeting said. “I have been appalled by recent incidents of antisemitism by NHS doctors, and I will not tolerate it. There can be no place in our NHS for doctors or staff continuing to practice after even persistently using antisemitic or hateful language.”
Streeting added that “patients put their lives in the hands of health-care professionals. They treat us at our most vulnerable. They therefore have a special responsibility to provide total comfort and confidence. I am grateful to Lord Mann for taking on this work. I expect his recommendations, and the action we are taking today, to help us enforce a zero-tolerance policy to racism in health care.”
One recent example of antisemitic sentiment in the United Kingdom’s medical sector manifested in the investigation into Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopedic surgeon, under government review after making such statements as claiming the Royal Free Hospital in London was “a Jewish supremacy cesspit” and that “over 90% of the world’s Jews are genocidal.”
On Wednesday, The Daily Mail published a 30-second video clip of Aladwan saying that “the Palestinian people who are fighting for liberation – including armed struggle as per international law, right – are heroes, every single one of them. We are proud of our armed resistance and in Islam we call that ‘Jihad.’ That’s an honor. That’s how you defend your people.”
Another recent incident involved Dr. Ellen Kriesels, who works as a consultant pediatrician at Whittington Health NHS Trust and serves as clinical lead for community pediatrics. She has been suspended pending a formal inquiry, after the family of a disabled Jewish boy uncovered her long trail of antisemitic social media writings and expressed concern about her views influencing her treatment of patients.
The UK has seen similar controversies around antisemitism in health-care settings.
At University College London Hospitals (UCLH), posters appeared on walls with the claim that “Zionism is poison” and the accusation that the Jewish state had been “slaughtering children in Gaza.” The hospital apologized and promised it would crack down on enforcing policies intended to prevent the promotion of political ideologies to patients.
Another high-profile case involved midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who resigned from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after UK Lawyers for Israel exposed a series of anti-Israel posts — including an Oct. 8, 2023, message celebrating “Palestinians’ right to resist” the day after the most lethal day for the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust. Mohamied has since filed a lawsuit claiming her supervisors illegally suppressed her pro-advocacy.
According to the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care, Mann will review how the NHS responds to antisemitism at all stages from hiring through professional oversight. He will also examine regulatory processors, transparency in investigations, the mechanisms used for reporting, and how to implement zero-tolerance policies properly.
Jewish organizations praised the move.
The Jewish Medical Association (JMA) said in a statement that it “has become increasingly concerned about blatant expressions of antisemitism — simply anti-Jewish racism — that have become widely tolerated across health care. British Jewish health-care students, professionals, and patients find this profoundly distressing and intimidating. The JMA welcomes Lord Mann’s review of the role of regulators in eliminating this toxic culture for Jews.”
Jewish Care CEO Daniel Carmel-Brown said his organization “welcomes the government’s commitment to tackling antisemitism and racism across the NHS and wider society. These measures send a powerful message that hatred and discrimination have no place in health care or anywhere else.”
Professor Habib Naqvi, chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, also endorsed the action.
“Tackling antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism involves clear communication of a zero-tolerance stance, implementing systemic changes, and creating a supportive environment for all employees,” Naqvi said. “That’s why we fully support roll out of the comprehensive measures announced today by the government. Our diverse workforce is the backbone of the NHS. It must be cared for, celebrated and respected for the outstanding care that it provides.”
Naqvi added that “at the same time, our patients, colleagues, and communities need to be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. No one should be subjected to discrimination or abuse of any kind, within or outside of the workplace.”
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Cornell University Professor Retires to Avoid Suspension After Excluding Israeli From Class on Gaza
Cornell University, May 25, 2024. Photo: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
A Cornell University professor who according to the school violated federal anti-discrimination law when he expelled an Israeli student from class has reached an agreement with the administration which would allow him to retire and avoid serving a two-semester suspension he received as punishment for the incident.
During the spring semester earlier this year, Professor Eric Cheyfitz, an English literature and American Studies instructor, allegedly determined that the contributions of an Israeli student, Oren Renard, to a course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict titled “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” were “disruptive” and asked him to leave his class. Following the incident, Renard reported Cheyfitz for discrimination, triggering disciplinary charges and a dispute which drew in the faculty, national media, and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
Cornell had already canceled Cheyfitz’s courses in September in response to the matter and pressed the case for further disciplining him even after his colleagues in the faculty senate, an overwhelmingly left-wing and anti-Zionist body, voted to acquit him of the charge. However, Cheyfitz, who participated in anti-Israel encampments the previous year and has been criticized for propagating content which is “radical, factually inaccurate, and biased,” has refused to be corrected, citing academic freedom as justification for his actions.
Having reached an impasse, the two parties chose to part ways, ending Cheyfitz’s two-decade tenure.
“The Cornell Office of Civil Rights issued a finding of discrimination committed by Professor Cheyfitz,” the university told The Algemeiner in a statement shared on Thursday. “Professor Cheyfitz has chosen to retire and leave university employment, thus ending Cornell’s disciplinary process. The finding that Professor Cheyfitz violated Cornell policy and federal law remains in place.”
Anti-Zionists at Cornell University have attracted negative headlines and attention to the school before, as previously reported by The Algemeiner.
In October 2023, days after Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted, raped, and murdered Israelis during a massacre which claimed 1,200 lives, history instructor Russell Rickford hailed the atrocities as “exhilarating” and “energizing” during a rally held on campus. Rickford later apologized for the comments while arguing that he “intended to stress grassroots African American, Jewish, and Palestinian traditions of resistance to oppression.” He addressed the expression of regret to “my family, my students, my colleagues, and many others,” but not to the Jewish community or Israelis — the chief targets of Hamas’s terror onslaught.
Not a month later, now-former student Patrick Dai threatened to perpetrate heinous crimes against members of the school’s Jewish community, including mass murder and rape, in a series of social media posts. In addition to threatening to harm individuals, Dai threatened to attack a kosher dining hall on campus — 104West, which is affiliated with the Steven K. And Winifred A. Grinspoon Hillel Center.
“Gonna shoot up 104 west… Allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary!” one of his posts said. Another read, “If I see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat. if i see another pig female jew i will drag you away and rape you and throw you off a cliff. if i see another pig baby jew i will behead you in front of your parents [sic].”
Dai has since been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.
US college campuses saw an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — after the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. In a two-month span following the atrocities, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses alone. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.
To this day, Jewish students report feeling unsafe on the campus. According to a new survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), the vast majority of Jewish students around the world resort to hiding their Jewishness and support for Israel on university campuses to avoid becoming victims of antisemitism.
A striking 78 percent of Jewish students have opted to “conceal” their religious affiliation “at least once” over the past year, the study found, with Jewish women being more likely than men to do so. Meanwhile, 81 percent of those surveyed hid their support for Zionism, a movement which promotes Jewish self-determination and the existence of the State of Israel, at least once over the past year.
Among all students, Orthodox Jews reported the highest rates of “different treatment,” with 41 percent saying that their peers employ alternative social norms in dealing with them.
“This survey exposes a devastating reality: Jewish students across the globe are being forced to hide fundamental aspects of their identity just to feel safe on campus,” ADL senior vice president of international affairs Marina Rosenberg said in a statement. “When over three-quarters of Jewish students feel they must conceal their religious and Zionist identity for their own safety, the situation is nothing short of dire. As the academic year begins, the data provides essential insights to guide university leadership in addressing this campus crisis head on.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.