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Can a Tree of Life memorial ‘end antisemitism in our lifetime’? Its new CEO hopes so.
(JTA) – The foundation overseeing the planned memorial for the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh has selected its first director, and her aims are nothing less than the total end of antisemitism.
Carole Zawatsky, a longtime veteran in Jewish nonprofit leadership, was announced as the first new Tree of Life CEO Tuesday. Her appointment came as the nonprofit overseeing the planned memorial revealed its grand plans for what its leadership hopes the space will become in the aftermath of the 2018 shooting that left 11 people dead.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, in our lifetime, we could eradicate antisemitism?” Zawatsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I think if we don’t work toward ending antisemitism in our lifetime, and we turn away from the rise of antisemitism, we stand no chance of achieving that goal.”
There are dozens of Holocaust museums and other American institutions that already work toward eradicating antisemitism; Zawatsky herself worked at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., when it first opened, creating public education programs that toured the country. But, she says, “for the most part, we were talking about things that were in the past and, most significantly, that didn’t happen on American soil.”
To that end, Zawatsky said, the reinvisioned Tree of Life can play a central role: as a place-based museum and memorial of the shooting, that situates the horrific events of that day in a larger continuum of American antisemitism, gun violence, extremism and hate speech. The emotional pull of the location itself, she hopes, will go a long way toward educating visitors: “There is no other institution in American Jewish life built on the site where history actually happened. In and of itself, that’s incredibly powerful.”
Zawatsky’s other roles with Jewish institutions have included nine years as CEO of the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center in Washington, D.C., as well as stints with the JCC of San Francisco; the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Cleveland; the Jewish Museum in New York; and, for much of the past year, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
She is new to Pittsburgh, but notes that antisemitic attacks have a way of bringing geographically disparate Jewish communities together: “When I was the CEO of the Edlavitch DC JCC and JCCs were getting bomb threats, I never thought, ‘That’s not me, that was Delaware, that was New Jersey.’ That’s all of us. I think as a Jew in America, this is our history because it’s everyone’s history.”
Ending antisemitism is a central aim of the pitch behind Remember Rebuild Renew, the fundraising campaign for the synagogue redesign and antisemitism museum. Tree of Life has secured more than $6 million from the state of Pennsylvania for the project, and recently hired a team of lobbyists to seek out federal funding opportunities as well. Zawatsky declined to share further budget details but said many private funders had expressed interest; she said she would soon be hiring staff.
The synagogue hired world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind to design the new complex, which will function as a combined memorial, museum and house of worship. In previous statements the organization had pushed to begin construction in 2023, with the facility opening the following year, but Zawatsky said solid dates for the project are “premature.”
The new organization will also continue to serve as an active congregation for Tree of Life synagogue members, including survivors of the attack, meaning that the congregation’s spiritual and lay leaders are also part of the conversation as it reinvents itself as a memorial. This excites Zawatsky, who believes the combined space “does truly what the notion of a space of learning, a beit midrash, does.” The building has not reopened since the shooting.
Asked whether she was concerned the new project would attract unwanted attention from “dark tourists” or extremists, Zawatsky said the Tree of Life team is “working with security experts.”
Even beyond its lofty educational goals, there are other challenges ahead for Tree of Life. The shooter is scheduled to go on trial in April, a period that Zawatsky acknowledges will be “very painful, very difficult, and the role of the Tree of Life and all of us involved in it is to help to, in any way we can, ease the pain of that experience.”
Whether ending antisemitism is an achievable goal, the potency of Tree of Life as a symbol of its dangers will continue, and its new leadership hopes to make the landmark an educational opportunity.
“One of the most powerful ways to deliver a message to tell a story is through an object,” Zawatsky said. “There is no more powerful object in the United States of America than the Tree of Life.”
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Palestinian Terrorists Hand Over Body of Another Gaza Hostage
Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad handed over the body of a deceased hostage on Friday as part of the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday it had confirmed the body was that of Lior Rudaeff following an identification process.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that a coffin carrying the remains of a hostage had been handed over to Israeli security forces in Gaza via the Red Cross.
Islamic Jihad is an armed group that is allied with Hamas and also took hostages during the October 7, 2023, attack that precipitated the Gaza war. It said the hostage’s body was located in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Under the October ceasefire deal, Hamas turned over all 20 living hostages still held in Gaza since the group’s attack on Israel, in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees held in Israel.
The ceasefire agreement also included the return of remains of 28 deceased hostages in exchange for the remains of 360 militants.
Including Rudaeff, taken from the Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak, 23 hostage bodies have been returned in exchange for 300 bodies of Palestinians, though not all have been identified, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The tenuous ceasefire has calmed most but not all fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities and more aid has been allowed in.
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Iran’s Severe Water Crisis Prompts Pezeshkian to Raise Possibility of Evacuating Tehran
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – As Iran is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades, President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that the capital of Tehran might have to be evacuated if there were no rains in the next two months.
“If it doesn’t rain, we will have to start restricting water supplies in Tehran next month. If the drought continues, we will run out of water and be forced to evacuate the city,” the leader was quoted as saying.
Pezeshkian described the situation as “extremely critical,” citing reports that Tehran’s dam reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years.
According to the director of the Tehran Water Company, the largest water reservoir serving the capital currently holds 14 million cubic meters, compared to 86 million at the same time last year.
Latyan Dam, another key reservoir, is only about nine percent full. “Latyan’s water storage is just nine million cubic meters,” Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Javanbakht said recently, calling the situation “critical.”
On Saturday, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said “we are forced to cut off the water supply for citizens on some evenings so that the reservoirs can refill.”
The ongoing crisis is giving rise to increasing speculation that further shortages could trigger nationwide protests and social unrest.
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US Forces Working with Israel on Gaza Aid, Israeli Official Says
A Palestinian carries aid supplies that entered Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
US forces are taking part in overseeing and coordinating aid transfers into the Gaza Strip together with Israel as part of US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, an Israeli security official said on Saturday.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) will replace Israel in overseeing aid into Gaza. It cited a US official and people familiar with the matter as saying Israel was part of the process but that CMCC would decide what aid enters Gaza and how.
The Israeli security official said that Israeli security services remain part of policy, supervision and monitoring with decisions made jointly, and that the integration of the CMCC was already underway.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Jerusalem told Reuters that the US was “working hard, in tandem with Israel and regional partners, on the next phases of implementing” the president’s “historic peace plan.” That includes coordinating the immediate distribution of humanitarian assistance and working through details.
The US is pleased by the “growing contributions of other donors and participating countries” in the CMCC to support humanitarian aid to Gaza, the spokesperson said.
TOO LITTLE AID GETTING IN
Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed a month ago to a first phase of a peace plan presented by Trump. It paused a devastating two-year war in Gaza triggered by a cross-border attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and secured a deal to release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The CMCC began operating from southern Israel in late October, tasked with helping aid flow and stabilizing security in Gaza, according to the U.S. Central Command.
While the truce was meant to unleash a torrent of aid across the tiny, crowded enclave where famine was confirmed in August and where almost all the 2.3 million inhabitants have lost their homes, humanitarian agencies said last week that far too little aid is reaching Gaza.
Israel says it is fulfilling its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, which calls for an average of 600 trucks of supplies into Gaza per day. Reuters reported on October 23 that Washington is considering new proposals for humanitarian aid delivery.
The Israeli official said that the United States will lead coordination with the international community, with restrictions still in place on the list of non-governmental organizations supplying aid and the entry of so-called dual-use items, which Israel considers to have both civilian and military use.