By Doron Krakow
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — On Tuesday, more than 100 Jewish community leaders from across the continent gathered in Pittsburgh for a day of solidarity with the beleaguered Jewish community there, just 17 days after the massacre of Jews at prayer at the Tree of Life Synagogue on Squirrel Hill. We came representing Jewish federations, Jewish family service agencies, and of course, JCCs. In light of the part that the Pittsburgh JCC has played since the very first moments of the attack, JCC leaders came out in force, making up a large majority of the crowd.
Our partners there, the local Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Jewish Family and Community Services, and the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh briefed us on the preceding two weeks and on the ongoing work of shepherding a shattered community through the early stages of the healing process. The FBI’s crisis intervention team shared insights into its work to provide support and relief for the families of victims, both dead and wounded, and for those who had witnessed the carnage.
Our delegation toured the JCC, chatting with staff and with members engaged in a host of JCC programs and activities. It was a “regular” day at the J; the 16th such day since the slaughter during which Brian Schreiber, the JCC’s president and CEO, and his staff provided for their community. From the very first, the community turned to them. Community members needed them to be there. They needed the programs to run. They needed a place for their kids. They needed physical therapy. They needed to work out. They needed to come together. To console one another. To find help. They needed to mourn. And they got what they came for—every single day.
We boarded buses for a tour of Squirrel Hill. We drove past the deli, and the bakery. Past Mike Tomlin’s house. Tomlin is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, more than 100 of whom came to the funeral of Cecil and David Rosenthal, whose sister had worked in the Steeler organization. We drove through Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, quite literally the part of Pittsburgh Fred Rogers called home and where the TV show was made. Past Mr. Roger’s house. We drove past synagogues and schools, guided each step of the way by lay leaders whose lives had unfolded along the streets of this leafy suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood—a neighborhood whose population has long been and remains largely Jewish.
We got off the buses at the Tree of Life. I was privileged to have been part of the planning team that brought this visit together. I had been to Pittsburgh for the funeral of Rose Mallinger, z’l, whose son Alan is a long-time and beloved member of the JCC staff. I have seen my share of the aftermath of terrorism in Israel, in Argentina and in Europe. But I was unprepared for what I experienced at the Tree of Life, where we sat in the very chapel in which four Jews at prayer had been slaughtered in cold blood in an act of barbarous anti-Semitism.
I was unprepared for the sight of bullet holes on the bimah and the aron hakodesh (the holy ark that houses the Torah scrolls). I was unprepared for the missing pews, the wood and marble that had been removed as evidence of the assault. I was unprepared for the stark reflections of members of the chevra kadisha (the burial society whose job it was to retrieve the remains). I was unprepared for the torrent of emotion or for the defiance of a rabbi’s declaration that “we will not be driven from our home by hate”—even as he reflected upon the prospect of resuming prayer and worship in a place in which he and others had borne witness to the murder of their own. I was unprepared because this kind of unspeakable thing wasn’t supposed to happen here—in the land of the free and the home of the brave. But now it has. And we will likely never quite be the same.
More than 100 leaders from across the continent came in a powerful show of solidarity. We came to take the Jewish community of Pittsburgh into our warm embrace. We came to make sure that everyone we saw or spoke with knows that they are not alone; that their tragedy is shared by all of us. That their concerns and fears are our concerns and fears. And that we will be with them not just for a day, but for as long as it takes to heal.
As I write these words, our movement’s first-ever JResponse deployment is underway in Pittsburgh. JCC professionals from outside of Pittsburgh have arrived in Squirrel Hill to provide a day off for weary members of the JCC staff. They’ve come to staff the reception desk; to fill in for lifeguards and exercise class instructors. They’ve come to serve meals. To deliver supplies. To prepare for Shabbat. They’ve come to let members of Brian Schreiber’s team start the weekend a day early.
Others will come on Monday and on every Friday and Monday through the end of year, or for as long as it takes for those who’ve labored under such onerous circumstances in Pittsburgh to have sufficiently caught their breath.
JResponse was conceived as a way for our field to lend a hand in the aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane, a wildfire or a mudslide. We never imagined that it would be needed for something like this. But now we’re needed and here we are, because that’s what we do. We are community builders. We are a professional family whose cause is the strengthening of Jewish communal life on this continent. We do our service to this cause in our hometowns each and every working day. But when needed and called upon, we are proud to do that service wherever it is needed most.
On Tuesday, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish Federations of North America and our Jewish Family Service partners. Together, we came to Pittsburgh to bring comfort to others, but we left having been comforted by them. We came to Pittsburgh in defiance of hatred and left inspired by the strength, the resilience and the love of those with whom we met. We came to Pittsburgh in a show of strength and left strengthened by what we saw and heard. We came to Pittsburgh to make sure that its Jewish community doesn’t feel like it has to get through this alone, and left more assured than ever that each of them, and each of us, is part of something far larger than ourselves.
We came to Pittsburgh. And we’ll be back. Am Yisrael Chai, עם ישראל חי
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Krakow is president and CEO of the JCC Association of North America