Seven years ago, the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh was the scene of the most horrifying and unimaginable crime at a house of worship in this country. Shortly after Shabbat services began on October 27, 2018, a gunman, Robert Bowers, walked into the Conservative synagogue and began shooting at worshippers, killing 11 people before he was shot, wounded, and subsequently surrendered to police.
The emotional scars are still felt throughout the Jewish community, which remains on guard to prevent copycat shooters from mounting a similar attack. The synagogue is in shambles and is in the midst of a $22 million rebuilding effort.
“We have received about $14 million in assorted government allotments. Some of it is for programs only, some for constructing the new building. You can use the money to bring in a speaker, to pay for books,” Alan Hausman, 64, president of the Tree of Life synagogue told The Jewish Press. “Through the evolution process, you determine what do you need, what are you going to do, what you envision your future is going to be. We went through many iterations before we were happy with the new design.”
The congregation has been temporarily housed in Rodef Shalom, a Reform temple nearby in the East End neighborhood. “They treat us [very well]. The space is beautiful… Not a negative thing to say about it but it is not ours,” Hausman said, explaining, “Most of our people want to be back in our own home.”
An independent organization called Tree of Life, Inc. was created to handle the redesign and deconstruction of the building so that congregants will have a new place for davening they can call their own without the remnants of the bloodshed in the main sanctuary.
“We’re still dealing with the trauma of the event. It’s very hard,” Hausman said. “There will be a sanctuary space [and] a museum space. The front of the building will become the memorial to the event. The museum is going to be a place to learn about antisemitism, what led this nitwit to do this, the outcome and how ridiculous this really is,” he said. “The one silver lining out of this event has been the tremendous relationship we have established with so many other people.”
He described the congregation’s goals for the new building. “The main sanctuary will be completely renovated, and a new wing will be added on to it toward the parking lot. The new parking lot will be a little bit bigger than what was there, but we will have a lot more parking in front of the building,” he said. “What we want to make is a building that flows. There will be much better line of sight inside the new building, much easier access. We won’t need the elevator because we’re going to adjust the building so it is one level. You won’t have those five feet of steps to deal with. It will be much better.”
Apparently, the current building could not be in worse shape, and is unusable. “The Tree of Life building is uninhabitable,” Hausman said. “It has no utilities now. We have temporary electricity to operate our pumps. There are no bathrooms in that building. The floor has been completely torn up because it had asbestos in it. There is no heating or air-conditioning in the building.”
He hopes that once the new facility is complete, the congregation can overcome the loss of attendance it has experienced since the shooting.
“We’re down about 18 to 20 percent. We have a lot of people who tell us they just can’t come back,” he explained. “The trauma of sitting in the services, not seeing their friends, and knowing what happened is just too much for them to deal with. I can’t tell them they’re wrong because that’s how they feel. It’s the mental health aspect of the trauma.
“Many of our folks are getting mental health counseling…but some of them have just decided that even after they visited counselors, the right fit for them is just not being there.”
In the midst of rebuilding the physical structure, the future might also include bringing in a new rabbi.
“Rabbi [Jeffrey] Myers is coming up on retirement within the next couple of years,” said Hausman. “We’re struggling with what we want to see. What do we want to stand for? Do we want a rabbi to allow intermarriage? Do we want the next rabbi to allow gay marriage? What are those important things that we’re going to need to ask these candidates that they will or will not do for us?”
The emotional toll is so severe that Hausman can’t even mention Bowers, who is on death row, by name.
“The bad guy did fire a total of four rounds that landed in and around the ark [housing the Torah scrolls]. One of the spindles, the saucer-looking part of the spindle, was cut in half. One other spindle was hit and it spins now. None of the scrolls themselves were damaged. One bullet went right through between two scrolls,” Hausman said. “We will be refurbishing the scrolls, but we will not fix the spindles. The heart of the congregation [is] the people, and our people certainly suffered. The heart of the synagogue is the stained-glass windows and the scrolls. They were both spared.”
Tree of Life is still using those Torah scrolls during their stay in the Reform temple. “We will take them back when we move back into the building,” Hausman said. “We have our own ark in the building we are at now…When the Reform congregation has services, our Torahs are removed and theirs are put in, and then we move them [the Torahs] when they are done.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom in Elkins Park, a suburb of Philadelphia, visited Tree of Life where the gunfire rang out and had an offer he probably couldn’t refuse from the synagogue’s president.
“The governor came to visit the building before it was deconstructed. At the very end he said, “Is there anything I could do for you?’” Hausman recalled. “I asked him, ‘Can you read Torah?’ He goes, ‘I can. I’m going to take you up on that.’ At our groundbreaking last year, I’m up there making a speech and I looked down and said, ‘Governor Josh, I remember you told me you could read Torah. Why don’t you do the chapter with Lori [his wife]? I got an opening this weekend, third Aliyah – let me know if you can make it.’ He laughed and everything…. The governor has not come yet. I told him, ‘I don’t care what position you’re in – when we move back into this building, you’re reading Torah.’”
A few blocks away, the rabbi of the Chabad of Squirrel Hill played a limited but supporting role in the healing process by attending where he was needed for a minyan and bolstering the security of his own kehillah. He knows he must guard against copycat shooters.
“We have a problem with antisemitism and gun violence throughout the country. I’m not an expert on how to deal with gun violence but certainly in terms of antisemitism, a lot of people are concerned and worried,” Rabbi Yisroel Altein, 47, director of Chabad of Squirrel Hill told The Jewish Press. Altein grew up in Crown Heights, the son of prominent Chabad rabbi Leible Altein, who is the publisher of hasidic works. He and his wife, Chani, have six children.
An employee of the F.B.I. who was on the scene shortly after the shooting occurred and is now head of security at the local Jewish Federation, helping all the houses of worship guard against hateful attacks, is proud of how the Squirrel Hill community is staying strong.
“This community, which has already endured the trauma of the shooting and the trial, and then October 7, has tolerated a very difficult set of years. We continue to endure hate crimes here,” Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh told The Jewish Press. “While all of this is difficult, our community is still a vibrant community, still a joyous community and extremely resilient. All in all, this community is cohesive, it is strong, and it is tough. I like to look at the positives.”