Six years after synagogue shooting, a Jewish neighborhood grapples with antisemitism and elections
Amid a somber anniversary and with Election Day on the horizon, concerns about rising antisemitism are at the forefront of many voters’ minds in Squirrel Hill, a Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH — Rabbi Seth Adelson was leading a Shabbat morning service at Beth Shalom Synagogue six years ago, about half a mile from where a gunman opened fire on a congregation at Tree of Life Synagogue, killing 11 people in the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history.
“What was really striking and really heartwarming in the wake of that shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, was the fact that we felt so embraced and loved and supported by all the people around us, all the non-Jewish friends and allies,” Adelson said.
He said he did not feel that same love and support in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people, which prompted Israeli military action in Gaza that’s still ongoing. “All of those people who we thought were allies, our non-Jewish friends, suddenly weren’t there with us,” said the rabbi from Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
It’s a feeling permeating the heavily Jewish neighborhood — and one that has affected how the swing-state community has processed the 2024 election. Amid a somber anniversary and with Election Day on the horizon, concerns about rising antisemitism are at the forefront of many voters’ minds.
Squirrel Hill resident Rona Kaufman said she volunteered for John Kerry’s 2004 Democratic presidential campaign, donated to Barack Obama’s campaign, took her kids with her to vote for Hillary Clinton and went to a Black Lives Matter rally in Squirrel Hill holding her “Jews for Black Lives Matter” sign. Now, she calls her plan to vote for former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 “shocking.”
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