PITTSBURGH — Eight years after the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history at the Tree of Life Synagogue, the Pittsburgh community came together to honor the 11 lives lost.
People came together on Sunday as part of 10.27 Healing Partnership’s annual day of service. Volunteers made blankets, packaged hygiene kits, served meals and cleaned up Jewish cemeteries across the area.
This day of service is part of an ongoing commitment to remember the victims and bring people together.
At The Friendship Circle, an organization that helps people with disabilities, officials say they’re seeing the difference this tradition is making in young people.
“So many of the kids here come because this is just what we do now, and it’s been eight years, so a lot of these young kids that are here commemorating with us are really just commemorating values they’ve grown up with,” Director and Co-Founder Rivkee Rudolph said.
More than 50 people cleaned gravesites at Beth Abraham Cemetery in Carrick. Followers of the Jewish faith view this as an ultimate act of kidness because it can never be repaid.
“Although cemeteries can be sad, and the reason we’re here is sad - what happened several years ago - I think that when these people come together each year, they’re happy,” said Kelly Schwimer, the executive director of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh.
Community members will gather again on Tuesday for a public commemoration ceremony marking eight years since the attack.
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