Pittsburgh – What The Gunman Didn’t Get: In Squirrel Hill, Diversity Made Us Strong

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    A crowd gathers at the intersection of Murray Ave. and Forbes Ave. in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh during a memorial vigil for the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue where a shooter opened fire earlier in the day Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)Pittsburgh – In the 1960s, when I was growing up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill district, we used to take the trolley up cobble-stoned Murray Avenue heading downtown, passing through a tableau of European-American Jewish life.

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    There were Silverman’s and Rosenbloom’s, the two bakeries where we bought our dark rye bread. There were kosher butcher shops, delicatessens, synagogues and a Hillel academy, small jewelry shops and clothing stores.

    Back then, the synagogues and Hebrew schools bore signs that read “Save Soviet Jewry”. We were all acutely aware that Pittsburgh, then the steel capital of the world, would most likely be hit by one of the first Russian nuclear missiles should World War Three erupt. But the plight of Soviet Jews worried my neighbors almost as much.

    It was no surprise the Soviet Jewry movement resonated in Squirrel Hill. We were, after all, a neighborhood of refugees, though most of us didn’t come through formal programs. My neighbors’ families had fled pogroms in Eastern Europe, or genocide in Germany, or, in my family’s case, poverty in Ireland. We understood in our DNA the need to seek refuge.

    The man accused of slaughtering 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Saturday, Robert Bowers, appears from social media postings to have had a very different view of refugees. Hours before Saturday’s attack, he accused one prominent refugee group, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, of liking “to bring invaders in that kill our people.” Social media postings attributed to him display a particular animus for Jews.
    Flowers are placed an impromptu memorial at the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday's shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 28, 2018.   REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
    IRISH AND ITALIANS, TOO

    The non-Jewish minority in Squirrel Hill were mainly Catholics, Italian and Irish whose parents and grandparents were also immigrants seeking a better life.

    The cultural diversity enriched us all, sometimes literally. We went to each other’s birthday parties, Bar Mitzvahs and confirmations – which meant more envelopes containing money at the end of the night.

    Almost all the families on Mt. Royal Road, where we lived, were Jewish. We had the great fortune to live across the street from the Sterns, whose father George owned the Manor theater on Murray Avenue. We saw “Flubber” and “101 Dalmatians” at the Sterns’ house before they opened in theaters.
    Mourners grieve upon visiting an impromptu memorial at the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday's shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 28, 2018.   REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
    Down the street were the Alperns, who had a men’s store. The family gave me and my brothers hand-me-down sport coats, ties and slacks, much better than the stuff we used to get at Claber’s, the local Wal-Mart equivalent of those days.

    The Friedman’s next door were very close family friends. The mother, Sylvia, was a nurse who had emigrated from South Africa. She was in our kitchen every day after school having tea with my mother. Her daughter, Linda, practically raised my two younger sisters.

    We never felt like a minority in predominantly Jewish Squirrel Hill. Indeed, the exotic shops, the men in black hats and sidelocks, the clanging street cars, provided a much more vibrant American lesson in multiculturalism than the one we studied in civics class at school.
    Mourners outside the Tree of Life synagogue a day after a mass shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 28 October 2018. EPA


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    12 Comments
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    ayinglefunadorf
    ayinglefunadorf
    5 years ago

    Rabaysay, This massacre was not unexpected. On the contrary, it was unfortunately predicted. Right here on WIN, on NYT, on NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, WSY and so many other news channels. It was predicted when we watched his rally’s. “Beat them up” and they did. Election have consequences. When Nazis with swastikas marched in Charlotte chanting “Jews will not replace us” and they killed an innocent bystander. The POTUS reaction: “There are fine people on both sides” one side were the Nazis the other side liberals and antinazis. He was asked many times to retract his statement. HE DID NOT. Some here might tell you he didnt mean this or that, he didnt say this or that. Every major Newspaper from NYT, W Post, WSJ and CNN, ABC, NBC and many other yesterday and today quoted the POTUS the same as I described. “There are fine people on both sides” Elections have consequences. Unfortunately to us the consequences are becoming worse every day now. Hashem Yerachem

    AmYisroel
    AmYisroel
    5 years ago

    Liar
    The DNC deputy chair ellison is a Farrakhan acolyte
    The obamanation had a Jew hating pastor jeremiah wright for 20 years and was friends with the terrorist bill Ayers
    Rapist bill just stood on stage and shook the Jew hater farrkhans hand
    Gillibrand supports and praises Jew hater Linda sarsour
    Spartacus Booker supports anti Israel activists then lies by sayings he’s so stupid he can’t read
    6 democrat senators and over 50 democrat house member boycotted an address to Congress by the Jewish PM of Israel
    It was the obamanation who gmhad a bauble of the histories biggest mass murderer Mao on his white house christmas tree
    The obamanation had Jew hater instigator of the crown heights riots visit the white house many times
    The obamanation administration condemned Israel at every opportunity whether they were announcing the building of some houses or killing some terrorists
    Democrats support Iran over Israel besides for shipping over 1.7 billion dollars unfreezing over 100 billion more to use to build up their military and to fund the murder of Jews in Israel and an eventual path to nuclear weapons with which to use to destroy Israel
    It was the obamanation who flew to Cairo snubbed Israel and gave a speech comparing the palestinians to the jew after the holocaust and calling all of israel occupied territory
    It was horse face kerry who said Israel can’t be Jewish and democratic without letting the Arabs overrun Israel
    It was the democrats who called on Trump not to recognize Jerusalem or move the embassy even though they voted just for that
    It’s democrats who support the anti Israel bds crowd the anti Israel BLM crowd and the anti Israel Antifa crowd
    Democrats are the ones who are anti religious freedom wanting to force everyone to support gay marriage and abortion on demand

    Raphael_Kaufman
    Raphael_Kaufman
    5 years ago

    Also note that the shooter was ANTI- Trump who, he claimed, was controlled by Jews.

    DanielBarbaz
    DanielBarbaz
    5 years ago

    After reading posts 1 through 8, it should be clear to anyone that Republicans and Democrats both have many positives and many negatives. I would like to think that those of us who have studied Talmud know that complex issues cannot always be reduced to simple sound bytes; painting any political party with a broad brush does us all a disservice.

    The name name calling that repeatedly manifests itself on the Voz Is Neis site is a booshah. We are all entitled to express our opinions. Let’s exchange ideas and thoughts in a mentchlach manner.

    5 years ago

    To #4 - You forgot to mention that none of the news media (or even the Democrats or Republicans), gave a damn in 1991, when there was a pogrom in Crown Heights, and Yankel Rosenbaum was killed. The news media never called Al Sharpton to task when he stated at that time “If those diamond merchants want to get it on with me, I’ll pin their yarmulkas back on their heads”. When Sharpton ran for President, not one of those who were also running, had the guts to bring up Sharpton’s sordid past. Also, what about when former Secretary of State James Baker stated “F— the Jews; they didn’t vote for us”. To this date, who has denounced Baker? Certainly, not the Republican Jewish Coalition. The only politician who had the guts to denounce James Baker was Mayor Koch.