Tree of Life leaders offer support for Lewiston while preparing for 5-year commemoration of synagogue attack
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Leaders of the Tree of Life congregation say news of the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, is reopening wounds as they prepare to mark five years since the attack on their synagogue.
On Friday, it will be five years since a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in Squirrel Hill where three congregations worshipped, killing 11 people. Less than 48 hours before, the governor of Maine said a mass shooting left at least 18 people dead and 13 others injured.
Carole Zawatsky, CEO of the reimagined Tree of Life, and survivor Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation released statements on Thursday, saying their planning and remembrance commemorating five years since the attack was interrupted by the news of another mass shooting.
"My heart breaks for the people of Lewiston," Zawatsky said. "May the memories of those killed be a blessing. It feels uniquely and very sadly American that as we prepare to mark five years since a terrifying mass shooting, our planning and remembrance are disrupted by news of yet another horrifying incident. I send my prayers of peace and healing to the Lewiston community and to all for whom this news opens old wounds."
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the 2018 attack on the synagogue, offered support for Lewiston.
"To be a survivor in this country is to have the scabs of your unseen wounds continually ripped off," his statement read in part. "Over the past five years, it has become clear to me that rather than do anything to make the horrors of gun violence such as in Lewiston last night and in my own community of Pittsburgh in 2018, rare, we are forced to live with them. Each incident becomes reduced to a shorthand of place names: El Paso. Atlanta. Buffalo. Uvalde. Colorado Springs. And now, Lewiston."
He went on to say that it's easy to lose hope and give into cynicism and darkness, but "doing so never works and it won't bring back those who were violently taken from us." He said they were embraced by Pittsburgh and the world after the attack, giving them "hope and glimmers of light that lead toward healing." He offered the same embrace to Lewiston.
"May the memories of all who were taken violently last night in Lewiston be for a blessing," he said. "May those who were injured be enveloped in love and kindness while they heal, as members of my own community were. And may all whose lives are forever changed by the trauma of last night's violence and the ongoing fear and uncertainty of this morning find peace and healing."
