Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

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Oct 10, 2024, 6:36 PM

Yom Kippur 2024 and Coping with Vulnerability

There is, perhaps, no other time in the Jewish calendar year that we feel as vulnerable as we do on Yom Kippur. Denied all physical pleasures, we spend the day in synagogue asking God for forgiveness and atonement for...

Audrey N. Glickman

Feb 5, 2024, 3:26 AM

Healing, Resiliency, and Learning: Tree of Life Pittsburgh

The author blows a shofar on a rooftop. Photo used with permission.

All who are yearning, let them come. All who feel disconcerted, let them come and harmonize. All who are in need of healing, let us help you begin. I have been reading quite a few articles recently of the op-ed variety in...

Jan 26, 2024, 2:16 AM

The End of the Jewish American Renaissance

I sit on the couch, petting my Westie's white coat. Daisy, like all dogs, enjoys when I rub her belly. She feels safe and secure. And as she shuts her eyes, mine feast on another episode of Northern Exposure...

Michael Zoosman

Oct 27, 2023, 6:57 PM

L’chaim Marks Five Years Since Tree of Life Shooting – and War: ‘May the Killings END!’

Today marks five years since the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting - the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. We, the thousands of members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” reiterate now what we wrote in the...

Sep 19, 2023, 11:04 PM

Bruce Springsteen, “Land of Hope and Dreams”, Grace and Yom Kippur

Introduction: This article is based on a talk I gave at Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell, NJ, on Thursday, September 7, 2023. I would like to extend my gratitude to Rabbi Lucas, Susan Werk, Gayle Wieseneck, Shani Drogin, Ami Talkow, Laura...

Richard E. Vatz

Sep 3, 2023, 3:49 PM

The Tree of Life mass murderer deserves his sentence

Flowers surround Stars of David on October 31, 2018, part of a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life Synagogue to the 11 people killed during worship services on Saturday October 27, 2018, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar via Jewish News)

The strongest argument against the death penalty is fear of error, but the odds of executing an innocent person these days are basically nil

Michael Zoosman

Aug 28, 2023, 11:46 AM

‘NO to the Gas Chamber!’ – L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty

The thousands of members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” stand together with all of civilized humanity against the use of any form of gas chamber - or any other means - to kill prisoners. It is inconceivable that...

Michael Zoosman

Aug 21, 2023, 10:18 PM

A Parshat Shof’tim D’var Torah Against the Death Penalty

This past Shabbat, as we read Parshat Shof'tim - which includes the phrases “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof - “Justice, justice you shall pursue,” (Deut. 16: 20) and the famous Torah verse “ayin tachat ayin” - an eye for an eye...

Audrey N. Glickman

Aug 6, 2023, 3:13 AM

Media Statement on the Death Penalty

Media Statement on Death Penalty, artwork by Audrey N. Glickman. Used with permission.

Gentle readers, following is the media statement I contributed to our rather large press conference following the decision of the jury in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, that the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter should be sentenced to...

Aug 4, 2023, 4:31 PM

At the Tree of Life trial, I learned that a courthouse could be a place of healing

Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Dana Gold, and Rabbi Kara Tav in Pittsburgh, PA on June 6, 2023, meeting regarding chaplaincy at the courthouse during the trial for the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue building.

As chaplains with the unique task of offering on-site spiritual support, we saw how the process helped piece together a fragmented story

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