H eadlines
Visitors to Tree of Life Building Mark Oct. 27
NATIONAL ADAM REINHERZ | JE FEATURE
D’RAE WISE STOOD outside
the Tree of Life building in
Pittsburgh for 11 minutes on
Oct. 27. He did the same thing
last year, and the year before.

Wise, a Shadyside resident
who didn’t know any of the 11
Jews murdered on Oct. 27, 2018,
said returning to the corner
of Shady and Wilkins avenues
is a chance to remember life’s
fragility and the responsibili-
ties we share.

“Your life can be taken, any
day at any point,” Wise said.

“Life is short and we have to
grow like a tree and just be
good people.”
Traveling to the building
and standing silently outside
for 11 minutes isn’t particularly
remarkable, he said.

He wishes more people
did so.

“Everyone in the commu-
nity, whether I know them or
not, matters,” Wise said. “We’re
a big part of making our city
and our community strong.”
Since 2019, Madeline Ellgass
has traveled on Oct. 27 from her
Mt. Washington home to the
corner of Shady and Wilkins to
6 NOVEMBER 4, 2021
Israeli natives Efrat Schushein and Ruth Goren speak with Tree of
Life’s Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and Gesher HaChaim Jewish Burial Society’s
Rabbi Elisar Admon 
Photos by Adam Reinherz
Chatham University President
David Finegold and Delilah
Hollander, a Chatham University
student and Dor Hadash member.

deposit flowers. This year, she
left a bouquet of orange roses
near Tree of Life’s temporary
fence. She was hoping to bring
yellow flowers, she said, because
yellow is a “bright, uplifting
color,” but orange was the best
she could do.

But Ellgass — whose middle
name is Rose — knows the
flowers’ hue and species don’t
matter. Bringing flowers is “just
something small for me to feel
like I can acknowledge what
happened here,” she said. “I
David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon,
Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein,
Melvin Wax and Irving Younger.

Bayla Fishman, a Yeshiva
Schools graduate
and programming manager at
the school, said the students’
response to the murder of 11
Jews is driven by a teaching
of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, who believed that
“in order to dispel darkness we
have to bring kindness.”
Along with encouraging
fellow visitors to appreciate
and acknowledge the good
in others, and to volunteer at
nonprofits, Fishman and the
Yeshiva students handed out
Shabbat candles.

Lighting the wicks each
Friday night is an easy way
to eliminate darkness, the
students said.

Around 10:45 a.m., Delilah
Hollander arrived with nearly
20 classmates and administra-
tors from Chatham University.

Hollander, a Chatham
University freshman and a
member of Congregation Dor
Hadash — one of the three
congregations attacked — said
she was in Israel last year on
Oct. 27, and instead of feeling
“alone” again, she wanted
to assemble a group, on site,
focused on remembering the
think it brings me some peace
in knowing that, as a commu-
nity, a lot of people come
together today.”
Throughout Oct. 27, individ-
uals and groups arrived at the
Tree of Life building. Before
9 a.m., mental health profes-
sionals set up a tent south of
the building, where until 3 p.m.

representatives of Jewish Family
and Community Services,
Center for Victims and the 10.27
Healing Partnership greeted
visitors and offered space for
listening and healing.

At 9:54 a.m. — a time when
Mayor William Peduto asked
the city to “hold a moment
of silence and reflection” —
members of the Mallinger
family quietly stood near the
Tree of Life building. Their
matriarch, Rose Mallinger,
was one of the 11 people
murdered during the attack.

Her daughter, Andrea Wedner,
was shot and seriously injured.

About 40 minutes later, more
than 30 students from Yeshiva
Schools of Pittsburgh arrived
with cards, flowers and other
materials in tow. The high
schoolers asked passersby to
“find the kind” and perform
good deeds in memory of
Joyce Fienberg,
Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry
Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal,
JEWISH EXPONENT
D’Rae Wise stood for 11 minutes
outside the Tree of Life building on
Oct. 27.

lives that were lost.

Hollander briefly recounted
her memories of each person
killed — anecdotes that trans-
pired during services, in the
hallways or at kiddush on
Saturday mornings.

“I don’t pretend to speak
for any other person from Dor
Hadash, or our sister congre-
gations, Tree of Life and New
Light, but I know that I will
never forget the lives these people
lived. I will never stop honoring
their lives, and I implore each
and every single one of you to
remember them. But more than
that, remember your life, your
community, the people around
you and the world we live in as a
thing to be celebrated.”
Hundreds of people stopped
See Tree, Page 20
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Ben Waxman Announces State Rep Candidacy
process,” Albert said.

Right now,
though, Waxman’s focus is not policy.

It’s getting elected.

He doesn’t know who he’s
running against or if he has the
support of the local Democratic
Party. He does say that he has
a significant amount of grass-
roots support.

Waxman has
already gotten donations from more
than 130 people and he has a
team of volunteers ready to go
door-to-door. In a local, low-profile race,
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
BEN WAXMAN HAS lived in
Center City for 10 years.

He has unofficially repre-
sented his neighbors to
local government as part of
the Center City Residents’
Association. And he has
advocated for his neighbors
in various official roles, too,
including in communications
positions with Pennsylvania
Sen. Vincent Hughes and
Philadelphia District Attorney
Larry Krasner.

Now, though, the longtime
activist doesn’t just want to
represent his fellow residents.

He wants to be their
representative. On Nov. 3, Waxman
announced his campaign for
a seat in the state House of
Representatives. The Springfield Township
High School (Montgomery
County) graduate will first have
to win the Democratic Primary
in May. But if he does, he will
run for the District 182 seat,
which represents Center City,
in the November 2022 election.

Waxman calls himself a
progressive and is committed
to a social justice worldview. He
led Krasner’s communications
team from 2018-’19 because he
wanted to help the DA work on
sentencing reforms.

But the Conservative Jew,
who keeps kosher in the home
and belongs to Temple Beth
Zion-Beth Israel, is running
because he wants to work on
practical, everyday issues.

Waxman said he wants to
help the state end the pandemic
and reinvigorate the economy.

He views Republicans as a threat
to that first initiative and hopes
to defend a Democratic seat.

Rep. Brian K. Sims represents
the district but is not running
for reelection.

“We’re in a crisis situa-
tion, especially when you have
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Ben Waxman 
Waxman knows he needs an
army on the ground. But his
campaign plan is both digital
and physical.

He wants to use Facebook,
Twitter and his website to keep
building a team of volunteers
and donors. Then he plans on
talking to as many Center City
neighbors as he can.

“It’s local, so you can almost
talk to everyone,” Waxman
said. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Courtesy of Steve Springer
What can we do so the economy recovers?
What can we do so Center City recovers?”
BEN WAXMAN
Republicans in Harrisburg
who are resisting public health
measures,” Waxman said.

Waxman, though,
is announcing his campaign at a
time when COVID case, hospi-
talization and death rates are
declining. So if he wins, by the
time he takes office in 2023,
he hopes to be focusing on the
post-COVID recovery.

As Waxman’s friend and
neighbor Wade Albert put it,
Center City is the “financial
engine of Southeastern PA.”
And right now, there are too
many retail vacancies, Waxman
said. “We’ve lost stores on almost
every block,” he said.

Waxman wants to use public
investment to help the state
economy recover. That way, the
local economy can rebound,
too. He said, “There’s a vibrancy
that only exists if there’s a lot
of people here.” He envisions
blocks full of shoppers and
people going out to eat.

“What can we do so the
economy recovers?” Waxman
asked. “What can we do so
Center City recovers?”
If elected, Waxman would
represent an important district,
but he would just be one vote in
a 203-member body.

Yet he’s confident he
can make an impact in
the Democratic
caucus. Republicans still have a house
majority and General Assembly
control in Pennsylvania.

But House Democrats, led
by Minority Leader Joanna
McClinton, are increasingly
progressive, Waxman said.

Waxman describes a House
seat as the political position
he’s most qualified to hold.

He worked in the Senate for
five years, focusing on the
Appropriations Committee. So,
he’s intimately familiar with
how the government decides to
spend its money.

Albert said Waxman was
an integral part of the budget
process during his earlier years
in Harrisburg as well.

“There’s always a place for
minority voices to be heard
in connection to the budget
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