H eadlines
Dr. Arnold Eisen leads a session of Torah study during a 2019
commemorative event in Pittsburgh.

Photo by Sanford Riemer
A cemetery cleanup in Pittsburgh was part of last year’s commemoration.

Photo courtesy of Repair the World Pittsburgh
we can’t do it with physical
space right now.”
For New Light, the past two
years have required solidifying
a home and creating a safe
space for members to grieve
the losses of Richard Gottfried,
Daniel Stein and Melvin Wax.

“They were the religious
heart of our congregation,”
New Light co-President Stephen
Cohen said. “They led our
services. They were our choir.

They were our event managers.

They did everything. All of the
day-to-day stuff that makes an
organization work lay in the
hands of those three individ-
uals, and they’re missed. They’re
missed terribly every single
Saturday, every single day,
because of what they contrib-
uted to the congregation.”
Approaching the second
commemoration has been
difficult, New Light co-Presi-
dent Barbara Caplan said.

“It’s a hard time. It’s a hard
thing to talk about. It’s a hard
place to be, but we’re doing the
best we can,” Caplan said. “It’s
just very emotional right now.

It’s building up.”
Since the attack, the congre-
gation has adopted different
supportive measures, like regularly
checking in on Gottfried’s, Stein’s
and Wax’s families.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM “We’re just trying to make
sure everybody’s doing all
right, but it’s just very diffi-
cult,” Caplan said. “It’s a very
emotional time for every-
body, especially the families,
obviously.” New Light has several plans
to mark Gottfried, Stein and
Wax’s second yahrzeit. Apart
from unveiling a new memorial
board inside its current prayer
space, the congregation will
host a special service at the
New Light cemetery. The latter
will include the dedication of a
monument and bench, as well
as recognition of a tree seedling
donated by the 9/11 Memorial &
Museum. The events will occur
in-person and on Zoom — a
hybrid pattern New Light has
adopted during the pandemic,
such as holding in-person and
streamed Shabbat services.

“Ritual is very important to
us, and under Jewish law there
are some things that require
in-person attendance in order
to do the ritual, like Torah
reading,” Cohen said.

The ability to maintain these
practices is a credit to New
Light’s landlord, Congregation
Beth Shalom, Cohen said.

Across the city COVID-19
shuttered synagogues, but
when New Light expressed a
desire to hold in-person gather-
ings, Beth Shalom’s leadership
and medical team worked to
safely enable New Light’s wish.

“Beth Shalom has proven to
be the most wonderful landlord,”
Cohen said. “They have accom-
modated us in every way.”
That includes allowing New
Light to hang its memorial
plaques on the walls, and affix
artwork in areas beyond New
Light’s designated space inside
Beth Shalom’s Helfant Chapel.

“They’ve helped us make a
house a home,” Cohen said.

For Dor Hadash, honoring
the memory of Jerry Rabinowitz
and aiding those harmed by the
events of Oct. 27, 2018, requires
both words and action.

“For us on the second
commemoration, we’re aware
that our country is changing,”
said Donna Coufal, Dor
Hadash’s president. “Our
country is not a predominantly
white country anymore. Our
country is not a binary gender
anymore. There’s a lot of changes
happening, and people ... fight
those changes in violent ways.

And we’ve been the recipient of
that violence.”
Losing 11 people because
of hate, Coufal said, means
that for Dor Hadash “it’s really
important to us to continue to
stand up against hate, stand up
against gun violence. And this
10/27 we intend to speak out on
all of these issues.”
Dor Hadash has plans
for events surrounding the
commemoration but it is
JEWISH EXPONENT
important to the congregation
to make explicit that the Oct. 27
attack was specifically directed
against Jews; that white
supremacist ideology promotes
anti-Semitism, xenophobia and
the demonization of people of
color; and that the enactment
and enforcement of reason-
able firearm legislation would
prevent future terror.

But Dor Hadash’s incli-
nation toward action has
necessarily been complicated
by the pandemic. People can
only handle so much Zoom,
Coufal said, so there need to
be ways to facilitate aid and
remedy problems from afar.

Whether it’s caring for the
vulnerable without physically
being in the same room or
speaking out about matters
of concern from a distance,
Dor Hadash plans to continue
helping those hurt by past
trauma as well as confront
present-day difficulties.

Such work begins with a
framework of memory, Coufal
said: “My understanding of
Judaism is that remembering is
really important. We remember
Jerry Rabinowitz and how we
loved him and love him. I didn’t
know all of the other people who
perished. But they were people
who were going to synagogue.

They were people who loved
being part of a community. It’s
just the best way people can be.

And we want people to be able to
do that in a safe and happy way.”
With the second commemo-
ration days away, congregations
and their members recognize
the need to carefully protect
those in pain while reaching
out beyond the bounds of a
congregation. What gives us a sense of
purpose as a community,”
Coufal said, “is both looking
inwards to help our own people,
but also working to create a
kinder and more just world.” l
Adam Reinherz is a staff writer with
the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle,
a Jewish Exponent-affiliated
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OCTOBER 22, 2020
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