H EADLINES
NATIONAL DAVID RULLO | JE FEATURE
TWO YEARS AFTER the
shooting at the Tree of Life
building, “Bound in the Bond of
Life: Pittsburgh Writers Refl ect
on the Tree of Life Tragedy”
collects essays from 24 writers
as they attempt to make sense of
the Oct. 27, 2018, tragedy.

Th e Pittsburgh journalists,
spiritual leaders, historians,
writers, poets and academics
presented in the collection
share their pain, fear, confu-
sion and anger in writings that
are scholarly and personal, raw
and profound.

Co-editor Beth Kissileff came
up with the idea for the book,
initially thinking it would be
a collaboration with Eric Lidji,
director of the Rauh Jewish
History Program & Archives at
the Senator John Heinz History
Center in Pittsburgh. It was Lidji
who initially fl oated the idea of
including other local writers.

“Our prime criteria,”
Kissileff said, “was writers,
people, that would be able
to process the vent through
writing. We wanted to be sure
that it contained good writing.”
Kissileff is married to
Jonathan Perlman, rabbi at
New Light Congregation, one
of three synagogues that shared
the Tree of Life building. Th ree
members of that congregation
were murdered during the Oct.

27 attack. Kissileff believed it
was important that local voices
told their story in the collection.

“We really wanted to elevate
the stories and perspectives
of local writers. Th e national
media has a certain angle
and story and way of framing
things,” she said. “A lot of people
don’t even realize there were
three synagogues involved. So,
we made sure there were two
writers from each synagogue
who wrote for the book. It was
really a chance for diff erent
perspectives to be heard.”
Lidji explained that the
pair originally considered
an anthology of previously
published pieces but by 2019, the
idea evolved to solicit original
material from local authors who
had unique points of view.

“We feel like this is the
beginning of a bigger process,”
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Lidji said, “allowing people to
tell their stories.”
Rather than feature stories
by those that were a part of the
shooting, “Bound in the Bond
of Life” reaches into the broader
Jewish and Pittsburgh commu-
nity. Perlman’s essay in the
book, “Eleh Ezkerah, Nusach
Pittsburgh,” is the only contri-
bution from someone in the
building from the day of the
attack. By looking beyond the
three synagogues, the geograph-
ical limitations of Squirrel Hill
and the Jewish faith, Kissileff
and Lidji illustrate that, like a
pebble dropped into still water,
the shooting had eff ects that
rippled throughout Pittsburgh.

In his essay “I Read Somewhere
Th at Pittsburgh is Stronger Th an
Hate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
columnist Tony Norman ties
the shooting to others that have
captured national attention,
including those in Charleston,
South Carolina, and Las Vegas,
and highlights several others,
both in the Squirrel Hill neigh-
borhood and the larger city. He
ties anti-Semitism to America’s
other long simmering hate,
racism, illustrating the point
with examples from his own life.

Norman said that when fi rst
approached, he wasn’t sure what
he could add to the anthology.

“And then it occurred to me:
I’m a member of this commu-
nity. I was profoundly aff ected
and shocked. You know, I can
do this. It will defi nitely be
from a diff erent perspective.”
Th e columnist said he wrote
his essay before George Floyd
was murdered while being
arrested by Minneapolis police
offi cer Derek Chauvin, spurring
Black Lives Matter protests.

“There’s an interesting
confluence between these
things,” Norman said. “And I
think people have become much
more aware of the fact that
there are these tribal hatreds
out there. Th ey’re quite primor-
dial and quite deep, and that
there needs to be a reckoning.

We need to really talk about
JEWISH EXPONENT
Courtesy of the University of Pitsburgh Press
Book of Essays About Tree of Life Massacre Published
what this is all about.”
Barbara Burstin teaches
courses on the Holocaust and
American Jewish history at both
the University of Pittsburgh and
Carnegie Mellon University. In
her essay, “Fall Semester 2018,”
she recalls her experience of
teaching her fi rst class Tuesday
morning following the shooting
the previous Shabbat morning.

“Clearly, my experience
going into the classroom was
pretty dramatic and traumatic,”
she said.

Burstin viewed her writing as
an opportunity for the commu-
nity to learn about and celebrate
Jewish life and the history of
Jewish life. “I wrote to celebrate
life and not just death. I think
that’s an important message to
come out of this,” Burstin said.

Conscious that Jews are oft en
presented as victims in Holocaust
lessons, she writes that she tries to
underscore the lives Jews led before
the Holocaust, talking about their
hopes and dreams, accomplish-
ments and disappointments. She
worries that because of events
like the Tree of Life shooting,
American Jews are mired in a
swamp of anti-Semitism. When
the Tree of Life building is reimag-
ined and rebuilt, she said, “I would
hope that a good chunk of that
reestablishment would involve
the celebration of the Jewish
community.” Historian Laurie Zittrain
Eisenberg’s essay “Sharing
Th eir Stories” is unique to
the anthology. Instead of
addressing her reaction to the
shooting, it instead looks at
the artifacts left behind by the
community to show their grief.

Her writing is accompa-
nied by photos showing both
the expected and unusual
items people left at the Tree
of Life building memorial. In
the pictures, there are a pair of
tennis shoes next to a menorah
surrounded by fl owers; a framed
leaf from the Raoul Wallenberg
Tree on the Righteous Among
the Nations Walk in Israel; stones
decorated by grieving members
of the community; a guitar; and
crosses affi xed with Jewish stars
by a man who has traveled the
country leaving white crosses for
other shooting victims.

Each of the items shown,
and those discussed by Zittrain
Eisenberg, are puzzles that
the historian and Tree of Life
member have attempted to
solve by reaching out to the
community asking for infor-
mation about the objects.

“I came up with a project to
try and identify the back stories
of all the things that people left
for us, most of which were left
anonymously, or with inadvertent
clues as to who the benefactor
had been,” she said. “I got over 50
stories that came from people. Th e
essay is kind of my sharing those
stories and trying to make sense
out of them, trying to fi nd intent
and put that in context.” ●
David Rullo is a staff writer for
the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle,
a Jewish Exponent-affi liated
publication. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



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