Squirrel Hill synagogue to host services for Tree of Life as FBI still investigating

The News Journal

Flowers, notes and candles surround memorials Oct. 30, 2018, for each of the 11 shooting victims at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH -- One of the largest synagogues in Squirrel Hill will host Shabbat services for the members of the Tree of Life congregation this weekend while the FBI continues to process the scene of Saturday's deadly shooting.

Congregation Beth Shalom, which can seat more than a thousand people, will hold Friday night and Saturday morning services for members of the three congregations housed in the Tree of Life, said Adam Hertzman, director of marketing for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

“The congregations want to be with each other,” Hertzman said. Members of the public, including city officials, have been asked to not come to the services.

Police say a man opened fire in the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue on Saturday, where he shouted "All Jews must die” and killed 11 people in 20 minutes. Two other worshipers and four officers were injured. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Those killed were Daniel Stein, 71; Joyce Feinberg, 75; Richard Gottfried, 65; Rose Mallinger, 97; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; brothers Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal 54; husband and wife Bernice Simon, 84 and Sylvan Simon, 86; Melvin Wax, 88; and Irving Younger, 69.

Mourners visit the Tree of Life Synagogue on Oct. 29, 2018, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh after 11 were killed and six others were wounded Saturday.

Federal prosecutors are considering the death penalty for accused gunman Robert Bowers, age 46.

Burial services for the victims began Tuesday morning and will continue through the week. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited Tree of Life on Tuesday afternoon. Not far away, demonstrators cried “Leave Pittsburgh, leave Pennsylvania” and hoisted signs that read "Words Matter.”

Hertzman said work will need to be done to “restore the synagogue to its previous state.” But there are no immediate plans to restore the synagogue because FBI officials are still investigating, he said.

“We want the congregants to be able to return to the synagogue in the state they remember it,” he said.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh announced Wednesday morning that each of the victim’s families will be receiving $2,000 and $500 gift cards to Giant Eagle Supermarket to help them during the period of mourning.

Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 324-2386 or mnewman@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @MereNewman.