Pittsburgh Jewish Community Votes Amid Rise in Anti-Semitism, 6 Years After Synagogue Shooting

PITTSBURGH—On Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 people and injured six others at the Tree of Life–Or L’Simcha Congregation—the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

Less than five years later, the Hamas terrorist group launched in Israel the deadliest single-day anti-Semitic attack since the Holocaust.

More than six years after the synagogue shooting and a year after Hamas’s attack, the Jewish community in Squirrel Hill, where the synagogue is located, will head to the polls to vote in a key state amid a rise in anti-Semitism.

The Epoch Times saw plenty of Harris–Walz campaign signs, and just one Trump campaign sign, throughout Squirrel Hill, where most of Pittsburgh’s Jews reside as there is a notable Orthodox Jewish presence that is split but leans Republican. The Jewish community in Pittsburgh overall, as is the case nationwide, is heavily Democrat.

Israel is an important issue for Jews in Pittsburgh, according to those who spoke with The Epoch Times.

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The Orthodox community, according to Abbot “Abby” Mendelson, a retired journalist, is “very concerned that the anti-Israel forces will dominate both in the State Department, Department of Defense, and in the White House, and they’re very concerned about Vice President Harris also as someone who is not tough enough to take on the very bad people in the world.”

“We’re living in a nightmare in ways that we had never had imagined before,” said Mendelson.

Pittsburgh Jews who spoke with The Epoch Times noted a disparity when it comes to support for the Jewish community in the aftermath of the synagogue shooting and the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in that it existed in the aftermath of the former but not the latter.

“I think it’s impossible for anyone to even begin to create a narrative where walking into a synagogue and murdering 11 Jews is anything other than anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, academics have been at work for a very long time creating a narrative that violence against Jews in Israel is not anti-Semitism,” said Rona Kaufman, a Democrat and law professor at Duquesne University, calling that notion “a false narrative.”

Mor Greenberg, a Republican, said it has to do with location.

“I think Oct. 27 was right here in people’s backyards. So it felt more personal. It felt like people just didn’t want to believe that there was anti-Semitism right here at home. When it’s in Israel, it’s easier to make judgments,” she said.

Mendelson said he and his wife were in the “Never Trump” camp but voted for the former president in this election because of anti-Semitism and, more so, Israel being their top issues.

Kaufman, a Democrat, said she is voting Republican this election.

While she has appreciated President Joe Biden’s militarily supporting Israel, she said she worries that “under Harris, it wouldn’t be as strong because Harris is not Biden.”

She also said she doesn’t think Trump can be trusted despite his pro-Israel record during his presidency.

“He seems to indicate now that his second administration will be very, very different,” she said.

Brustein also cited Trump’s anti-hawkish tendencies as a cause for concern.

“American isolationism has never been good for Israel,” she said.

At the end of the day, whoever wins, it will not mean the end of the world, Greenberg said.

“I think this electron is going to be really tight, and people have put a lot of resources and emotion into it. I just think it’s good to remember that on Jan. 6, the sun will come up and our life will continue,” she said.

“And the real way we influence people is in our everyday life and everyday interactions with our family, with the community, and we will work with whoever is elected to advocate for the values that we hold true. But you know, everything is going to be all right.”