Watch Extras from the Film
Below are film extras from Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life for you to watch and share. You can find additional videos for students online here. Learn more about the Film and Campaign
Laurie Eisenberg and the Memorial Archive
The memorial archive is a collection of the thousands of art and objects that were left by people on the sidewalk in front of the Tree of Life synagogue. Historian and Tree of Life congregant Laurie Eisenberg describes the memorial archive and the process of preserving the items left at the synagogue. The objects ranged from paintings and sculptures to flowers and handwritten notes. People left these items as a display and representation of their grief and support for the victims, their families, and their community. The centerpiece of the memorial was the 11 wooden Star of Davids with the names of each victim on them. These were made by Greg Zanis, from Illinois, who made more than 26,000 memorial markers for victims of mass shootings since the 1990s.
Some of the art that was made in response to the attacks was put into a sidewalk gallery in front of the Tree of Life Synagogue as a beautification project and a way to remember the response. This project is called #HeartsTogether: The Art of Rebuilding and displays 224 different artworks which can also be seen on their website: treeoflifepgh.org/heartstogether.
2 for Seder: Honoring a Victim by Sharing Jewish Values at Passover
Marnie Fienberg lost her mother-in-law, Joyce Fienberg during the attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Joyce cared deeply about her family and friends, something that showed during Passover when she would invite lots of friends, family, and other people to her seder. Passover is a Jewish holiday that remembers when the Jews escaped slavery in Egypt. It is celebrated through a meal called a Seder. Marnie felt the urge to do something to remember Joyce, and thought Passover would be a good way to do this.
“I think we can push back against antisemitism through education and love and understanding and having people understand who we are as Jews,” Marnie said. She started a program called 2forSeder to encourage families to invite non-Jews to their Passover seder so that they could learn more about the Jewish community and traditions.
During the Passover Seder, the story of the Jewish people is told each year as a way to remember and to teach the younger generation and new members. This makes it a good tool for introducing people to the community. Rabbi Ron Symons from the Jewish Community Center, started hosting a Freedom Seder for people of all different backgrounds. “So that everyone can be a part of the freedom journey,” he said.
Alderdice High School Basketball Team
Many students at Alderdice High School, in Squirrel Hill, were highly affected by the events at Tree of Life Synagogue. Many of these students knew the victims personally. This video shows how the Alderdice basketball team reacted in the aftermath of the shooting. Before every home game, the coach would put 11 seconds on the clock as a moment of silence to remember the 11 victims of the shooting. The team and other students also planted trees to remember the victims. This is an example of how the community came together to support each other after the shooting.
Kristallnacht: Havdalah Service
On November 9, 2019, students from the Hillel at the University of Pittsburgh held a Havdalah service. Havdalah is the service that brings a close to Shabbat on Saturday evenings. November 9 is the night that Kristallnacht occurred in Germany in 1938. Translated as “the night of broken glass”, Kristallnacht is the night when Nazis destroyed Jewish homes, synagogues, and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. The Hillel students held this service at the Lest We Forget exhibit in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh exhibit showed 16 intimate, large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors from the Pittsburgh area. Lest We Forget is a traveling exhibit designed by Luigi Toscano, a German-Italian photographer and filmmaker. One year after the attack in Pittsburgh, this exhibit allowed people to learn local community members' stories and understand the continued threat antisemitism poses on our communities.
Ride of Reflection
On August 24, 2019, the Mazel Tuffs, the smallest biker group in the Jewish Motorcycle Alliance, organized a Ride of Reflection, a motorcycle ride to the Tree of Life Synagogue to remember the 11 victims. The Jewish Motorcycle Alliance is a community of Jewish Motorcyclists who aim to engage their members in “educational and charitable activities that benefit the wider Jewish community and the broader non-Jewish community,” according to their website. 71 bikes and 125 people from all over the eastern and midwestern United States ended up joining the event. During the event, the bikers joined Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and the family of one of the victims, Rose Mallinger, for a havdalah service. Havdalah brings a close to Shabbat on Saturday evening. Rose Mallinger used to say the prayer for peace every Saturday, so to end the service, the Mallingers said the prayer in her memory.