'Evil did not chase us from our building:' Tree of Life congregation closes one chapter and starts another at special ceremony
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Tree of Life congregation in Squirrel Hill turned a page Sunday, taking a moment to reflect and remember ahead of future renovations and the upcoming trial.
Right now, there is no date set for construction to begin; Rabbi Jeffrey Myers told KDKA it was important for them to hold a special ceremony the day before the start of jury selection to tell the synagogue, 'L'hitraot' – 'Until we see each other again,' closing one chapter, before opening a new one.
"This is not a final moment but a pause into the next chapter," Myers said at the ceremony. "We'll be back again, and evil did not chase us from our building."
In the nearly five years since the synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshippers from the Tree of Life and two other congregations, Dor Hadash and New Light, the building has remained vacant.
Now it's on a path of transformation.
The site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history will soon become a complex that memorializes those murdered and educates folks about antisemitism.
"We have roots that go down 159 years. The tree may have lost some branches, but new branches are growing, and we're going to be here another 159 years," Myers told KDKA.
They took the time to remember all of the special times they shared inside the temple.
"We cannot, we must not permit one day out of 25,993 days to define us, nor outweigh all the good," Myers said at the ceremony.
Myers listed off celebrations from weddings to baby namings, sisterhood events, and bar and bat mitzvahs, engaging the crowd by asking them to raise their hands if they went to one of these events at the synagogue.
They'll always have those memories as they prepare for a new era of the congregation.
Alan Hausman is the congregation president.
"We are moving to another chapter in the existence of the Tree of Life," Hausman told KDKA.
However, it's not easy, and emotions are running high with jury selection just a day away.
Mel Solomon, on top of the looming trial, said he is also deeply engaged in the renovation project.
"It's hard to move forward when you're involved as we are in the reimagining of the site. We're drawn back almost every day," Solomon told KDKA.
"I'm sad that I have to do this. No rabbi should ever have to do this in America," Myers told KDKA.
The pain will never go away, but together, they hope to send a strong message to the community at large.
"We're still here you know and we're not going anywhere," Solomon told KDKA.
During the ceremony, Myers took down a mezuzah from the door frame outside the synagogue, which contains passages from the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, to protect it from damage.
Congregants also placed down stones along the retaining wall as tokens of love and respect that will be integrated into the new structure.