Squirrel Hill

May 1, 2021

One of this country's oldest and most durable Jewish neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, was shattered on October 27, 2018, by shots from a gunman that killed 11 Jews worshipping at the local Tree of Life synagogue. It was the bloodiest anti-Semitic attack in American history. A former religion columnist for the New York Times, currently director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, Oppenheimer spoke to Squirrel Hill residents and nonresidents, Jews and Gentiles, survivors and witnesses to delineate how one community grieved and healed, even as painful conversations stemmed from the shootings.

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Starred review from August 23, 2021
Journalist Oppenheimer (Knocking on Heaven’s Door) delivers a vivid and deeply empathetic look at Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood in the aftermath of the October 2018 mass killing of 11 worshippers at a local synagogue. Oppenheimer, whose great-great-great-grandfather cofounded the first Jewish burial society in Squirrel Hill, focuses on how residents and outsiders responded to the “greatest antisemitic attack in American history,” depicting acts of hesed, or “lovingkindness,” as well as moments of discord. His profile subjects include a local woman who was photographed reciting Psalms outside the synagogue just hours after the murders, a man who has been delivering handcrafted victim memorials to the sites of mass shootings since Columbine, an archivist tasked with determining which artifacts from the day of the shooting and the weeks afterward might be worth preserving, and an Iranian graduate student whose GoFundMe account for the survivors and victims’ families raised nearly $1.3 million. Oppenheimer also documents residents’ varied responses to President Trump’s visit to Squirrel Hill, and details how a rabbi who had survived the attack courted controversy by calling for gun control in remarks delivered on the one-year anniversary of the shooting (planners had wanted the event to be “completely apolitical”). Deeply reported and elegantly written, this is a powerful portrait of grief and resilience in “the oldest, most stable, most internally diverse Jewish neighborhood in the United States.” Photos.

Starred review from August 1, 2021

The 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was the largest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, when a white nationalist killed 11 people at the city's oldest synagogue, in the country's oldest Jewish neighborhood, just before morning Shabbat services. Oppenheimer (director, Yale Journalism Initiative) has personal ties to Squirrel Hill that compelled him to tell the story of gun violence through the lives of its victims and survivors, based on extensive interviews. He writes that the loss ripped through the tight-knit community. In the aftermath, observing traditional Jewish ceremonial roles was a way to ease the grief: the shomrim (who watch over the body of a deceased person until burial) recited psalms to comfort souls violently torn from this world; and the chevra kadisha society prepared bodies for burial. Beyond the initial shock of violence, Oppenheimer also asks how the soul of a community and its residents can be restored. He observes the way Squirrel Hill moved forward by focusing on the life of the community rather than the death visited upon it. The book includes several maps and photographs. VERDICT A devastating story of loss that becomes a story of societal resilience; essential reading for anyone seeking insight on gun violence.--Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2021
How did "the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history" change a Pittsburgh neighborhood and its residents? A gifted journalist sought answers. In the 1840s, Oppenheimer's ancestors settled in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, "a little Jewish Eden" that would become "the oldest, the most stable, most internally diverse Jewish neighborhood" in the U.S. and the place his father grew up. So the author wondered how it would respond after a White nationalist killed 11 Sabbath-observers in a synagogue that housed two Conservative congregations, Tree of Life and New Light, and the Reconstructionist Dor Hadash, on Oct. 27, 2018: "When the cameras and the police tape were gone, what stayed behind?" In this sensitive and beautifully written account of how Squirrel Hill changed in the year after the attack, Oppenheimer takes an approach rarely seen in books about mass shootings, which tend to focus on the killer or victims. He instead surveys others touched by the tragedy. Many are Jews, including a rabbi leading his first post-attack High Holy Days services and Orthodox volunteer "shomrim," or "guards of the dead," who stayed with the bodies until the medical examiner removed them. Other subjects come from different faith traditions--e.g., an Iranian student who set up a GoFundMe account, a Catholic artist who created a window display for Starbucks, the "trauma tourists" who unhelpfully left "condolence cards that promised that the victims had already met Jesus in Heaven." In this wonderfully rendered narrative, Oppenheimer deftly shows how, when emotions are raw, the best intentions can misfire or fail to satisfy everyone: When civic leaders tried to keep attack-related events apolitical, some residents felt more benefit would have come from the kind of activism shown by students after the Parkland shootings. While the Tree of Life massacre targeted Jews, this book abounds with insights for cities facing the aftermath of any mass-casualty event. A stunning book that offers an eloquent portrait of an antisemitic attack and its effect on a neighborhood.

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