Tree of Life synagogue demolishes building five years after mass shooting

Five decades ago, the luncheon for Andrew Stewart’s bar mitzvah became the first event in the Tree of Life synagogue’s social hall. This week, Stewart watched as the hall was torn down.

The synagogue has been hollow memorial since Oct. 27, 2018 — when a gunman committed the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. Now, the Jewish community of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh is looking to reframe their place in history by creating new worship space along with an education center and memorial.

“We can’t stand in anyone else’s emotions, but it clearly is bittersweet that this happened and that the building where it happened has been demolished,” Stewart, chair of the construction committee, told The Washington Post. “But, in life, you have to close a chapter to open a new chapter.”

Demolition began 1,908 days after Robert G. Bowers killed 11 people who were at the synagogue for Shabbat morning services.

Witnesses told investigators that the rampage began in the lobby. The first police officers arrived at 9:54 a.m. and the gunman quickly opened fire on them. A small SWAT team followed him further into the building until he was struck during a gunfight on the third floor.

Those killed were Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Irving Younger, 69; and Richard Gottfried, 65.

Prosecutors said Bowers was deeply antisemitic and wanted to kill as many Jewish people as possible, The Post has reported. His defense attorneys did not deny he carried out the slaughter but said he suffered from mental illness. The 50-year-old was sentenced to death in August following a two-month federal trial.

The day of the shooting, Stewart was eating pancakes with his son after the gym when he heard about the massacre. His first thought was his mother, who regularly attends services.

He was relieved to learn she hadn’t slept well the night before and didn’t make it in for morning services.

“Everyone has a story of someone they knew, someone they lost, someone that should have been there,” he said.

Stewart said he recognized everyone who was killed and that the community is determined to ensure they are remembered not by how they died.

A new, small worship space will be located inside the sanctuary along with a museum and educational center dedicated to chronicling the history of antisemitism and hatred in America, he said.

“It is easy to other Jews and in looking at how people other Jews, we see how all kinds of people who are outside of the mainstream can be othered, and that’s important for us to be mindful of and call out,” Stewart said. If not, he said: “This is where it ends up.”

There will also be a memorial garden outside along one of the main thoroughfares of the historically Jewish neighborhood.

The community is rebuilding “as a testament to resilience and to the world that we will not be defined by our haters and our killers,” Carole Zawatsky, chief executive for Tree of Life, told The Post.

She said workers will spend six to eight weeks demolishing 80% of the existing building.

The rebuilding at Tree of Life reflects a difficult question faced by American communities rocked by the crisis of mass shootings: how to return to the sites where the violence unfolded. Some find it jarring to go back to these places — schools, stores, places of worship — especially if context of what happened isn’t provided.

Orlando’s LGBTQ+ Pulse nightclub, the site of an attack that killed 49 people in June 2016, is set to become a memorial. But shoppers are back at Tops Market, which serves Buffalo’s predominantly Black community, after a racially-motivated attack in May 2022 killed 10 people. In December, nine months after a gunman slaughtered three students and injured five in Berkey Hall at Michigan State University, students began returning to the building.

That the Tree of Life shooting occurred in a place of worship brought its own complications, considering that pieces of religious significance were affected.

Zawatsky said one of her first tasks was to remove “evidentiary material” for the museum: a wall riddled with gunshots when the Bowers was apprehended, a kitchen island that two people tried to use as protection when they were killed, the bullet-pocked door to the ark that held several Torahs.

She said those objects will return, reinterpreted in the exhibition.

The project, Zawatsky said, is being funded from a mix of sources: the state contributed $6.6 million, four local foundations gave $1 million and more than 800 people offered between donations, ranging from $10 dollars to $2 million.

Zawatsky was chief executive of the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center in D.C. when the massacre struck Tree of Life. Even nearly 200 miles away, she, like many Jews, was left shaken.

She said she recently found her notes from when she heard about the shooting: “Lead with compassion and find connectivity across people.”