Audrey Glickman’s heart still aches for Joe — especially on Oct. 27 each year.
Five years ago on Friday, Glickman and Joseph Charny, her late companion, fled Pervin Chapel when a gunman broke into their Squirrel Hill synagogue and opened fire. They hid inside a room near the choir loft, covering themselves with prayer shawls to stay disguised among bags of clothing set for donation.
“He and I got each other through it,” said Glickman, 66, as Pittsburghers gathered Friday at Schenley Park to mark the five-year commemoration of the Oct. 27, 2018 shooting. “We went through all this together.”
Each article of clothing Glickman wore to Friday’s ceremony overflowed with meaning.
A black T-shirt, designed for a post-shooting Taylor Allderdice High School fundraiser, that bore the Hebrew word kehilla — or “community.”
A turquoise pendant featuring a Tree of Life.
And striped socks Charny once bought for her.
“I’m not being sad,” Glickman said. “I guess he’s here somewhere in spirit.”
Hundreds gathered Friday, on an unseasonably warm October afternoon, to commemorate the five-year mark since a gunman entered Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha synagogue and killed 11 Jewish worshippers during an Oct. 27, 2018 Shabbat service.
Killed in the synagogue attack were Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Irving Younger, 69; and Richard Gottfried, 65.
They were members of the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations, all housed in the same building.
The gunman, Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, was sentenced to death on Aug. 3 after a jury heard from 51 witnesses over nine days of testimony in his trial’s penalty phase. The trial stretched out over months under an intense media spotlight in a Downtown federal courtroom.
Bowers was found guilty of all 63 federal counts against him. Today, he is on death row in an Indiana penitentiary.
‘Make the moments count’
Congregation Dor Hadash Rabbi Amy Bardack paused to talk about a service she’s leading on the shooting’s yahrzeit — the anniversary on the Jewish calendar, which falls this year on Nov. 2.
“There are a lot of pieces and this is the community piece,” said Bardack, smiling after she snapped a selfie with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock. “We wanted this to really be focused on the 11 victims. You have to carve out something for them.”
Former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto stood Friday in the park among a crowd of his neighbors.
Sporting flannel, khakis and a pin with American and Israeli flags interwoven, the man at the center of Pittsburgh’s response in 2018 to the synagogue shooting called the massacre “one of the worst moments in Pittsburgh’s history, if not the darkest moment.”
“I think during these times, and what’s happening in the Middle East, a lot of us are leaning on each other,” Peduto said. “But it’s important remembering five years ago, when Pittsburgh pulled together. I think the world could learn a lot from the Pittsburgh way.”
Pittsburghers — some Jewish, some not — took the stage at Schenley Park one by one, each adding a personal touch to the event.
Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, read aloud each victim’s name as their family and friends, many dressed in black, crossed the stage and lit a memorial candle.
Alan Hausman — Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha synagogue’s president and an EMS official for the City of Pittsburgh — sparked thunderous applause for a group of first responders who gathered near the stage.
Clarion Quartet and the Three Rivers Young People’s Orchestra performed soothing music. Gov. Josh Shapiro, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey read a prayer.
Then, there was Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, who sang an emotive take on “El Malei Rahamim,” a prayer for the souls of the departed.
A trained cantor, Myers paused his recitation briefly and let one word ring out — “Adonai!” Hebrew for “My Lord.” It sounded like he was holding back tears.
“Let the Earth not cover their blood, and let there be not a place sufficient for their cries,” said Myers, speaking of the 11 victims in brief remarks. “God is their inheritance.”
Then, selected members of the three affected congregations read a poem.
“Every minute, someone leaves this world behind,” read shooting survivor Dan Leger, a longtime member of Congregation Dor Hadash. “We cannot move to the back of the line.”
“So, while we wait in line,” added Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha member Irwin Harris. “Make the moments count.”
‘Those 11 faces are still there’
Eric Rogalsky, who teaches math at Pittsburgh Sunnyside School in Stanton Heights, started attending services at Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha after getting married at the shul in 1992.
His two children, today ages 23 and 28, celebrated Bar and Bat Mitvahs there. He drives by the site of the shooting constantly.
He has not attended services in person since the 2018 shooting but said it meant a great deal to him that seventh- and eighth-graders from his school served as event ambassadors, handing out programs and greeting guests.
“We try to teach tolerance and acceptance,” said Rogalsky, 57, of Greenfield, who wore a yarmulke and a blue Sunnyside-themed t-shirt. “I think these students know about what it means to reflect on what happened.”
Community Day School seventh-grader Lily Neiman, whose mother knows the family of shooting victim Dan Stein, said the event Friday made her proud to be a Jew.
“I feel like this is an important part of a Jewish person’s life,” said Neiman, 12, of Squirrel Hill. “And it’s important, especially this year.”
Pittsburgh Councilwoman Erika Strassburger said the lead-up to Oct. 27 this year was different than previous years, and made her think about the duality of the community’s response to the commemoration.
“There’s simultaneously grief we’re sitting with — and also relief,” said Strassburger, who lives just three blocks from the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha building. “The trial’s over and the victim’s families now can go on with their lives.”
“At one time, we came together as one Pittsburgh,” she added, echoing Peduto. “I hope we can do that again.”
U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan, who led the legal team that prosecuted the synagogue shooter in federal court this summer, closed the proceedings by telling stories about each of the shooting’s 11 victims.
Olshan remembered posting a collage of the 11 victims, a simple piece of paper, near his desk in the Joseph F. Weis, Jr. United States Federal Courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Olshan said the image gave him comfort and strength. It was the first thing he saw when sitting at his desk in the morning and the last thing he saw when closing up his office at night.
After the trial ended, Olshan remembered packing up troves of related documents and endless files.
“But not that piece of paper,” Olshan said. “Those 11 faces are still there.”
“Though one act of remembering ended in August, there are more acts of remembering, big and small, ahead,” he added.
“And what a blessing that is.”
Justin Vellucci is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Justin at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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