By MARTY LEVINE
The antisemitic killings that left 11 dead at Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, drew a large number and variety of responses from around the world, including items placed outside the building and materials and messages mailed to the three congregations that shared the space.
Now the Fine Foundation has funded a pilot fellowship program to bring scholars to Pitt’s Jewish Studies Program to use this collection for research. As part of the new program, the Fine Fellows will team with Pittsburgh community groups to refine the questions they study and then present the results here as well.
Faced with “lingering, urgent questions about antisemitism, violence and trauma,” as the announcement of the fellowship put it, Director of Jewish Studies Rachel Kranson, an associate professor, says that “Pittsburghers have been asking how such horrific violence was possible here, in Pittsburgh, in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. They have been wanting to know more about where such virulent forms of antisemitism come from and how they proliferate. And of course, they want to understand how individuals, families and communities move forward after such trauma.”
The Oct. 27 collection is housed at the Rauh Jewish Archives of the Heinz History Center, which is headed by Eric Lidji. Examining the letters and postcards sent in response to the attack, Lidji says, “You really get a sense of what people were thinking, and feeling,” from sadness to anger — “Jewish people or not, religious people or not, young or old, local or not.” The materials will help “if you’re interested in trying to understand the modern American Christian response to an antisemitic event, or an Israeli Jew.”
There are handmade quilts, shawls and paintings in the collection, as well as many rosaries and small tribute objects whose direct connection to the Oct. 27 killings aren’t always evident, he allows. However, “it’s always clear that it is very meaningful to the person,” he says.
“There were these very immediate expressions of solidarity from a lot of different corners of the world,” Lidji adds, which could give scholars a better understanding of how it might be possible to summon those same responses in the future, perhaps even in ordinary times.
“In a lot of American Jewish history, historians were not reckoning with antisemitism in a deep way,” he says. He hopes to work with academics to help them identify materials in the Oct. 27 collection to address such questions, especially about how other groups interact with Jews or each other.
“A lot of reaching out is trying to help themselves” understand and cope with the tragedy, Lidji says of the Oct. 27 materials and the people who offered them. He hopes that research undertaken by the new fellows will look at “how did (Oct. 27) impact this immediate area, the city, the people who were targeted?”
“Scholars have been asking how the Oct. 27 attack influenced the ways that Jews understand their place in America, and how non-Jewish Americans understand Jews,” Kranson says. “They have used the attack as a jumping-off point to think about histories of Jewish trauma, and why scholars of American Jewry have been more likely to examine antisemitism in its European contexts than its American contexts. Looking at the records of the 10/27 collection — which includes oral histories, correspondence, tributes, photographs, artwork, gifts, and more — will give a much richer picture of how an event like this roiled a city, from the (standpoint of) people who were physically and emotionally closest to the violence.
“We will be looking for projects that have a clear vision on how to use these materials to answer morally urgent, analytical questions,” she adds.
One of the stipulations of the fellowship is that scholars will return to Pittsburgh to offer a public program, such as lectures with opportunity for conversations. In this way, says Kranson, the scholars can share what they have been working on and ask for community feedback before publication, so that such input can be part of the finished work. “Starting this conversation with the local Pittsburgh community, to my mind, is an essential component of conducting research on Oct. 27 in the most ethical and humane way possible,” Kranson says.
Both Pitt’s Jewish Studies Program and the Rauh Jewish Archive are out in the Pittsburgh community regularly, building relationships with groups to reach new people, Lidji and Kranson say.
“As the waterline of knowledge rises it starts to spread outwards” and reaches more people, Lidji says. “We are excited about working with other local partners who foster inter-communal conversations,” Kranson says.
A committee from both organizations and the 10.27 Healing Partnership will consider the fellowship applications, which are due March 15, 2024.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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