‘Repairing the World’: C-M class hosts Tree of Life shooting survivors
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Canon-McMillan High School English teacher Meg Pankiewicz, standing, speaks with survivors and family members of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. From left are Audrey Glickman, Carol Black, and Jodi Kart.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Canon-McMillan High School students who are enrolled in the Holocaust literature class listened to survivors and family members of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting during Friday’s “Day of Reflection on the Dangers of Hatred, Community Trauma and Resilience” at Frank Sarris Public Library.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Students from Canon-McMillan High School’s Holocaust literature class listen to survivors and family members of Tree of Life synagogue during an event at Frank Sarris Public Library on Friday.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Carol Black, who survived the Tree of Life synagogue shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, but lost her brother in the attack, talks with students in Canon-McMillan High School’s Holocaust literature class at Frank Sarris Public Library on Friday.
CANONSBURG – When students from Canon-McMillan High School’s Holocaust literature class gathered at Frank Sarris Public Library on Friday to watch a screening of the documentary, “Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life,” they had company.
Watching with them were survivors and family members of those killed in the Oct. 27, 2018, Tree of Life shootings that took the lives of 11 Jewish worshippers in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
After the viewing, Carol Black and Audrey Glickman, who survived the attack, and Jodi Kart, whose father, Melvin Wax, was among those who died, held a question-and-answer session and shared their experiences of that day and how they are coping with grief and trauma nearly five years later.
Black’s brother, Richard Gottfried, was killed in the shooting.
“I decided the gunman got my brother, but he wasn’t going to get me. I was going to continue to live my life and do the things that I wanted to do, and I choose not to live my life in fear; I won’t do that. I’m not going to give that to him,” said Black.
Friday’s event, called “A Day of Reflection on the Dangers of Hatred, Community Trauma and Resilience,” was organized by Canon-McMillan High School English teacher Meg Pankiewicz, in cooperation with the LIGHT Initiative, a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire and prepare the next generation of human rights leaders, and Film Pittsburgh’s Teen Screen.
The film documents how the Pittsburgh community responded with a show of love and unity in the aftermath of the Tree of Life shootings, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
“This film shows how Pittsburgh came together, and that’s really what we want people to do – to realize we’re all just people and we all deserve to live in peace and harmony,” said Glickman. “There’s no dearth of liberty to share, there’s enough for everybody.”
Glickman and Black recounted the morning of the shooting, detailing how they heard gunfire (“it sounded like someone had dropped a metal table onto the marble floor,” Black said), and how they fled for safety. Glickman, who was reciting morning prayers, ran to a choir loft storage room with Tree of Life congregant Joe Charny, then 90, and they covered themselves with prayer shawls, hoping to blend in with clothes bags.
Black was in the lowest level of the building with Kart’s father, Melvin Wax, and two others, and hid in a storage closet. When there was a lull in the shooting, Wax opened the door slightly and was shot. The shooter didn’t see her, and Black remained hidden until police escorted her outside.
“I can tell you, it was the worst day of my life,” said Black, whose brother had been in the kitchen on the bottom floor preparing for a men’s breakfast the next day.
Students expressed awe at the speakers’ resilience and courage.
“I think the fact they that they can still find happiness and be so loving even after what’s happened to them, and that they’re willing to share their stories with kids my age, is incredible” said junior Kiersten Williams. “They’re really inspiring, and I feel so lucky and happy that I got to have this experience. The fact that somebody could be so hateful to a religion or a group of people is so hard to understand. I think it’s awful that hate in this world can overpower the good.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the United States in 2022.
And, Pankiewicz noted, the Southern Poverty Law Center, in conjunction with the FBI, tracked more than 1,200 registered hate groups throughout the U.S., including 70 in Pennsylvania.
“As someone who has taught the Holocaust for over 20 years … I am often kept awake at night wondering if we have learned anything from the past,” said Pankiewicz, who is a doctoral candidate in Holocaust studies at Gratz College.
Kart said the survivors and families took comfort in the way the Pittsburgh community and others rallied around them.
For the next eight months or so, she received cards, letters and gifts from people around the world.
“I have to say that wave of kindness just pushed me forward,” she said.
The survivors also addressed the attacks by the Hamas terrorist group in Israel last week and the events that have unfolded since.
Said Black, “I’m very afraid for the world about what’s going on in Israel, and I’m praying that this is not the start of World War III – that’s how serious it is. I’m concerned about China taking over Taiwan, I’m very concerned about what’s going on in Ukraine and what Russia is doing, I’m concerned about North Korea. There’s a lot to be concerned about, and I just am hopeful that reason and cooler heads will prevail and this will not escalate to something that’s terrible.”
Kart encouraged students to embrace people, regardless of religion, race, or orientation.
“Celebrate your differences, celebrate diversity because that’s what this world is,” she said. “We’re all humans, we’re all people, we’re all created differently and that’s what makes us beautiful and we should embrace that, not hate it.”
Black noted the students were wearing “Stronger than Hate” t-shirts, and said she is counting on their generation to find solutions to hate-based violence.
“One of the things I’m so excited about today is seeing of these young faces. The world is soon to be yours and I’m really looking forward to you being the ones that make a difference, and it has to start with you,” she said.