Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood

by Mark Oppenheimer

A piercing portrait of the struggles and triumphs of one of America's renowned Jewish neighborhoods in the wake of unspeakable tragedy that highlights the hopes, fears, and tensions all Americans must confront on the road to healing.

Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, is one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in the country, known for its tight-knit community and the profusion of multigenerational families. On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed eleven Jews who were worshipping at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill--the most deadly anti-Semitic attack in American history.

Many neighborhoods would be understandably subsumed by despair and recrimination after such an event, but not this one. Mark Oppenheimer poignantly shifts the focus away from the criminal and his crime, and instead presents the historic, spirited community at the center of this heartbreak. He speaks with residents and nonresidents, Jews and gentiles, survivors and witnesses, teenagers and seniors, activists and historians.

Together, these stories provide a kaleidoscopic and nuanced account of collective grief, love, support, and revival. But Oppenheimer also details the difficult dialogue and messy confrontations that Squirrel Hill had to face in the process of healing, and that are a necessary part of true growth and understanding in any community. He has reverently captured the vibrancy and caring that still characterize Squirrel Hill, and it is this phenomenal resilience that can provide inspiration to any place burdened with discrimination and hate.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Jewish, True Crime, Judaism, Crime, Judaica

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 5, 2021

About the author

Mark Oppenheimer is a freelance writer. He is a staff writer for the Christian Century and has written for many publications, including Harper’s, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Yale Review, the Hartford Courant, Playboy, and Slate. He has taught at Wesleyan and Stanford universities.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook….read by Mark
Oppenheimer (couldn’t ask for a finer narrator to read this)…..
…..9 hours and 6 minutes

Goodreads friend, Bruce Katz was right when he said (don’t quote me exactly), …..
“Yes, I definitely would like to put this book in the hands of any person I care about and or respect: Jewish or non-Jewish”.
Well, I think Bruce cares about me. And I care about him. So I took those words seriously and knew instantly I would listen to this book.
but….and…
I KNEW THIS STORY…..
but….
NO….
“not like ‘THIS’!”

I don’t think anyone could write or verbally deliver this type of non-fiction book anymore engaging, (*emotionally* engaging)…..
or with any more integrity, compassion, sensitivity,….
AND BE….
brilliantly successful in reporting substantially interesting detail facts
and
FEEL
anymore intimate and personal if you tried!

Flawlessly written!!!
Audiobook narration-perfection!

I join Bruce….with expressing
“I would love to put this book in the hands of everybody I know and care about”.

There’s no question that what happened in “The Tree of Life Synagogue”, isn’t devastatingly sad, and maddening….
But it’s told with real empathy and resilience…

Not a dull flat moment in reporting.

It was very inspiring to read personal stories about the community and how these people came together.

[Carmel Hanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many, I heard it on the news and was appalled, as I am with every single one of these tragic incidences. But being across the country, I wasn't privy to many details before, during or after. This audiobook changed that. A well-documented and effective rendering of what the neighborhood and congregation endured and ultimately rose above; it was not a straight line, but a jagged journey, and like all groups of people not everyone agreed on what to do or how to do it.

I was heartened to hear how first responders strove to be sensitive to faith needs in dealing with the carnage. I was impressed with how many were moved to donate or show up to offer support. I was surprised and educated about how those well-meaning helpers sometimes caused more problems than they solved, and how important it is to restrain our impulse to help if it gets in the way of others grieving their own ways. I learned about "trauma tourists" and silently pledged to never become one.

When something horrific happens, it often is immediately balanced by bringing out the good in people. This was no exception, and Oppenheimer details all the challenges and successes in finding that balance. I learned more about the Jewish faith and the history of this neighborhood with a long history of preserving cultural traditions.

I long for the day a book like this is no longer relevant or necessary, but in the meantime, I appreciated all it had to offer.

[Bruce Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Hard for me to review because (a) I listened to the audio edition and so can't share excerpts, and (b) it covers much more ground than I can ever hope to convey without writing an essay myself. So I'll put it this way: An extremely well-done examination of the s0-called Tree of Life Synagogue shooting ("so-called" because there were three congregations that used the building at the time of the shooting, and not all victims were members of Tree of Life).

Oppenheimer looks at the shooting and its aftermath from numerous perspectives: the victims, their loved ones, the Jewish community of Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh community as a whole, out-of-towners who rushed to Pittsburgh to "be of help," and more.

Oppenheimer tells the story with sensitivity and clarity but is never maudlin or condescending. His vision is broad: it includes the things we would expect to read about in a book about a mass shooting, but also many, many things that we don't expect but that elicit an "of course!" after the author mentions them. For example: people have a natural urge to send money to help, but who can be trusted to receive the donations? How is the money to be distributed? Money is being sent to the Tree of Life congregation because that's how the media speak about the shooting, but what about the other two congregations?

The book begins by describing the awful events of that late October day (devoting as little time to the shooter as he possibly can). From there it moves outward, tracing the ripples and echoes of the gunshots: to peoples' recollections of what they were doing when it happened, and the awful uncertainty of those first long hours (who was killed? did I know them? where do I go, who do I call? would my calling/visiting be an imposition?); how people -- adults, teens, police, strangers in Pittsburgh and elsewhere -- reacted, how their pressing desire to do something found expression; the challenges of those first months -- are we safe? is this who we are as a country? the necessary discomfort raised by having to ask why aren't there similar expressions of support and care when the victims are people of color? -- and then the questions of how to mourn and, a year later, how to commemorate; the reactions (favorable, subdued, and outraged) when Trump came to town; the extraordinary number of people from out of state who rushed to Pittsburgh "to be of help" -- some in spite of having specifically been told not to come (while the Squirrel Hill community was still in shock these visitors were asking them to provide housing and meals for groups of outsiders), and others -- like the man who has for years, at his own expense, driven to the site of every mass shooting to make and plant crosses to memorialize the victims but now has to figure what he can do when the casualties were all Jewish -- demonstrating more empathy and concern; the difficulty of deciding whether rebuild/renovate, given the declining number of people who go to religious services; and so much more.

All told, a worthy and valuable examination of an awful -- and tragically too common -- event in 21st century America. Oppenheimer's narration, offered in a very conversational tone, is perfectly suited to the material.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Oppenheimer has written a brilliant book about the murders at Pittsburgh’s “Tree of Life” synagogue. Eleven worshippers were gunned down that day. All were elderly; the oldest - at 95 - had survived the Holocaust, only to be cut down by a deranged, anti-Semitic murderer.

Oppenheimer looks at all aspects of the shootings, except devoting little attention to the shooter. He concentrates on the synagogue - which is actually 3 congregations housed in one building - and it’s location in Pittsburg’s famous Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The area - which is in town and not a suburb - has a significant Jewish population. These were not people who abandoned the city location for suburban calm, but who stayed in their neighborhood. Oppenheimer gives several reasons why Squirrel Hill was able to maintain its
identity as most cities lost population as city people fled to the ‘burbs when minority groups moved in.

Oppenheimer examines the rainy Saturday in October, 2017, as death hit the area. He introduces the readers to victims, clergy, and ordinary Squirrel Hill people caught up in the horror of it all. And he looks at the after effects; all sorts of “grief tourists” invaded the town, along with people who wanted to “help” the community.

[David Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

No way I can give an objective review here. It was surreal to see "Shady and Wilkins" mentioned over and over (I grew up on the same corner), along with pretty much every single landmark of my childhood, not to mention some people I knew/know directly or indirectly. I'm not entirely sure whether this book will be of interest to those with no connections to Squirrel Hill, but it's full of interesting, frequently truly touching, details about pretty much everyone who was affected by or actively reacted to the Tree of Life shooting, both individuals and organizations of all kinds. Many of the folks described in detail probably wouldn't warrant having their stories told between the covers of a book in other circumstances, but Oppenheimer's dedication to immortalizing them is a moving act of refusal to let this horror fade into faceless statistics, as such incidents, by dint of how often they now occur, seem destined to do.

[Umar Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this audiobook on a long drive today and it was read by the author. Sometimes when an author reads their own book it can be a miss, but Mark Oppenheimer, who many may be familiar with from the Unorthodox Podcast, did a great job.

Oppenheimer paints a vivid picture of the historically Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Not only do we learn about some of those who lost their lives on the day of the antisemitic terror attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue, but we learn about rabbis, activists, and ordinary residents of this unique neighborhood steeped in history.

I was in Pittsburgh twice in the last few years and on both occasions I considered visiting the synagogue and the neighborhood. After reading this, and learning about the chaos many visitors caused, I'm happy with my decision not to visit.

[Richard Stuhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Oppenheimer’s recently published “Squirrel Hill” is an insightful account of the 2018 killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue. The book has assumed new relevance in view of last week’s Texas synagogue hostage crisis.

The book’s title derives from the Pittsburgh neighborhood that houses the synagogue. That synagogue was home to three different congregations, all of which are represented on the list of victims. There were 11 fatalities, 2 worshippers who were seriously wounded, 11 people in the building who managed to escape, and a host of others who were traumatized by the events of October 27.

Readers may be surprised to learn that the author devotes only a few pages to the attack itself. The focus is on the community’s reaction to the killings. That focus is reflected in the book’s subtitle — “The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood.” There was, however, one surprise for me about the attack. While most people assume that the killer was driven by anti-semistism, the author suggests that that was not his primary motive. Rather, the shooter — a resident of another Pittsburgh neighborhood —was rabidly anti-immigration, and he targeted Tree of Life because one of the congregations there was the nearest outpost of a national pro-immigration organization. Thus, any anti-semitism the killer harbored was likely a secondary motivation for the attack.

Oppenheimer, himself a Pittsburgh native, conducted over 250 interviews of those involved in the attacks and their aftermath, as well as extensive research on Jewish history in Pittsburgh. He reports that Pittsburgh is unique among cities with large Jewish populations. While other cities have greater numbers of Jews, nowhere is the Jewish community as concentrated as it is in Pittsburgh. More than half of the city’s Jewish population resides in the two zip codes that comprise the Squirrel Hill area. While they worship at several different synagogues, virtually everyone in Squirrel Hill knows one or more of the victims. It is, therefore, not surprising that the entire neighborhood reacted to the events at Tree of Life. Nor is it surprising that the Jewish community nationwide responded to what occurred.

The reaction to the killings, the author concludes, was alternately disturbing and heartwarming. On the day of the murders, efforts had already begun — within Squirrel Hill itself — to politicize the event. The bodies had not yet been removed from the synagogue when efforts were underway to organize a demonstration in favor of stricter gun control laws. Later, when President Trump announced his intention to visit the site, there were organized protests to keep him away — based on the belief that the President’s immigration policies had encouraged the killer to act.

But the tone deaf demonstrations were outweighed by multiple acts of kindness. The three congregations that worshipped at the Tree of Life Synagogue were all relatively small — certainly in terms of active members. Other congregations (including those from other branches of Judaism) filled the breach by activating their “body guards”(congregants who stayed with the bodies until burial) and “honor societies” (congregants who prepared the bodies for burial).

Of course, fund raising was also a response to the tragedy. Over $12 million was raised for the victims. About half of this amount came through Pittsburgh’s Jewish Federation. Working in consultation with Kenneth Feinberg (who administered the 9/11 fund), the Federation appointed a committee that devised a plan for distributing donations to the families of the deceased, those who had been wounded, worshippers who escaped on the day of the attack, policemen wounded while apprehending the killer, and the Tree of Life congregations. Remarkably, there was not a single complaint about the decisions made.

Even more remarkable were the other fund raising efforts. A Palestinian student in this country on a study visa raised over a million dollars through a go-fund-me account he set up. These and other donations that were not administered through the Jewish Federation generally were earmarked for the “Tree of Life” victims. But Tree of Life (which owned the building) was only one of three affected congregations; the New Light and Dor Hadash congregations, which rented space in the building, were also victims. To their credit, the members of Tree of Life concluded that — while donations on their face were directed to Tree of Life — they were intended for ALL victims of the massacre, and they shared the donations with the other congregations.

The book raises the issue of how one can and should respond to a tragedy. A guy from Illinois who has brought home-made crosses to the sites of all mass killings — “Crosses for Losses” — attached Stars of David to his crosses for each of the Tree of Life victims. A Pittsburgh guy adapted the Steelers’ logo to posters declaring “Stronger Than Hate”; they appeared all over the city. A local woman baked loaves of challah and delivered them to the victims’ families. (ASIDE: While practicing law in Washington, D.C., I was instrumental in establishing an FDA “standard of identify for challah.) Yet another woman solicited donations of cloth Stars of David to be displayed wherever there was room. Oppenheimer acknowledges that these gestures were well intended, but questions how much good they did.

Still other well-intended gestures probably did more harm than good. Congregations from all over the country sent busloads of mourners to Squirrel Hill even after being advised that they were not welcome; their visits required the Squirrel Hill community to house and/or feed them. Substantial congregations from places like New York announced — without being asked — that they were coming to town to handle the final rituals. They were firmly but politely informed that the locals could handle the funerals on their own. But if these efforts were not appreciated, what, then, could have been done? That question remains unanswered.

Another unanswered question is what to do with the synagogue itself. Some believe that the synagogue should be abandoned — sold to another owner who would raze the building and use the property for some other purpose. Others want to retain the building, except for the rooms in which the killings occurred. Still others advocate using donations that came to Tree of Life to make substantial improvements in this aging structure. As Oppenheimer notes, those in charge of other sites where mass murders occurred have resolved this issue differently.

Oppenheimer, himself a Jew, spends many pages discussing the history of Jewry in Pittsburgh. As a practicing Catholic, I am well aware of the decline in attendance that our church has witnessed over the last several decades. But the book suggests that our problems pale in comparison to those faced by American Jews. While congregants appear willing to continue supporting their synagogues financially, the numbers of Jews attending services have dropped precipitously. For example, to satisfy the minimum attendance requirements, Tree of Life relied on two developmentally disabled brothers who were, tragically, among the victims of the massacre. Perversely, declining attendance may have prevented the carnage from being even worse than it was.

My bottom line is that this is a book well worth reading on many levels. It provides a rich account of the history of Jews in Pittsburgh — including why they migrated to and remain in Squirrel Hill — and the problems that community faces today. More interestingly, it raises questions about how a community responds to a tragedy — questions that I never even considered and that go well beyond who the shooter was and why he acted. The book also has special meaning for me because I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and I passed through Squirrel Hill regularly on my way to and from downtown.

Rick Stuhan

[Leigh Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back off, trauma tourists. This is not your story.

The fact that there even WERE trauma tourists is disgusting, so thank goodness Oppenheimer included a chapter on them in this comprehensive account of the shooting that devestated the three congregations that shared space in the Tree of Life building. He also includes an extremely comprehensive account of all the money that was donated: who collected it, where it went, why there were problems with distributing it, and so on.

That's as objective as I can be. People I love dearly were harmed by this incident, and I would strongly recommend they not read the book. Not because it's not good -- it is -- but because they don't need to live through it again. They're already living with it for the rest of their lives.

This book is for everyone else: those of us who live here and aren't Jewish, because we may THINK we know, but we don't KNOW; libraries in the NEOH-SWPA-NWV triangle, because this is now regional history and you must document it; libraries of all sizes that serve Jewish populations, because this is part of their history now, and you must document it; and high school libraries of all kinds, because the chapter on the teens' experience and response will resonate with them.

Full disclosure: I was sitting safely in my house in Greenfield on October 27th when I got a text message from friends whose lives would now be changed forever. I had to get on the phone and call everyone in my family, because I knew as the words "shooting" and "Squirrel Hill" hit the news, there would be panic until people heard from me (nobody outside Pittsburgh understands Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Nobody.). THEN I spent the rest of the day praying and trying to figure out what to say to people who were enudring the unsayable. (Spoiler: there's nothing you can say. You can just be there, and listen, and try to hold space).

That's the extent of my involvement, though. The only way in which this story is remotely about me is that it's my responsibiity to stand up for my Jewish friends and neighbors when this garbage comes into our neighborhoods. And that's not just me. That's everybody.

So. Yes. This book. Oppenheimer got it, all the agony of what the neighborhood endured, plus all the joy and wonder of what the neighborhood is like. Now you go get it. Highly recommended for everyone who isn't a flaming sack of Nazi shit.

[Louise Silk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living in Pittsburgh, but still covid-reluctant for crowds, instead of going to the three year outdoor memorial, I read this book. It is an amazing, throughly complete look at our community in the midst and aftermath of this horrific event.

Knowing many of the characters intimately, I wonder how a non-pittsburgher will respond to all of the detail and nuance, but there is no doubt in my mind, from my own reading experience, that some one like me, born and bread in the Jewish Community, will not be able to put it down and more than that will be thankful for this critical behind-the-scenes look at our experience.

A huge thank you to Mark Oppenheimer for a job well-done.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a native of Squirrel Hill, I felt a lot of angst just opening a book of this title that's about this. Somewhere out there is a woman named Karen who had a happy childhood in Columbine and now she grapples with the culturally-imposed baggage accompanying those names, no fault of her own. Fortunately I think there's no danger of the media using the neighborhood as a metaphor in quite the same way as we hear about "another Columbine" but it also probably says a lot about how people deal with (or don't deal with) tragedy when I say that I don't think I want this book on my bookshelf with this title staring out at me. A book about tragedy and healing called Columbine on my shelf? Sure, no problem. Just not this.

That said, Oppenheimer really got the title of the book right. Unbelievably, the book is as much about the fabric of the community as it is about a hate crime or a mass shooting. The author is a journalist, but he could also be a terrific cultural anthropologist. His family connections to the region (historical) and the Jewish communities in the mid-Atlantic and New England areas serve him extremely well for his ambitions here. He repeats a quote from a Pittsburgh journalist in both the Prologue and Acknowledgement sections:

"Yes, Pittsburghers have a certain decency. But it's not the midwestern variety, which in my (limited) experience is about being nice and not talking about unpleasant things. Pittsburghers, to overgeneralize, have more of the decency of empathy -- they will get nebby, they will try to do a nice thing for someone."

In every sense, this is what Oppenheimer's book is about. Trite as it sounds, it's about community ties and resiliency in the face of adversity. But while Oppenheimer clearly admires the Jewish culture and community relations in the city and gives it a lot of credit for handling the aftermath as well as it did, he doesn't sugarcoat either. There's posturing and opportunism and quackery. And there are especially the well-meaning, well-intentioned people who just get in the way. This is not just a love letter to the city. And yet the book really follows the now relatively famous Fred Rogers quote in that it looks for the helpers. And when I say that I mean in a very Jewish way, acknowledging that there are terrible people with terrible ideas and that this is the world we live in, so we get on with living as we can. And also that cultural institutions can help people from feeling isolated in times of great need.

But while it's hard for me to distance myself from my own views about the community, Oppenheimer has also really done a good job of capturing the phenomenon of the post-tragedy melee: the media frenzy, the gawkers, the politics; the ebb and flow of attention and grief. I freely admit that I largely avoided reading about or watching coverage about the mass shooting. I kind of do that anyway, since that sort of circus tends to compound the tragedy rather than provide solace. But this was really a great way for me to witness what happened and how the neighborhood coped. I haven't lived in Pittsburgh for 30 years, but it was all very recognizable. And maybe even a little bit healing.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live very close to Squirrel Hill. I take a bus through the neighborhood several times a week on my way to work. Since moving to Pittsburgh, I have been curious about Squirrel Hill-- it's history and the tragedy that occurred within it. So when I saw a review of this book in the NYT, I knew I had to get it (and I knew I had to purchase it from a SH bookstore).

Oppenheimer is an incredible storyteller. Parts of it read almost like oral history. I learned some fun facts that I will now randomly throw out when walking on Forbes (the Dunkin' Donuts is kosher! Did you know there's a Jewish biker gang in PGH called Mazel Tuffs?!) I appreciated his in-depth analysis on how SH came to be and how it continues to keep its Jewish identity (spoiler alert: it includes some racist redlining polices because...of course).

Oppenheimer really captured the chaos of the days, months, years after a national tragedy. The trauma tourists. The want for appropriate messaging. As the author says succinctly, "the good intentions and bad ideas". Every community has fractures and after the shooting those pieces within the Jewish community were both mended together and torn apart. I appreciated the time spent with the victims and their families. I teared up and cried while reading this book more than I have with any other. My level of emotionality surprised me. I am not Jewish but I am a part of a community that is terrorized by White supremacists and racists on a regular basis so maybe there is a piece of marginalized communal trauma in there for me.

The intersectional portions really spoke to me. His description of Black students at Allderdice High School having no idea what had happened at The Tree of Life and their complicated feelings of having empathy for the victims but also frustration/anger that society seemed less interested in the killing of Black people (such as Antwon Rose who was killed by a police officer in PGH). It's a complicated amalgamation of pain, hurt, fear, anger that I know all too well because I have felt it too. I would have liked to have more of this approach (for instance, more Asian international students are moving into the neighborhood and this population shift is changing the landscape of the main shopping center [lots more Asian eateries-- which I'm absolutely not complaining about] and I'm curious how this new, younger, transient, Asian student population is integrating and contrasting with SH dwellers who have lived there for generations). But I also realize going into all of these intersectional pieces would have taken away from Oppenheimer's overall thesis. Perhaps that's another book for another time.

It's sad to read the fate of The Tree of Life and how as the congregation dwindles, its future is in jeopardy. I am not a religious person but something about that made me really feel for the members and the Jewish community of Squirrel Hill as a whole.

Highly recommend.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a book that I looked forward to reading but am glad I pushed myself to do so. Being on the west coast during this event, I felt like no one really cared or was paying attention to the attack. It was deeply disturbing and a wake up call for secular American Jews: we are not safe and no one seems to care. While it was good to hear that Pittsburgh and other people in cities on the east coast did pay attention and rallied around them, I wish Oppenheimer would have covered the overwhelming apathy outside the region. It was overall a good overview of the aftermath of the tragedy and the uniqueness of the neighborhood. The author used various interviews and profiles to show how events unfolded and I thought it was engaging, but yeah still about an antisemitic mass shooting so not the most fun to open up after a long day at the grind. I’d recommend if you’re in a good headspace. Resilience is inspiring but the same shit happening over and over and no one doing anything to stop it is really REALLY depressing.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squirrel Hill is my neighborhood. My home is just a few blocks from the synagogue where 3 separate Jewish congregations were at worship services on Saturday 10/27/2018.

I was at a yoga class. I will never forget the sound of all the sirens from police cars and emergency vehicles. Everyone in the yoga studio knew that something dreadful was happening somewhere nearby. Then someone who had not turned off their phone got the frightening message - "Active Shooter".

Clearly, that day is already seared in my memory.

This book is carefully researched, well-organized, and thoughtfully presented. It is not exactly a love letter to Squirrel Hill. Parts of the book reveal a "warts and all" approach to covering the aftermath of the shooting.

[Shoshanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Jews should read this but really all people.

Many of us are familiar with this broad strokes of this antisemitic terrorist attack and many Jews know more details, but this book is vital for anyone who wants to really learn about the bigger picture of this community.

Each chapter is focused on a different theme: the building, the neighborhood history, the victims, the aftereffects, the neighborhood high school. All throughout the chapters is woven a deep sociology of the Jewish community of Squirrel Hill and nearby East End neighborhoods.

This book is rendered as a very human story, which I appreciated a lot. If you want to learn more about antisemitism writ large, I recommend "How to Fight Antisemitism" by Bari Weiss and "Antisemitism: Here and Now" by Deborah Lipstadt.

[vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great look at a community post-tragedy. I really felt the neighborhood came alive through the author’s reporting: the high school, the Starbucks where everyone met, the other houses of worship nearby. There were historical bits about how Squirrel Hill came to be as well as vignettes of people who were affected and “did something” such as paint windows, design rallying symbols, and protest. The audiobook was well-narrated.

[Elyssa Schmier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was fantastic! Incredibly well written and researched. It’s about the Tree of Life shooting but it’s also about so much more. Squirrel Hill might be the most dynamic Jewish community in the United States and Mark Oppenheimer shines a light on this diverse and interesting community in such a caring and honest way. I highly recommend this book! I listened to it on Audible and it was read by Oppenheimer himself.

[Samantha Fredberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still think of Squirrel Hill as home, and though it was obviously heartbreaking to read so many familiar names, locations, and references, it was also a reminder that my Jewish identity is intrinsically linked to Pittsburgh. So many people in this book (Rabbi Ron Symons, Rabbi Jamie Gibson, and Sara Stock Mayo, to name a few) shaped me as a Jewish adult, but it was also Community Day School, the kosher Dunkin Donuts, meeting Holocaust survivors, and reading The Diary of Anne Frank at an age that was probably too young. Oppenheimer definitely did justice to Squirrel Hill and Jewish life in Pittsburgh, but (surprisingly) I’m not sure he actually did justice to the shooting and its victims.

Oppenheimer dedicated chapters to shaming “Trauma Tourists,” but he ended up being one himself. He definitely did his homework, but I found myself wondering why this was has story to tell. Ultimately, it isn’t. I found a lot of the interviews to be sensationalized, especially with people who are not all that important to the story at its core. Crosses for Losses, for example, is by no means an institution in the city, yet Oppenheimer starts the book with this story. It almost feels like he cherry-picked captivating scenes and imposed meaning where there originally was none.

Still, if I view this book as a love letter to Squirrel Hill, I love it. Though I was never a member of Tree of Life, New Light, or Dor Hadash, my synagogue was a few blocks away, my house was less than a mile away, and I attended bar and bat mitzvahs at literally every synagogue in the city. Squirrel Hill was small, safe, and warm. It was a good place to grow up. When the shooting happened, I think I subconsciously assumed that warmth and sense of home would be gone. Thankfully, this book reassured me that the Jewish community is resilient, and the spirit of Squirrel Hill is still there.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author’s reporting and level of detail about the aftermath of the most deadliest killing of Jews in American history was impressive. I expected more information about the actual act than the community’s response. While the author was upfront about what the book would be about, I still wanted to know more about the killer and the act itself than the aftermath. Most of the time, it seemed like I was reading a better version of a local Jewish newspaper reporting on matters affecting a few hundred interested people. My favorite parts were the story about the newspaper editor’s decision to print the Mourner’s Kaddish in Hebrew on the front page of the Pittsburgh paper, information about what made Squirrel Hill so different from other Jewish neighborhoods in America and how the victim’s fund was dispersed.

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

In-depth reporting about the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh and the state of Jewish community and religious life in America. I appreciate Oppenheimer's transparency and warmth in his reporting, and most chapters were exquisitely moving. I think it could have benefitted from a different organizing structure, but overall this is a terrific work of journalism.

[Alison Fulmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happened to see this book at the library and with a first time visit to Pittsburgh later this month checked it out. An absorbing account of the antisemitic attack on a Jewish congregation but also an interesting evaluation of the community.

[Vanessa Ehrlich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am of course familiar with what happened in Squirrel Hill on 10/27/18 as are most Jewish professionals. I also feel like I know the author, Mark Oppenheimer as I listen to his podcast. I was not prepared for the rush of emotion I had during listening and reading this book. Perhaps it was Mark's calm narration of the worst anti-semitic attack on American soil or how he chose to write this book focusing on what has occurred in the aftermath of the shooting.

I highly recommend this book and think there is much to discuss in a book group. Kol HaKavod to the author, Mark Oppenheimer for a wonderful book on a difficult subject.

[Carol Dimitriou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very compassionate book about The Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018, and the aftermath.

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Squirrel Hill: the Tree of Life synagogue shooting and the soul of a neighborhood,” by Mark Oppenheimer (Borzoi, 2021). Squirrel Hill is the traditional Jewish neighborhood of Pittsburgh, home to the largest portion of the city’s Jewish population (about 30,000 in the neighborhood) for about a century. When we have visited to see our son, and without knowing any history, it always seemed the most interesting, vibrant, eclectic and street-active area in the city, including the downtown. It was here that on Oct. 27, 2018, an antisemitic gunman barged into the Tree of Life synagogue and began shooting. Tree of Life was the home of three synagogues, two smaller ones renting from the main center. It is a large, impressive building at Northumberland and Shady. It might be fair to describe it as the center of the Squirrel Hill Jewish community. Eleven people were killed and six wounded, the largest single antisemitic attack in American history. Although Oppenheimer describes the events of the shooting itself in detail, his focus is on the aftermath. How did the community react, and the city and nation at large? Judaism itself is shrinking in the United States. Both Reform and Conservative elements are losing population; only the Orthodox are holding their own. Oppenheimer’s account is clear-eyed and compassionate: although there was a flood of support for the community immediately afterward, it did not hold up. Membership in the three synagogues continued to fall; the congregation still does not know what it is going to do with the building, which has been closed since the attack. Oppenheimer offers brief biographies of the victims, other congregants, and relatives and friends. It is a sad story, and one I recognize all too well.

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[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mass shooting always garners more attention than the individual tragedies of everyday. Sometimes the articles and books written about these events focus on the diabolical character of the perpetrator, their history and their hatred. Sometimes the reader is forced in a minute by minute account to watch as people are gunned down. Often, those who have been injured or have lost their lives lose their humanity also when we turn them into "angels" and martyrs instead of allowing them to be the people they were--worthy of love and dignity and life despite their flaws.
This book is a dignified look at a neighborhood which has met and overcome many obstacles. The perpetrator isn't given cinematic-type attention. The event is covered in a "just the facts, ma'am" way. The injured, those who died, and those who suffered their loss are treated as real people. They are shown with all of their strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, and pettiness. In other words, they are allowed to retain their individuality and humanity and not just become "victims". The reader is introduced to the diversity of the community, the diversity of the faithful, and the different traditions amongst them in a natural way. The writer effortlessly makes the unfamiliar seem like a distant home and the people, neighbors.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the Publisher for an digital ARC. This book is to be released in early October. Watch for it.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

As awful as this hate crime against Jews was, the story is able to hold your attention on so many more levels than the crime itself. Squirrel Hill is a unique community that has many Jewish residents as well as numerous other ethnic groups. Everyone looks after each other. In short, the kind of place that you would never imagine this kind of crime would be committed.

But, if you’re looking for a graphic description of the shooting itself, you don’t get it here. Instead, Oppenheimer masterfully uses his journalistic skills to get to the heart of what SH is all about - before and after October 27, 2018. And while much of this book tells the story of a special community, he isn’t afraid to delve into a few difficult issues surrounding the event.

[Terzah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books about mass shootings often zero in on the event itself, the psychology of the perpetrator, and/or the reaction of survivors. Though he touches on all of that, Oppenheimer's true focus in this compassionate book is on the effects of the synagogue shooting on residents and outsiders who dealt with it both immediately and during the year after it occurred. What emerges is a portrait of a fascinating neighborhood and community--and a heartening, though realistic, glimpse of what it means to embody that overused byword "resilience."

[Timothy Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Living in Pittsburgh during the time of the shooting, I was familiar with some of the events and the media coverage, but this book delves much deeper into the event. As well, I enjoyed reading of the various personalities, reactions, and the responses of the community and those dwelling there. I will say that at times my attention flagged, and as well I felt some topics were somewhat added to help "fill out the book", but overall a good attempt at capturing the shooting.

[Julie Tedjeske Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers both the victims and the neighborhood. I lived in Squirrel Hill for about five years—around 20 years ago—and I have always been fond of the area.

The book provides a lot of details about the crime and its aftermath. Readers will better understand what happened and how it affected those directly involved and others in the community. Recommended.

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squirrel Hill is deep in history, deep in community. When a gunman walked into the synagogue and opens fire killing 11 people it devastated the synagogue, but it devastated the entire neighborhood!

What I enjoyed the most about this book is it didn’t dwell on the killer. He went into the neighborhood looking at how they surround the families. 💛

[Frances Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and balanced book. The stories of the community residents are moving and fascinating.