Tree of Life leaders unveil vision for Squirrel Hill synagogue's future

Congregation leaders from Tree of Life-Or L’Smicha have vowed to return to their home on Wilkins Avenue after a gunman opened fire on Shabbat services last year, killing 11 people.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who was leading services for Tree of Life when the Oct. 27 attack began, said the building must reopen. He called for a space that will have room for worship and a memorial, as well as classroom and exhibit space.

“We are poised to become an incredible center for Jewish life in the United States,” he said.

What exactly that center for Jewish life will look like, however, will be up to the community and congregants.

The 60-year-old building also housed the congregations Dor Hadash and New Light, and all three congregations lost members in the shooting.

“With the vision now in place, we will engage in community planning processes to determine the precise future of the building site,” said Tree of Life Executive Director Barb Feige. “We’re redesigning our future.”

Tree of Life president Sam Schachner said that even a year removed from the attack, the process will continue slowly, in a “victim-centered, collaborative, sensitive and caring manner.”

He said even before the shooting, the building needed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs, and leaders were already eyeing a more collaborative space.

“Our buildings are too old and damaged for a narrow, limited vision,” Schachner said. “We will create a place that is alive with a balance of the future and the past — a place that has the flexibility to change with times.”

To get there, they will need money, Schachner said. He expects to bring a fundraising consultant onto the congregation’s board by late winter, and a preliminary building plan should be completed by late spring.

“Our future is not about being the synagogue that was attacked,” he said. “It is about being the synagogue that survived, thrived and remembered who we were.”