Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
‘Stronger than Hate’ shirt maker helping furloughed federal employees, too | TribLIVE.com
Allegheny

‘Stronger than Hate’ shirt maker helping furloughed federal employees, too

Chuck Biedka
Chuck Biedka | Wednesday, January 23, 2019 7:58 p.m
670107_web1_ptr-StrongerThanHate01-103118

Some Pittsburgh area furloughed federal workers are getting their first pay in about a month from a Robinson company that continues to produce Stronger than Hate shirts.

The 123shirt.com company, a small family-owned and operated custom clothing venture, is employing some of the workers, said Larry Barasch, who co-owns it with his wife, Anne.

Stronger than Hate shirts recall last October’s Tree of Life synagogue murders, when a gunman killed 11 people and wounded six others in Pittsburgh.

“We just want to give the workers some money,” Barasch said. “Some people are giving them a free lunch, and some of the big companies are offering loans. But we’re a small company and we wanted to do something.”

Barasch said small companies should step up to help the furloughed federal workers. The employees have been out of work more than 30 days.

There are about 27 million small companies in the United States he said. “We fall into the teeny, tiny size. If just 3 percent of the companies help, then all of the federal workers can be helped,” Barasch told the Tribune-Review.

Barasch is the nephew of Judah Samet, a Holocaust survivor who also narrowly escaped the synagogue murders.

Samet arrived at the synagogue four minutes after the shooting began and narrowly escaped the killings. He repeatedly told the media, “Love is easier than hate.”

While 123shirt.com is helping some workers, Samet has been invited by the White House to be President Trump’s guest in the House of Representatives gallery for the State of the Union address, Barasch said.

“He is getting ready for a trip. If it happens,” Barasch said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is vowing the annual presidential speech won’t happen in the House chamber she controls if the furlough doesn’t end.

Samet wasn’t available for comment Wednesday night.

Last month, the Barasch family presented its first check from the Stronger than Hate shirts, $18,000, to Rabbi Jeff Myers for the Congregations’ victims fund.

The fundraiser is continuing.

There is plenty of time to buy a Stronger that Hate shirt, which features the Pittsburgh Steelers logo, which has one of the diamonds replaced by the Star of David.

“Some people today think that if you go online and sign a petition that you are doing something,” Barasch said. “You’re not.”

Chuck Biedka is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chuck at 724-226-4711, cbiedka@tribweb.com or via Twitter @ChuckBiedka.

Chuck Biedka is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chuck at 724-226-4711, cbiedka@tribweb.com or via Twitter .

TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.