Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation () is a
Conservative Jewish
Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movements, Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations ...
synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
in the
Squirrel Hill
Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated ...
neighborhood of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, in the United States. The congregation moved into its present synagogue building in 1953. It merged with Congregation Or L'Simcha in 2010, bringing its membership to 530 families.
Originally founded as an
Orthodox congregation in 1864, Tree of Life Congregation gradually moved closer to Conservative Judaism. In 1886, it affiliated with the
Jewish Theological Seminary Association (JTS), at the time an Orthodox institution, but which developed the Conservative ideology in the early 1900s. Tree of Life joined with JTS offshoot
United Synagogue of America about 1916, formally connecting to the nascent Conservative movement.
In 2018, the synagogue was the target of
a mass shooting in which eleven people were murdered and seven injured. It was the deadliest attack on the
Jewish community in the United States. The synagogue building remains vacant since 2018; whilst the congregation continues to worship.
History
Tree of Life Congregation was formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1864 as a breakaway group from
Rodef Shalom, an Orthodox synagogue founded in 1854 which began adopting
Reform
Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...
practices following the visit of Rabbi
Isaac Mayer Wise
Isaac Mayer Wise (29 March 1819 – 26 March 1900) was an American Reform rabbi, editor, and author.
Early life
Wise was born on 29 March 1819 in Steingrub in Bohemia (today Lomnička, a part of Plesná in the Czech Republic). He was the son ...
to the city. The initial group of 16 members met in the home of Gustavus Grafner. Then called by its Hebrew name, Etz Chayyim (,
'Tree of Life'), the congregation was chartered in 1865 and acquired land in
Sharpsburg for use as a cemetery.
The congregation met in temporary locations in the downtown area over the coming years, until in 1883 it bought a former
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
church property downtown.
[ At that point, it became known by its English name, Tree of Life.][
In its early years, Tree of Life was the city's center for Orthodox Judaism, and attracted Orthodox Jewish immigrants from ]Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
. In 1883, it shortened the traditional Orthodox prayer service, and in 1886 became affiliated with the Jewish Theological Seminary Association,[ a rabbinical training institute which was at the time an Orthodox institution but which developed the Conservative ideology in the early 1900s. Around 1916, Tree of Life joined the national Conservative Jewish network, the United Synagogue of America.
In 1906, the congregation began constructing a permanent home on Craft Avenue in the ]Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The synagogue opened in 1907 with sanctuary seating for 750.[ English-language prayers were introduced the same year.
Beginning in the 1920s, Tree of Life shifted further toward left-wing Conservative Judaism under the direction of Rabbi Herman Hailperin, who led the congregation for 45 years. Among the practices Hailperin instituted were organ music during the prayer services, the elimination of the rabbinically-mandated second day of festival observance, the election of women to the temple's board of trustees, the calling of women to the Torah reading, and counting women as part of the ]minyan
In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( ''mīnyān'' , Literal translation, lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain Mitzvah, religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism ...
.
In 1953, Tree of Life moved into its present building in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The land for the new structure was gifted by then-synagogue president Charles J. Rosenbloom.[ The synagogue symbolically showed its ties to ]Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
with a cornerstone
A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...
hewn from limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
quarried in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. The structure initially opened with a library, kitchen, an arts and crafts store, a stage, and vestry rooms.[ In 1959 the congregation broke ground on a 1,400-seat sanctuary fronted by "rows of swirling, modernistic stained-glass windows illustrating the story of creation, the acceptance of God's law, the 'life cycle' and 'how human-beings should care for the earth and one another".][ In 1995, membership numbered 850 families.
]
Tenants and merger
In the 2000s, an aging membership and the migration of the Jewish community to suburban neighborhoods led to decreasing synagogue membership. Tree of Life began renting space in its building to other congregations. In 2008, Congregation Or L'Simcha (, 'Light of Joy'), founded by Rabbi Chuck Diamond in 2005, began holding services in the Tree of Life building. In 2010, the two congregations voted to merge and became known as Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation. The merger added 120 congregants to Tree of Life's membership rolls, bringing the combined membership to 530 families.
In April 2010, Dor Hadash, a Reconstructionist congregation, began renting space in the Tree of Life building. New Light, a Conservative congregation, left its home of 60 years in 2017 and carried its Torah scrolls in a procession to Tree of Life, where it also began renting space.
Mass shooting
A mass shooting
A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...
occurred in the Tree of Life synagogue during Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...
morning services on October 27, 2018. A gunman entered the building shouting antisemitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
statements and opened fire, killing eleven and injuring six, including four responding police officers. The shooter, Robert Bowers, was apprehended at the scene.
Reopening
The synagogue has been closed since the shooting. In May 2021, synagogue officials announced that architect Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect.
He is known for the design a ...
had been selected as the lead architect for reconstruction. The main sanctuary of the campus and the stained glass
Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
windows of the temple will be preserved.
Leadership
The congregation elected its first spiritual leader, Rabbi Michael Fried, a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, in 1898. The longest-tenured rabbi of the congregation was Rabbi Herman Hailperin, who acceded to the position in 1922 while in his early twenties, the same year he was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary; he actively served for the next 45 years, being named rabbi emeritus in 1968. Following is the rabbinical leadership of the Tree of Life Congregation:
* Rabbi Michael Fried (1898–1906)
* Rabbi Rudolph Coffee (1906–1915)
* Rabbi Morris Mazure (1915–1922)
* Rabbi Emeritus Herman Hailperin (1922–1968)
* Rabbi Solomon Kaplan (1968–1982)
* Rabbi Emeritus Alvin K. Berkun (1983–2006)
* Rabbi Stephen Listfield (2006–2009)
* Rabbi Chuck Diamond (2010–2017)
* Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers (2017–present)
The synagogue's lay leadership established a tradition of volunteering and support for Jewish social service activities.[ Alexander Fink, the synagogue president from 1873 to 1892, was also a founder of the city's Hebrew Benevolent Society and later served as president of the United Hebrew Relief Association.][ When the synagogue established its new home in Squirrel Hill, facilities were given over for meetings of junior and senior Hadassah, the Women's League for Traditional Judaism, Young Judaea clubs, and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts troops.]
Notable members
*Howard Fineman
Howard David Fineman (November 17, 1948 – June 11, 2024) was an American journalist and television commentator. In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Fineman covered nine presidential campaigns as a reporter, writer, and analyst. For ...
(born 1948), journalist who is global editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group
*Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), known as "the Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, Conservation movement, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up ar ...
(born 1959), attorney and former Pennsylvania Banking Commissioner
* Joel Rubin (born 1971), politician and media commentator on domestic political and Middle East affairs
* Judah Samet (1938–2022), businessman, speaker, and Holocaust survivor
* Bari Weiss (born 1984), opinion writer and editor
See also
* History of the Jews in Pittsburgh
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tree of Life - Or L'Simcha
1864 establishments in Pennsylvania
Conservative synagogues in Pennsylvania
Jews and Judaism in Pittsburgh
Religious buildings and structures in Pittsburgh
Synagogues completed in 1953
21st-century attacks on Jewish institutions in the United States
Jewish organizations established in 1854
20th-century synagogues in the United States