Heinz History Center opens digital archive documenting 2018 Tree of Life attack

A website displaying archival materials collected in the aftermath of the Oct. 27, 2018, attack against three congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue was set in motion Tuesday by the Senator John Heinz History Center’s Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives.

The October 27 Archive website (october27archive.org) is a collection of items documenting the support for Pittsburgh’s Jewish community from Western Pennsylvanians and people around the world in the aftermath of the worst attack on a Jewish community in U.S. history.

The website currently does not include any documentation of the actual crime, according to Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives.

“It’s mostly a documentation of the response. I think that people in the moment understood that something special happened. That there was a unique degree of people reaching across these chasms that normally feel insurmountable – people reaching across geographic lines, across religious lines, across racial lines and across political lines,” Lidji said.

“It’s easy to forget the feeling of that and I think we all want to live in a world where it’s easy to reach across those lines. The greatest value (of these materials) is for people to understand what it looks like when people reach out to strangers who are not like them. I think that would be one of the benefits of this site,” he said.

There is no shortage of material for the website. Since the attack, the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives has collected tens of thousands of documents, artifacts and news articles documenting local efforts to create bonds that cross community divisions and address anti-Semitism.

The website currently includes flyers and programs from vigils held in the days following the attack, an archive of local news coverage from Oct. 27, 2018, and a collection of historic photographs and documents from Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh partnered with the Heinz History Center to create the website.

“It’s really gratifying to know that this amazing outpouring of support in the days, weeks and even years after the October 27 attack will still be available to help people who are healing,” said Adam Hertzman, director of marketing for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “From the very beginning, the Jewish Federation and all of our partners who are involved with the response wanted all of our actions and programs to be victim-centered.

“One of the things that I’ve learned is that the healing process isn’t linear. People often think time heals all wounds,” Hertzman said. “For certain, something that helps some people heal is seeing how much support there is from others.”