Tree of Life attack survivor Dr. E. Joseph Charny dies at 95

Dr. E. Joseph Charny, a longtime Pittsburgh resident who survived the Tree of Life attack, has died at age 95.

He died in Washington, D.C., due to complications of a stroke, compounded by Alzheimer’s disease, according to his obituary in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

He stood next to Rabbi Jeffrey Meyers in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Oct. 27, 2018, when a gunman opened fire and killed 11 worshippers. It was the deadliest act of anti-Semitic violence in American history.

He later told The New York Times he watched a man with a big gun enter the room and shoot four people. He escaped to the third floor and hid to survive the violence.

Alan Hausman, president of the Tree of Life congregation, recalled Charny as “an icon of the Pittsburgh Jewish community.”

“He’d been involved for years and years and years,” Hausman said. “There wasn’t anything we had that he didn’t attend, all the way up until he became ill.”

After the attack on his synagogue, Charny used to take long walks that took him by the building, which has not been used since the tragedy. Hausman said he was tasked with checking on the empty building, and would try to time his visits so that he’d run into Charny taking his walks. They’d have long conversations during those encounters, Hausman said.

“He had a smile and a laugh that was contagious,” Hausman said. “He was the glass-half-full kind of guy. When he smiled, there was a twinkle in his eye, and you could tell he was a sincere person.”

Hausman said Charny’s involvement in the Tree of Life congregation “shaped us forever.”

“His contributions will be with us for generations to come,” he said.

Born in Philadelphia in 1927, Charny was one of three sons of first-generation immigrants from Odessa in tsarist Russia, according to his obituary.

He served in the U.S. Army in Italy immediately after World War II before graduating from Swarthmore College and receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, his obituary said.

Charny would go on to teach psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh medical school and Western Psychiatric, the obituary said, and he worked as a psychoanalyst in private practice. He completed his career as director of clinical services at Woodville State Hospital.

After retiring in 1989, Charny worked for several volunteer causes, including WQED, the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Community Day School. He served on the board of directors for the Tree of Life congregation.

Hausman said Charny attended board meetings even after he no longer served on the board.

After surviving the attack, he gave several local and national interviews about his experience. He was also featured in the HBO documentary “A Tree of Life.”

The documentary’s Twitter page shared news of Charny’s death.

“Thank you Joe for teaching us that to love humanity, we must also love our neighbors,” the post read.

We are very sorry to share with you that our beloved Joe Charny has departed. Thank you Joe for teaching us that to love humanity, we must love our neighbors. pic.twitter.com/cqXUVH1vJF

— A Tree of Life (@ATreeofLifeDoc) January 14, 2023