Bound in the Bond of Life : Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy
ISBN: 9780822987970
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / University of Pittsburgh Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: Social Science;

This heartrending and vibrant collection brings together journalists, religious leaders, writers, and others to reflect on the 2018 mass shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. It opens with several essays providing a rich sense of Squirrel Hill, the Jewish neighborhood where the synagogue is located. Journalists recount reporting on the attack, while others remember being unable to follow the news because of Shabbat observance. Rabbi Daniel Yolkut shares two sermons (one from a week following the attack and one from a year later). Poets offer works that tie the tragedy to other mass shootings (Arlene Weiner's "Shocked, Not Surprised") or Jewish ritual (Jonathan Perlman's "Eleh Ezkerah in Pittsburgh"). Historian Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg provides descriptions and photographs of the spontaneous memorials, and archivist Eric Lidji recounts his "tedium shot through with a complex, winding sorrow" as he collected and organized a historical record of the event. This remarkable collection is a powerful testament to how individuals and communities cope with an act of unbelievable violence. (Oct.)


Beth Kissileff is the author of the novel Questioning Return and editor of the essay collections Reading Genesis: Beginnings and Reading Exodus: Journeys . She has taught at the universities of Pittsburgh and Minnesota and Carleton, Smith, and Mount Holyoke colleges. Her writing has appeared in the Atlantic , the New York Times , Tablet , and Religion News Service , among others. She is the spouse of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation, who survived the October 27 attack by hiding himself and others.

Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center. He is the author of John Riegert and The Seventeenth Generation: The Lifework of Rabbi Walter Jacob and a co-editor of Her Deeds Sing Her Praises: Profiles of Pittsburgh Jewish Women . He writes extensively about the Jewish history of Western Pennsylvania and hosts the local Jewish history podcast The Cornerstone . He has been overseeing the effort to preserve documentation of the October 27 attack.
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