Pittsburgh Synagogue Leader: Trump, Don’t Come
Image by Getty Images
By Helen Chernikoff October 29, 2018
Lynnette Lederman, past president of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, knew many of the victims of the Shabbat-morning shooting by Robert Bowers that killed 11 people and wounded others.
She’s heard that President Trump is talking about visiting the city and the synagogue and has one word for him: “Don’t.”
“He is the purveyor of hate speech,” she said. His words of sympathy are “hypocritical” and meaningless, she added.
The rabbi of the synagogue, however, said Trump is welcome, but hate is not.
“We’ve got to stop hate and it can’t just be to say we need to stop hate,” he said. “Hate is not welcome here in Pittsburgh. It should not be welcome in our borders at all.”
Contact Helen Chernikoff at [email protected] or on Twitter @thesimplechild
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
