Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Julian Edelman Raises $10K For Pittsburgh Victims By Selling Cleats

BOSTON (JTA) — A California firm paid $10,000 for a pair of Julian Edelman’s game shoes to benefit families of the victims of the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue.

The New England Patriots’ wide receiver wore the cleats — stamped with the words “The Tree of Life” in Hebrew and an Israeli flag — at a Dec. 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in solidarity with the victims of the Oct. 27 shooting.

Golden West Food Group made the donation last week to the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, whose initials were also stamped on the shoes.

Edelman, whose father is Jewish, wore the cleats, part of the NFL’s #MyCauseMyCleats campaign, during the December 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Designed by acclaimed sneaker artist Dan Gamache, the cleats also bear the names of the 11 shooting victims. The right cleat features the #StrongerThanHate hashtag and a Star of David.

The donation from the sale will go to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to benefit the victims’ families and to help strengthen the city’s Jewish community, according to the Boston Jewish group.

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.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.