Debates over anti-Semitism have been simmering for months on college campuses, in local government meetings and in parliament, often devolving into bitter disagreements about what is and isn't anti-Semitic.
There was no such debate in Pittsburgh five and a half years ago. When 11 worshippers were murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018, the shooter who carried out the massacre made his bigotry explicit, declaring beforehand on social media that he was acting out of his belief that Jews were conspiring to replace the white race.
On Sunday, members of the Tree of Life church will gather for a memorial and groundbreaking ceremony for the new Tree of Life building. The airy, angular structure, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, will house the Tree of Life church's house of worship (one of three congregations meeting at the synagogue at the time of the shootings), an education center to combat bigotry and a museum documenting the long history of anti-Semitism in America.
Telling this story has become increasingly complicated since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent war.
“It certainly makes our job harder and it means we have to step into some pretty difficult situations,” said Michael Bernstein, Tree of Life's board chairman, but he added that “the essence of what we have to do is to get people more involved in this.”
The museum will be the first in the US dedicated to the history of anti-Semitism in America, spanning from colonial times to the hardline anti-immigrant policies of the mid-20th century, to the neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and beyond. The museum will show how the Tree of Life shooting was a particularly dark day, yet still part of a long-standing struggle in America.
“You have to look closely at the story to get to the narrative thread where these events happened and are understood,” said museum architect Ralph Appelbaum, who also designed galleries at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
Appelbaum said the project will be different from many others mainly because of its location, “one of the rare examples in America of building something on a site of such violence that doesn't have a clear context and is ahistorical.”
The motive for the violence was certainly clear, as the gunman explained it in a hateful rant on social media. Pittsburghers of all faiths rallied together to support the survivors and denounce the anti-Semitism behind the attack. “Stronger than hate” quickly became a citywide watchword.
But recently, such unity has been in short supply.
The debate over Hamas-led terror attacks and Israel's military response in Gaza has tested and fractured old alliances, forcing many to take a stand on whether and when opposition to the actions of the Israeli government becomes synonymous with anti-Semitism. There is disagreement on this point within the Jewish community, and even within the Tree of Life congregation. How the museum will address these issues is one of the questions facing the congregation.
Diane Rosenthal, 63, a member of the synagogue's board of directors whose brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal were killed in the attack, said exhibits and programs are still in the early stages of planning, but she expects the museum will play an important role in informing the current debate.
“I think education is even more important given what's going on at universities,” she said. “The rhetoric on social media is completely off-base from an Israeli and Jewish perspective. I see this new educational institution as a place where people can get a real education.”
It's about Alexandra Weiner, a 25-year-old math professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Weiner has been a Tree of Life member since she was a child and was on her way to church the morning of the shooting. She has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli government on campus, and her criticism has drawn complaints from pro-Israel groups and at least one Jewish student.
She worries that museums will be pressured to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that doesn't allow for critical views of Israeli politics.
“I'm very concerned about what would happen if the Tree of Life were to become a museum about the history of anti-Semitism in America,” she said, “and I think that would be very sad.”
Synagogue leaders and academic advisers brought in to help establish the museum said the new facility was not conceived as a place that would provide definitive answers to the public's most burning questions: The museum would provide historical context, and the education center would be a place where difficult questions could be debated and discussed.
“Rather, this is meant to be a space to respect and explore these complex issues,” said Carol Zawadzki, CEO of Tree of Life.
She and other officials noted that focusing only on the latest headline issue would overlook other dangerous expressions of anti-Semitism that thrive across the country, hidden from public view. After all, there was a long history behind the hatred harbored by the Tree of Life shooter, who was convicted and sentenced to death last summer. But in 2018, no one noticed the threat he posed to the synagogue and the deeply rooted Jewish community around it.
“I think it's pretty clear what happens when the public forgets too quickly,” Zawadzki said.