Temple Beth Tikvah hosted a powerful interfaith service on Tuesday evening, October 30, to honor the memories of those murdered in Squirrel Hill at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The congregation and shoreline community gathered to replace darkness and despair with light, love and hope. Hundreds gathered to listen to interdenominational speakers describe the support and strength we offer each other to move through grief to healing.

Rabbi Stacy Offner said,” It was really for our Jewish community to come together to grieve, but we wanted to open it up because every decent person in the country is in grief. The response was immediate and grateful and the people here are people of all faiths and people of no faith, but people of values.”

Since the murders, the shoreline community has reached out to TBT by sending letters, emails, personal visits and flower deliveries. Rabbi Offner said, “This is an amazing community and you don’t know who your friends are as much as you know when you’re hurting and it’s a beautiful thing to see.”