Eleven people were shot and killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday, October 27, 2018, when a man armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle entered the synagogue.
The alleged shooter entered the synagogue and began firing at the congregants during their services in the different rooms of the synagogue. He fired for several minutes while yelling anti-Semitic comments, until he was met by authorities and eventually surrendered.
The tragedy is one of the worst the Jewish community in the United States has ever witnessed. Since the shooting, students within the MFS community have come together to show their unity against the terrible act of anti-Semitism.
On Monday, October 29, MFS Upper School students took to social media, making sure to spread the word to wear blue to school to show solidarity and pay their respects to the victims in Pittsburgh.
Senior Lizzie Cohen, who helped to organize this event, said, “I originally saw the wear blue campaign in support of Pittsburgh on a BBYO—my Jewish youth group—post that was going around on social media, and I’ve seen similar things for the Parkland shooting and other similar things, so I thought it would be a good thing for our school to get involved in.”
As word spread about the wear blue campaign, Mike Brunswick, Upper School Dean of Students, sent out an email to all of the Upper School Monday morning informing students and staff to report to the Meeting House if they were wearing blue for a picture.
Cohen also felt the need to help get her fellow students get involved, saying, “Additionally, it’s often whenever I feel that there’s an anti-specific religion act of violence people often think, ‘Oh, I feel so bad for that group of people,’ but really this shooting could have happened at any specific religious group or anywhere in general, this just happened to be an anti-Semitic shooter, and getting the entire community involved in that effort is important to me.”
The event that took place in Pittsburgh has not only led to a reaction from MFS students and staff, but has also had a personal effect on some of the school community.
Meredith Godley, Head of the Upper School, was personally affected by the shooting. She said, “My sister lives about a block away [from the synagogue], and her family has spent some time in the Tree of Life Synagogue. My niece was one of the five students who helped coordinate the vigil and has been involved in subsequent events that have taken place this [past] week.”
Godley participated in the wear blue campaign, and said she thinks it’s great that students are taking the initiative to help support the victims of the shooting.
“I do think it’s had an effect,” she explained, adding, “I think kids are talking about it, and I think that students are trying to figure out what they can do and how they can help.”
Godley has also reached out to Jewish Culture Club to see if there is anything that she can help them with to acknowledge what has happened.
Additionally, many of the students at MFS felt a personal connection to the victims of Pittsburgh.
Sophomore Juliette Asbell, a member of MFS’s Jewish community, had first heard about the shooting on the news as it occured. While Asbell was not informed of the wear blue campaign, she says she does plan on attending her synagogue’s service in honor of the victims of the shooting.
While not literally affected by the tragedy, Asbell said, “I’m Jewish, so I feel like it affected me in a different way. It opened my eyes to how I knew that it was serious before, but how serious it truly is and the fact that it could have been my synagogue or someone else’s synagogue.”
