Tree of Life Synagogue - Remember. Rebuild. Renew.

The first time Carole Zawatsky entered the Tree of Life synagogue,?she saw a prayer book sitting on the reader’s stand, where the rabbi leads services. It was pierced through with a single bullet. It shook her to her core.

The blue siddur symbolized the horror of October 27, 2018, when a gunman attacked Jewish worshippers inside the Squirrel Hill synagogue, killing 11 and wounding six.

“Can you imagine doing the most ordinary thing, walking in and opening up a prayer book and happening to be in the line of fire? Sometimes the smallest object makes the most powerful statement,” said Zawatsky, the Chief Executive Officer of Tree of Life, the new national institution dedicated to countering antisemitism. She assumed the position in November 2022 and first visited the synagogue that December.

A $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation over the next two years in support of the REMEMBER. REBUILD. RENEW. campaign will help Tree of Life transform the now-empty building into not only a new place of worship but also a memorial and museum with exhibitions and programming focused on the history of antisemitism in America and the prevention of identity-based hate.

At its core, the reimagined building will honor the 11 victims who were murdered on 10/27, allowing visitors to reflect on what happened at the site and to pay their respects to the memories of those taken from the community.

It will also house a museum with exhibitions that include artifacts and information about antisemitism in America, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting – the most violent act of antisemitism in U.S. history -- and the Holocaust. The building will include spaces for educational programming for students; professional development for educators; symposiums to counter anti-bias and hate crimes; and tours and cultural events.

“How do you take this most horrifying, most violent act of antisemitism ever to have happened on American soil and hold that together with?light?” Zawatsky said. “How do we emerge out of the darkest times? You get up and you rebuild and recreate.” Light literally will flow through the building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, the architect who designed the Berlin Jewish Museum as well as the master plan for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center in New York City after the 9/11 attacks. He is working in collaboration with Rothschild Doyno Collaborative of Pittsburgh. The skylight running from one end of the building to the front will create a “Path of Life.”

Zawatsky wants to make sure the material is presented thoughtfully, memorializing the victims and the event without re-traumatizing family members and survivors. “How do you contextualize difficult material so you’re not just exhibiting it for an emotional reaction but for education? What we are trying to build is compassionate communities. What went so wrong that led to this rise of antisemitism and identity-based hate?”

The day of the shooting, Zawatsky was serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center in Washington, D.C. She felt a fierce protectiveness toward everyone with her in the Center, including the children in the preschool. “I wanted to embrace everyone and say, ‘I will keep you safe.’ But there was a sense of hopelessness.”

She also has served in other leadership roles with other Jewish nonprofits, including as Director of Education for The Jewish Museum in New York.

Zawatsky is honored to work with Libeskind and the relatives and survivors of the attack. It’s an honor to reclaim the synagogue as a place of light, a place where weddings and baby namings and joy will return while still remembering that horrific day.

“It was clear to me with every fiber of my being that this is where I needed to be,” she said. “It was as if everything I’ve ever done was a funnel that led me here.”