Sept 2024: Looking Towards the Upcoming Commemoration Ceremony
Hello Friend,
The annual commemoration of the synagogue shooting on October 27, 2018 aims to honor those who were killed, support those who survived and those whose family members were killed, and to be a gathering place for the community to join in remembrance. Commemoration is always evolving to meet ever-changing needs, and the process of planning it is led by the 10.27 Healing Partnership and our Steering Committee, our Commemoration Committee, and the families and survivors of October 27th.
The Commemoration Ceremony was held at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in 2019, virtually in 2020, and at Prospect Drive in Schenley Park in 2021, 2022, and 2023. This year, the Commemoration Ceremony will be held inside Levinson Hall at the JCC in Squirrel Hill. We’re thankful to all the committee members who helped advise us around this change in venue, including committee members Ron Wedner, Alan Hausman, and Brian Schreiber.
“This is a compromise that allows for an intimate experience for the families while also providing a public Commemoration Ceremony,” says Ron Wedner, member of the Commemoration Committee, son-in-law of Rose Mallinger, who was killed on Oct. 27th, and husband to Andrea Mallinger Wedner, who was seriously injured. “We always want to honor the eleven people who were killed and to be together, but that doesn’t always have to look the same.”
“Commemoration can take a toll on the families, congregants, and committee members,” adds Alan Hausman, President of Tree of Life and the liaison between public safety and the Commemoration Ceremony. “Holding commemoration inside of the JCC this year will decrease the resources we will need to utilize for the ceremony. One of those invaluable resources is the time and energy of those who were directly impacted who come to the table to plan commemoration every year.”
“There is no guide for how to do this,” continues Alan, “but we’ve had many conversations to receive input from the community and the families.”
“We have been observing resiliency centers across the country and we have been both following and creating the best practices of mass violence response,” says Brian Schreiber, Commemoration Committee member and Chief External Affairs Officer of the JCC. “Annual commemoration remains essential, and each year we balance the need for privacy with the need for the whole community to connect together. The Commemoration Ceremony’s venue this year, which will be open to everyone but will also endeavor to be more intimate, is our way of meeting those needs.”
“We are thankful for the work by police, public works and the city during commemoration for the last three years on Prospect Drive,” says Alan Hausman. “They committed a huge amount of staffing every year, from the cleaning to the EMS support and the police presence. We really want to communicate our appreciation for that.”
“One of the greatest things we have learned organizing commemoration since October 27th is that everybody handles trauma in different ways,” Alan continues. “There are no right or wrong ways; what you feel is what you feel, and much of it manifests in ways we wouldn’t have thought of before.”
The 10.27 Healing Partnership holds that concept central to our work; there are unlimited ways to grieve, just as there are unlimited ways to heal. We hope to create as many diverse entryways as possible to step through, both during October and throughout the year. We look forward to joining together as a community through remembrance during the Commemoration Ceremony, through service during numerous volunteering opportunities, and through prayer and reflection for the yahrzeit. I and the 10.27 Healing Partnership staff would like to thank the Commemoration and Steering Committees for their tireless work every year to help open all these different doors of healing, resiliency, and togetherness.
In Solidarity,
Maggie Feinstein
Executive Director
10.27 Healing Partnership