Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday commemorated six years since the deadly shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.
“This unspeakable act – fueled by antisemitic hate – was the deadliest attack on the American Jewish community in our Nation’s history,” Harris said in a statement, in part.
On Oct. 27, 2018, a white supremacist gunman opened fire inside the synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, killing 11 people and wounding six others during Shabbat services.
Two people support each other in front of flowers at a makeshift memorial at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 28, 2018.
Matt Rourke/AP/FILE
In her statement Sunday, Harris mourned the lives that were taken that day and also hailed the resiliency and enduring strength of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. She also noted the rise in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and vowed to continue to combat antisemitism.
“I will always work to ensure the safety and security of Jewish people in the United States and around the world, and will always call out antisemitism whenever and wherever we see it,” Harris said. “Doug and I are proud to have worked alongside President Biden to combat antisemitism, including through the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.”
This is the signage on the dormant landmark Tree of Life synagogue is pictured in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, Pittsburgh, Pa., July 13, 2023.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
“Today, Doug and I stand in solidarity with the survivors of this attack, the families who lost loved ones, and the entire Jewish community,” Harris added, referring to her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Earlier Sunday, President Joe Biden also marked the anniversary of the Tree of Life attack, saying in a statement that the shootings “shattered families, pierced the heart of the Jewish community, and struck the soul of our nation.”
“For the families of the victims and the survivors, this difficult day of remembrance brings it all back like it just happened – and our country holds them and their loved ones close in our hearts,” Biden added.
Biden said his administration remains committed to aggressively implementing the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
“As the Talmud says, ‘It is not your duty to finish the work but neither are you at liberty to neglect it,'” Biden said in the statement. “On this solemn day of remembrance for the attack in the Tree of Life Synagogue, let us come together as Americans to ensure antisemitism and hate in all its forms have no safe harbor in America – for all the lives we have lost and all those we can still save.”
