A community garden series aimed at inspiring resilience and hope debuted Tuesday, just days before the trial begins for the man accused of killing 11 people inside a Pittsburgh synagogue.
It was the first of three community garden service projects based on the Hebrew phrase “Chai chaiv’kayam” — or חי, חיוקיים — which can be understood as “live, live and be sustained.”
The gathering in Squirrel Hill offered a moment of healing ahead of jury selection in the trial on Monday.
Robert Bowers is accused of gunning down 11 worshippers on Oct. 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue, a hulking stone building at the intersection of Wilkins and Shady avenues. The building housed three congregations — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life or L’Simcha. The latter congregation owned the building, and its name is written in English and Hebrew on the north wall.
“Tree of Life” became the grim moniker for the massacre, and the Jewish congregants killed there became the faces of the nation’s worst anti-Semitic attack: Richard Gottfried, Joyce Fienberg, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, David and Cecil Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, Irving Younger.
“We really wanted a space where people could feel like they were in community with one another,” said Emery Malachowski, outreach coordinator for the 10.27 Healing Project, which organized the event along with Repair the World Pittsburgh and The Branch. “They were doing something that felt life-affirming like gardening.
“We wanted to have something that gives people a space to talk about their feelings, to discuss Jewish values and principles and just to come together in solidarity.”
Jess Gold, program manager at Repair the World Pittsburgh, said the idea for the project originated with meaning of “chai chaiv’kayam” and how it translates to the planting of seeds.
“That phrase can be translated in a couple of different ways, but the way that we're translating it is ‘live, live and be sustained,’ this idea of resilience, communal resilience and supporting each other,” Ms. Gold said. “Planting seeds involves cultivating hope for the future. We know that these seeds are going to grow into something beautiful that we can continue to look at and find inspiration from.”
The Branch, an organization focused on providing inclusive programming for individuals with disabilities, hosted the event at its Sally and Howard Levin Clubhouse on Murray Avenue.
Tuesday’s event was “an expression of hope,” said Nancy Gale, executive director of The Branch.
“We're looking to the future,” she said. “We think things can be better and planting something that you won't be able to see the benefit of for a while is, to me, an expression of hopefulness. Digging in dirt always feels like a very therapeutic activity. It's sort of tactile, it's creative. It's all of those things.”
When the plants begin sprouting in a month or two, organizers will plant them in a garden at the Community Day School on Forward Avenue.
Squirrel Hill resident Eric Lantzman said the community has already used gardening as a source of healing in the wake of the shooting, including the planting of 11 trees outside Pittsburgh Allderdice High School and trees which were planted in Schenley Park in remembrance of the victims.
“I think growing – regrowth – is an important part of the process,” Mr. Lantzman said. “This is a beautiful community with so much rich history to it, and we now have this unfortunate connecting piece to our community. I think that there's an immense amount of healing that happens for a lot of people when it comes to plant growing.”
He believes that an appreciation of the earth is also deeply rooted in Jewish tradition.
“One of the – there's so many – iconic imagery, things in Judaism is the tree of life,” he said. “We stem from the surface. We are part of it. We need to nurture that connection to the earth and appreciate that we're just one piece of the giant puzzle of the universe.”
First Published: April 19, 2023, 8:41 p.m.
Updated: April 20, 2023, 10:22 a.m.
