HARRISBURG — When he travels overseas next week, Gov. Tom Wolf will stop at two Holocaust memorials and write inside guest books the names of the 11 people killed at the Tree of Life synagogue last year.
As he travels, the governor will carry with him the mezuzah, a holy scroll that hung over Rabbi Jeffrey Myers’ door inside the synagogue. It broke when SWAT officers stormed the building on Oct. 27 in an effort to rescue shooting victims. The rabbi loaned the mezuzah to the governor for his trip.
“What I’m hoping for is that this act brings some solace to the survivors and will remind them that we Pennsylvanians will never forget their loved ones,” the governor said Friday afternoon, during a press conference inside the state Capitol.
The Tree of Life synagogue shooting was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. The memorials that Wolf will be visiting — Paneriai in Lithuania and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland — are designed to remember the people, most of whom were Jewish, who were killed by German Nazis.
Mr. Wolf is heading overseas to visit Pennsylvania National Guard members who are training in Lithuania and serving in Poland. He said he wanted to honor the Tree of Life shooting victims during his trip and reached out to Rabbi Myers for suggestions about how to best do so. The idea to carry the mezuzah and write the victims’ names in the books were the rabbi’s idea, Mr. Wolf said.
First Published: September 6, 2019, 6:55 p.m.
