Square card with white and yellow text against blue background. Card reads, "Mitzvah4Pittsburgh. Some spread darkness. We spread light. Choose a good deed. Choose a Mitzvah. Add light to the world," followed by four options and a place for respondents to list their name and email address. Some names and email addresses have been redacted for privacy.
In the days after the October 27 attack, people began leaving objects at two locations outside the Tree of Life synagogue--one at the corner of Wilkins and Shady avenues in front of the Zittrain Gardens, and the other on a private lawn at Wilkins and Murray avenues, just beyond police barricades. Community volunteers moved the entirety of these two memorials inside the Tree of Life building on November 14, 2018, for preservation purposes. Most of these objects including this one were moved to archival preservation over the following year, but a small number were arranged in public display in the windows of the Hailperin Sanctuary Rauh Jewish Archives staff and volunteers dismantled this display on February 16, 2023, and the objects were brought to the archive for preservation. Rauh Jewish Archives staff and volunteers dismantled this display on February 16, 2023, and the objects were brought to the archive for preservation. In response to the October 27 attack, the global Chabad-Lubavitch movement started a "Mitzvah4Pittsburgh" campaign, encouraging people to do a "Mitzvah" (Hebrew for "commandment" and used to denote good deeds) in honor of the victims. Chabad at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. joined the initiative. Participants signed a card, marking off the good deed they intended to do, such as giving charity, lighting Shabbat candles, and other acts of kindness. Chabad-Lubavitch is an international Chasidic Jewish movement that provides resources for Jewish life on college campuses throughout North America, among its many offerings.
Terms of Use
The October 27 Archive collects responses to an antisemitic attack in Pittsburgh, Pa. on October 27, 2018. These responses take many forms but share a motivating impulse. Each began in the mind and heart of someone who was moved by the events of that day and was compelled to create something meaningful from that feeling. By sharing these responses, those people chose to be vulnerable for the sake of a greater good. The October 27 Archive website was launched with the belief that sharing these responses with the world can provide an avenue for people all over the world to reflect, learn, and heal.
By entering this website, you agree to honor the spirit in which these responses were created and in which they are being shared with the world.
The materials on this website are being made available exclusively for research purposes. For permission to use any of the materials on this website for any other purpose, please contact the archive. If you are the creator of any of the material on this website, and you would like to provide context or request to have something removed, please contact the archive. If you intend to reference any material found on this website, please attribute all citations to the Rauh Jewish Archives, so that other researchers can easily locate these materials in the future.