How to overcome anti-Semitism and hate? Pittsburgh's community shows the way forward.
It’s been a difficult week for those of us with ties to Pittsburgh. I did not know the Temple of Life victims personally, but as ex-neighbors they were part of my extended family and I mourn their loss.
Hate is the refuge of the weak and simple-minded, and a tool of those who would cynically manipulate them for their own purposes. Such damaged people have always been among us.
But now social media carries messages of validation, encouragement and motivation. Add an AR-15, and the recipe for the modern American tragedy is complete.
So, hate took up arms against Pittsburgh. But to my way of thinking, hate chose the wrong city, and in the final analysis was defeated.
Pittsburgh is one close-knit neighborhood made up of a variety of close-knit neighborhoods, often with an ethnic identity — like Squirrel Hill, home to much of Pittsburgh’s Jewish population.
"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"
Squirrel Hill is a lovely, vibrant neighborhood, rich in culture and culinary delights — close-knit but welcoming. It is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, after all — home to Fred Rogers and his mantra of love and inclusiveness: “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
Mr. Rogers also told children who heard scary news “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
When the first shots rang out, the helpers arrived shortly after. Pittsburgh Police braved a hail of gunfire to engage the shooter and prevent his escape, possibly to continue his killing spree — at the cost of several wounded officers, some still hospitalized.
The community’s embrace of its heroes is epitomized by a viral photo of a young Jewish boy in the sheltering arm of a policeman, as he delivers cookies and a note: "Thank you for keeping the Jews in the neighborhood safe.”
After the wounded shooter was subdued, he was transported to a Jewish hospital, still spewing hatred. The medical team that treated him included Jewish medical professionals.
Pittsburgh residents are helpers
How did Jews manage to treat someone who had just killed their neighbors for simply being Jewish?
It’s what they do. It’s who they are.
This hatred was also stoked by the fear of immigrants and immigration.
Really? In Pittsburgh? To grow up in this most diverse city is to understand we are all immigrants. Sooner or later we all came from someplace else.
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I recall a local TV station promo from my childhood: “Pittsburgh’s a whole world of people.” The lyrics in part list “Irish, Italian, Dutch, Lithuanian, Greek and Czech.” The list goes on — Polish, Muslim and more. But the way these diverse communities have united and supported each other in the face of this tragedy is simply stunning.
So many of these immigrants came to escape war, poverty and persecution in their home countries. So many came with nothing except their hope for a better life and the will to create it.
Steel is in the DNA
They took on the dirty and dangerous jobs no one else would. They dug the coal, made the iron and steel. They built families, churches, neighborhoods, the local economy and neighborhoods — and a city and a nation.
Speaking of steel — a song tells us San Francisco was built on rock and roll. Very cool.
Pittsburgh was built on steel. Although steel is no longer made in Pittsburgh, it remains part of our heritage and identity. It seems every son and daughter of the Steel City, whether native born or adopted, receives an infusion of steel into their DNA steel that can help you survive the hammer blows of life and keep on living.
Steel may bend but it rarely breaks.
Pittsburgh and its police force are wounded, but will recover and be stronger than ever. Pittsburgh is stronger than hate. And Pittsburgh has shown how love can defeat hatred and the bankrupt concepts of anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant xenophobia.
Pittsburgh has shown the way forward.
I can only hope that our nation follows its lead.
Tom Hehman, retired Wicomico Public Library director, was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He attended Carnegie-Mellon University, whose campus is adjacent to Squirrel Hill, and lived in Squirrel Hill while attending the University of Pittsburgh. This column originally appeared in Delmarva Now.