The city of Pittsburgh was grief-stricken and uneasy early Tuesday as the first three funerals of those killed in the antisemitic massacre on Saturday were due to be held, while residents and city leaders are divided over Donald Trump’s planned visit this afternoon.
The mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto, asked the president not to come.
Ignoring the mayor’s pleas, Trump intends to travel Tuesday to the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where 11 people were shot to death at the Tree of Life synagogue. He’ll be joined by his wife Melania – and his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who are practising Orthodox Jews.
Sign up for the new US morning briefingPeduto on Monday asked Trump to delay visiting until the slain residents have been buried, saying his presence would strain security resources.
“We did try to get the message out to the White House that our priority tomorrow is the first funeral,” Peduto said Monday night on CNN.
“I do believe that it would be best to put the attention on the families this week, and if he were to visit, choose a different time to be able to do it,” he said. “Our focus as a city will be on the families and the outreach that they’ll need this week and the support that they’ll need to get through it.”
Trump is expected to meet with first responders and community leaders. It was not immediately clear whether Trump and his family would meet with any bereaved family members.
“Well, I’m just going to pay my respects,” Trump told Fox News on Monday night. “I’m also going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people that were so badly hurt.”
Victims in the tragedy included a 97-year-old woman, two brothers with special needs, a husband and wife, and a beloved family doctor.
Three funerals are set for Tuesday, according to WTAE Channel 4. Services will be held for Dr Jerry Rabinowitz, a doctor hailed as a pioneer in treating Aids who was reportedly shot after rushing to help the wounded; and for brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, an inseparable pair with developmental disabilities beloved at the synagogue where they never missed services.
“We are trying to put the pieces back together. People are still in various degrees of grief, shock and dismay. My focus over the next few days is to tend to my congregation,” Jeffrey Myers, rabbi at the Tree of Life synagogue, told CNN early Tuesday.
“Words of hate must cease. When we speak words of hate, when you speak ill of other candidates, America listens to you, they get their instructions from you, the leaders,” he said. “When they speak words of hate, no matter which party, people say: ‘You’re doing it, I can do that too’. Tone down the hate, speak words of decency and love. People look to our leaders.”
Residents of Squirrel Hill are divided over the president’s visit. For Marianne Novy, Trump isn’t wanted “unless he really changes his ways”. For David Dvir, politics should take a pause for grief: “It’s our president, and we need to welcome him.”
The visit comes as Trump struggles to balance appeals for national unity with partisan campaign rhetoric just a week before contentious midterm elections.
Barry Werber, 76, who said he survived the massacre by hiding in a dark storage closet as the gunman rampaged through the building, said he hoped Trump wouldn’t visit, noting that the president has embraced the politically fraught label of “nationalist.” Werber said the Nazis were nationalists.
“It’s part of his program to instigate his base,” Werber said, and “bigots are coming out of the woodwork.”
Novy, 73, a retired college English professor, said she signed an open letter asking Trump not to come to Pittsburgh. “His language has encouraged hatred and fear of immigrants, which is part of the reason why these people were killed,” she said.
Just minutes before the synagogue attack, the shooter apparently took to social media to rage against HIAS, a Jewish organization that resettles refugees under contract with the US government.
Dvir, 52, the owner of Murray Avenue Locksmith in Squirrel Hill, said of Trump, “I think he made some mistakes, but he is a great president.” He added that it would be “a shame” if the community protested the president’s visit.
Local and religious leaders are also divided on whether Trump should visit. Peduto, a Democrat, told reporters ahead of the announced visit that the White House ought to consult with the families of the victims about their preferences and asked that the president not come during a funeral.
“If the president is looking to come to Pittsburgh, I would ask that he not do so while we are burying the dead,” Peduto said. “Our attention and our focus is going to be on them, and we don’t have public safety that we can take away from what is needed in order to do both.”
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