JM in the AM 11 1 18

[Music] British masse [Music] [Applause] [Music] five minutes after 6:00 a.m. good morning everybody my name is Nasim Segal welcome to a Thursday this is your Jewish moments in the morning radio program it is a jamming a.m. broadcast for a Thursday November the first twenty third day the month of March fun and today's the day that we are here in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania we are in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh we are here with our Jewish unity initiative as we call it to express our solidarity to be here and let our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh know just like we've done in other communities around the world that there are people their own brothers and sisters around the world who care about them who are thinking of them and who are doing whatever possible to comfort them during this very very trying time we got into Pittsburgh last night we paid a visit to the the vigil the extensive and really appropriate a Jewish memorial to the eleven victims in front of the Tree of Life congregation here in Squirrel Hill we spend some time with some of the people in the area and of course with our by Wasserman who's our host here at Congregation sorry Torah in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where services are beginning to our right the tree of life congregation that has become internationally known at this point is just minutes away and this is a very close knit community and one that once the entire world to know that this is not what typically happens in this area of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania this is a very close community where both Jew and non-jew alike and so many diverse groups get along it has that small-town America feel it has that historic Jewish neighborhood feel as its reputation has always been as a historic Jewish neighborhood and that we are here today to speak to the people here and to express our condolences our wishes our brotherhood and sisterhood as they move forward please God during this week of Shiva this week of funerals in the aftermath of this episode with us live via telephone is the chairman of the Jewish unity initiative and that's of course Simon Jacob who's in Jerusalem as we speak right now no greater unifying City than Jerusalem and I asked Simon to join me for a minute at the beginning of this broadcast just to again reiterate to this audience the importance of us being on the spot in the city where these types of things take place to express our support and solidarity Simon good morning to you I'm sure you have a a message for everybody listening as you grow as you broadcast as you speak to us from Jerusalem you know I'm I'm always uncomfortable with this concept of chairman of the Jewish unity committee or initiative Jewish unity initiative but I'll be honest today I couldn't be more prouder of you guys being in Pittsburgh I'm I am in Jerusalem I actually just got back to Jerusalem I was in America over Shabbat when everybody got the news of what had happened there I was in the community of Elizabeth and and to be honored all of a sudden we saw police cars you know in front of the big Knesset and in front of the synagogue and we were you know everybody was saying to each other why are the police cars here because we've not heard anything about what had happened until after Shabbat was over so it was a shock and if you know brought at home how how important this initiative is to all of us we are one people and and and to basically know that you're supported from places as far away as there it's Israel but literally by Jews all over the world we are one people we you know we listen in and we're and we're aware of all the things that are going on and and again we're supportive in any way we can be one of the things I'm looking for from Unocal is the anything that you see that can be of assistance to the community in Pittsburgh I think this is what all you all of your listeners are looking for anything that can be of assistance with these to the people in Pittsburgh that will help comfort them or help them through this very difficult time everybody is standing by you know of waiting some sort of instruction because we're all you know we're all shocked no question about it and as you said that this is a this is an initiative that again was founded on the premise that Jews around the world care and that we have to always maintain that message and transmit that message to everybody we are here in Pittsburgh and as you know there's nothing like being on the spot you've traveled with us you've been on the spot in places that needed the comfort places that needed the Brotherhood and sisterhood to be expressed and this is no exception and being here is certainly very different than hearing the news I'm glad we are here because of your support and your enthusiasm and our entire Jewish unity initiative for support and enthusiasm among our lay leadership we're able to do things like this and we are certainly going to look out as you just suggested for any ways beyond this that we can help as a people whether it's a financial assistance or any type of professional assistance that we can give to the community here Simon I thank you we're going to commence with our broadcast and I know that everybody in Jerusalem joins me in in saying Pittsburgh anak Mui ma femme Pittsburgh our brothers and sisters we are with you please thank you very much for being there toda raba thank you very much there he is Simon Jacob who is our chairman Jewish unity initiative joining us from the other the other side of the world and recognizing what how important it is to be here Miriam L Wallach of course is here she and yoni Pollak our staff who traveled with me to be here during this time at the broadcast good morning to you good morning I never thought if you would have told me a week ago though be in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania with this edition of JM Nahum I would not have believed that obviously when this did happen before Shabbos ended I was already being asked when are you going to Pittsburgh I think people expect this from us I always like to remind everybody that there are small and large gestures that can be made to show support for Erica for a community and in this case this gesture not sure if we would classify it as either large or small but this gesture is an important one because we're not only here for ourselves we are real we really feel we're representing worldwide jury who are tuned in together and who are concerned together and who are looking toward Pittsburgh together and who are and who are hoping that the future of the Jewish community is going to be strong here together and we're doing all that representing so many people around the world I think that if that there are a lot of ways that people could answer if you had told me a week ago fill in the blank right if you had told me we know that somebody would walk into a shul on a Shabbos morning with multiple machine guns and are and armed with I mean exactly and and with terrible terrible intent and hatred in his heart and in his mind I would have you know I mean you gotta be kidding me it's Pittsburgh and that people here continue to remind us that this is hey not that any community frankly what would be would be uh not every commit no community would it be understood that it would happen obviously in this country but here especially it is completely the opposite of what this community is like the the unity that they feel throughout all ethnic groups and through all the diverse backgrounds that people have and everyone living together in peace and then this happens right and completion and there are but then there are the the classic Pittsburgh stories some of which we heard last night many of which will be shared today on this program this morning would show the beauty of Pittsburgh and the friendship and the love and the camaraderie here in this community which is why as you mentioned it was so shocking and we were privy to a number of those anecdotes which were unbelievably heartwarming and and made us all emotional at that moment when we heard about Mincha what Mincha looked like in the Squirrel Hill community on Shabbos after the shooting that image to me what will last a lifetime and and yes even last night when we when we went to the memorial outside of the shul and you know we drove directly there that was what we put in ways you want to know a location that's what we put in ways and to arrive there and see the enormity of the memorial and even though we've already seen it in pictures but certainly it is it is it is unfathomable and unbelievable both at the same time when you're standing there in front of it and then you have the police officers who are standing guard who we all had an opportunity to speak to and and thank and shake their hands and show her appreciation and you know one police officer clearly saw that I was particularly emotional and in horrific shock as to being there in person to see what we were seeing and and you know he knew he couldn't hug me I mean he and but he also knew that there were no words to say and at one point you know when when you and yoni and I were like milling about I noticed a number of kids from the community were a lot of trick-or-treaters last night in Pittsburgh and a couple little kids came over in their costumes to share their candy with the police officers and I and I said to one of the police officers well I guess we learned from kids that life goes on and he said absolutely but he said it with pride because Pittsburgh will rebuild and but we'll get stronger from this horrific incident and and so will the rest of us and I think that that's important lesson to learn we're here in Pittsburgh and many people out there are have spent a lot of time as we learned from the people who are in Pittsburgh reaching out and asking what they could do frankly a lot of people were encouraged not to come here because they're overwhelmed with support they're overwhelmed by the the outpouring that's come from around the world and especially from our area in the New York New Jersey area there have been bus loads of people students and others who were planning on actually making their way out here they've been encouraged to to sit tight because of again because of the overwhelming circumstance now that we're here it's much easier for us to understand that this is a relatively small community as we know communities right being from the New York area and you know the Maine Jewish drag is a couple of blocks and the and you know there's there are only a limited number of people who take leadership roles here so they cannot possibly coordinate everything that people would like them to coordinate so it's very very it's a very sensitive situation again people would love to to be here if possible and to you know fill a role and to express their support there are ways to do it without necessarily walking into town there are there are first responders to thank there are families that certainly would welcome condolence messages many of them would welcome that more than they would welcome visitors during Shiva right because of the nature of their families many of them are if we were even told because we our intention was to pay at least one Shiva call this morning and we've already been told that that Shiva house is reserved for family and friends so I don't even know if people like us would be welcome there which I understand 100% it's not about us they're not ready to to welcome strangers in it especially after especially in the aftermath of what had happened to their relatives on Shabbos so that is that that's a situation here it's a jam they in broadcast some congregation sorry Torah in in Squirrel Hill Miriam there were as you know as you've seen and as we've all been posting there have been you know so many pieces that have come out so much as mayor Furtick pointed out so much good writing has come out of has come out of this of this tragedy and there are a number of pieces that came out talking about the cover khadisha and talking about the the people who waited to do schmira for the 11 souls who were murdered and there again there are a number of unbelievable articles that came out one talked about the power of prayer and there are there was a picture circulating on Sunday of three women outside of Tree of Life who were who were clearly saying to hell him made the front page of the New York Times right and I I found that piece very important and that picture very important and I fell also found myself last night at the at the memorial at eight I am completely at a loss for words and for a good reason there's absolutely nothing to say and you're you're completely overwhelmed when you're there and it's also obviously incredibly solemn and incredibly somber and and just heartbreaking but I did find myself reaching for might say hell in my pocketbook and and I want to and I want to mention that because I think it is one of the beauties of our religion that when we are at a loss for words the words are provided for us there is something always to say and and they may not be our words but they're certainly our sentiments and and that police officer who sort of had his eye on me out of concern last night saw me reach in and and grab my my sitter that I keep in my keep in my purse and I really personally found strength in that in that last night there is you and I have discussed the power of prayer Rebbetzin Adina Schmid men from the OU u Women's Initiative joins me today on that's life to discuss in prayer and I really truly felt it last night when we were there the memorial reminded you of what scene had we been at I mean it reminded me of Paris right reminders of the bodycon aftermath and and frankly and that was an even larger memorial for obvious reasons might but this one was was was quite comprehensive all the victims remembered flowers by the thousands stones stones and candles right and signs and messages and cards and to Helen I mean there were there were numerous printouts and handwritten notes that were just one Psalm after another after another some of the cards came from New York some of the cards came from schools that we represented hmm including the the mission that we were on from each about no I'm after yesterday's show plus you were in your hometown and after after school provide their students provided some of the cards and signs as well and we're going to try to deliver some more of those messages of support to the first responders later today so we are we're witnessing a real coming together we're witnessing an amazing an amazing outpouring of support and generosity and generosity I mean you know we're gonna we're gonna you're gonna have the opportunity to speak to Nina Butler a little bit later in the program but the warmth the the openness the huffman said organ that we were shown both yesterday by Rabbi Wasserman who has 9,000 things to do within an hour and the butler's who have been coordinating God knows how much here and the point people for many different prominent Jewish organizations opened up their home last night and I am completely not gonna minimize the the moment that you and early Butler saw each other now hurry Butler is a voice and a presence and a personality that our listeners are completely completely aware of familiar with right familiar with and I mean the both of you there were such happiness and that room last night to see each other never thought that's why we would reunite frankly right right and this right it was so great to see him and he was you know he was personally affected losing a friend yes who was shot and who was murdered that's another thing that a lot of people in our community in New York may not realize or understand there is a there is a not just a cursory knowledge of the people and and you know some type of casual relationship with the people but but those who were murdered we're known throughout the entire across the board Jewish community um you know no matter what the background of different people and what tools they dive in and they knew many of them who were there and and these funerals are taking place this week of course and you know many people again from across the board are attending these funerals and you know generally speaking we don't always have this crossover in communities we don't always have this you know the relationship with different segments of our you know religious backgrounds in this case it is when we talk about unity it really is unity and you see the day school students right who are affected by this and you see Habad who's involved and you see the Orthodox rabbis were involved you see everybody from the reform and conservative backgrounds who are involved in their sanctuaries sir and their social whole serving as funeral homes or funeral chapels at this point it is a really close-knit community that again a lot of us have difficulty understanding if we're from the New York area the national media and international media continues to be I don't want to use the word fascinated it sounds a little too condescending but I'll say that they are both in shock as they report about what happened shop this morning and at the same time they are lauding appropriately the first responders and the fact that they ran in to try to save everybody in today's Wall Street Journal an article contributed by a three different journalists they write as follows Carol black had just sat down in the third row of the Tree of Life synagogue downstairs mary was taking out her prayer book in glasses when she heard a loud sound she didn't recognize what it sounded like to me was a big metal table being dropped on a tile floor she recalled I've never heard a sound like that before by Jonathan Perlman immediately recognized the sounds of gunfire she said and heard it in his black and to other congregants down the hallway to hide two blocks away a pair of Pittsburgh police officers were finishing roll call Saturday morning when the 911 calls about an active shooter at the Pittsburgh synagogue started pouring in they are being attacked at a police dispatcher multiple gunshots are heard from the lobby possibly 20 to 30 shots the two officers raced to the synagogue and quickly faced fire from the gunman's ar-15 rifle bullets hid one in the hand the other was sprayed with shrapnel and broken glass the gunmen retreated inside he's got an automatic weapon he's firing out in front of the synagogue one officer warned via radio less than a minute later an officer says every available unit in the city needs to get here now now this may be the slogan of Pittsburgh and certainly the slogan of the Pittsburgh police force their slogan on their police vehicles as we saw last night is to protect and serve and in this case they protected with every available unit and as best as they could and they served certainly at 100% capacity every available unit in the city needs to get here now and not to judge but we've become familiar with circumstances in this country where police officers retreat where police again not judging right but just this is the reality that that is the way they thought with the situation these officers the way they dealt with the situation was to to burst into the synagogue to confront the killer face to face and of course the proof as they say is in the pudding because the the murderer was apprehended inside the shul he never even made it outside that's where they got him so they say as first responders and his police officers we're ready to give their lives and I know that that's the pledge they make but they that they were ready to literally give their lives a shot this morning to protect Jewish people and I think one of our themes has to meit has to remain that in history first responders in major cities on this globe traditionally I know there were exceptions traditionally did not run into shoals to save Jews very often first responders and officials for the government and for the police would run into schools to to murder Jews and I think that as we talk about how could this happen in America and we talked about oh my gosh you know Holocaust survivors survived what happened in Europe and come here and there and and they're faced with this and erm I Watson was gonna have quite a story to tell us a little later on about other Jews who left areas of great danger to Jews and came here and then came at a time when this was happening in Pittsburgh but it still must be stated that there is something about this country and it's not just Jews the police forces are committed to protect everybody and there are so many people in this country who are not like that there's so many people in this country who are so different from from all of us there's so many degrees of separation when it comes to ethnicity and it comes to background and yet they have this what I consider to be an amazing blessing an incredible creed to to protect and help anybody at any time even if it means bursting into a building where someone with a cachet of weapons is trying to kill them and it's really we think about in the context of history it's absolutely remarkable we also should mention that we - before deciding to come down here really weed the advice and the guidance that we were given and that other organizations were given before coming down which is why a number of them decided that out of respect and and the fact that the community was obviously strapped at this point taking care of their own right exactly but we felt and and you put it perfectly that we had a responsibility to combat some of the the literature the the literature the the rhetoric that was coming out of the story about coming out about the divisive nacinda Jewish community right and that that this just highlights how divided Jews are and etc etc and you very poignant li and rightfully so stated that we as Orthodox members of the media have a responsibility to tell the true story and that's the unity and the togetherness and the support that all that that everyone is showing each other at this point and to read one more article to see one more piece posted online that highlights what is you know what is supposed proof of how no one is getting along is is more than preposterous let's put me over the top I not surprisingly welcome the word hubs of New York Times article which I happen to have in my bag and and they and and I shouldn't say they he who's the journalist whose name is how finger I assume a member of our faith he decided to utilize his space in the paper to talk about the the division to talk about these small little petty issues that have come up since javis small things the way people reference you know the way the language people use my reference to the shul and even the even the outrage and I use that in quotation marks of Naftali Bennett coming here when he's involved in the whole controversy with immigrants in Tel Aviv how could he how could he come here to you know to to comfort those who are in the u.s. all these different things again you know petty arguments and petty disagreements that I'm not minimizing in terms of their importance for our own community but certainly was not the focus of what was going on in the aftermath of the Shabbos massacre so we come here hoping that we can shed some light in the fact that the the unifying effort from around the world is just remarkable and that people are are so focused on what's going on in this neighborhood and and it's also amazing how many people we have found out have roots here oh my gosh it's incredible how many people that are really in the worldwide Jewish community at this point right both the u.s. Israel and around the world have roots and Squirrel Hill it's a old historic Jewish neighborhood with with that dates back to the mid 1800s which is you know a rarity with a strong community since then and it was always this very close-knit community no matter what denominations you know were dominant in town and it's a shame that we got to know the community a little bit because of this but this is how in fact we got to know and it's really it's really how so many people have gotten to know it over the last week I'd say JM broadcast were alive from the sorry Torah congregation in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania as people are arriving from inion people are arriving for a minyan here and rubbery watchman's gonna join us about an hour from now we have other guests who are going to be joining us through the through the morning in fact one of our one of our colleagues from the old W F mu days who now lives in Squirrel Hill is gonna join us that'll be a big surprise for those of you who've been longtime listeners of jam in the a.m some of the people who work for you which family service is gonna be by you mentioned that there are a couple of journalists yes who've written about this episode and the aftermath are gonna come by and you mentioned Mina Butler earlier she's certainly a leader in this community she and her husband and she she has one agenda and that agenda is to remind the world just how peaceful and wonderful this neighborhood is and that they shouldn't think that this is a neighborhood that on a regular basis has this type of thing happened you know this is this is this is certainly viewed as a as an exception but my gosh what kind of exception it is and being there yesterday at the at the memorial for the 11 victims it was interesting to see people of all different backgrounds and clearly different religions and ethnic groups who stop by and pay their respects and are also in shock are also you know there are many tears there yesterday from people just cannot believe because it's there that this happened in this in their neighborhood you know there we should also by the way just mentioned that there have been number that have there have been a number of acts of anti-semitism that have taken place since Shabbos there was the defacing of the Beth Jacobs shul in Los Angeles which is horrific there were swastikas found in a pretty upscale neighborhood in Brooklyn that had been that had progressive yes because okay those who think progressive means nobody hates Jews anymore thank you good it found all over the sidewalk of which they found very jarring and for good reason there have been a number of swastikas on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on various light posts and postal and mail boxes over the last couple of weeks as well and no I am certainly not equated those acts to the horror of Shabbos but I am mentioning them only because they deserve to be mentioned and they are filled with hate no matter what level and what degree things like this are done it reminds us of what's going on in Europe with all of the different you know you walk down the street and see these types of things and it's happening in the United States of America Mayor Furtick by the way you should just know just he's listening we thank mayor as always and he says now I'm always used to say the three most comforting words in broadcasting Doug is coming up here at in the a.m. we're in Pittsburgh everybody we are expressing our solidarity with our brothers and sisters here in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where congregations sorry Torah in the on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill and will joined by plenty of guests between now and nine o'clock a very important Jewish unity initiative jam in the am coming to you on the Nasim single Network [Music] sighing Nico bye she sued me my legal body sir and the singing mats [Music] by [Music] is but [Music] behind me Hawaii [Music] the TI me too [Music] be my eye [Music] go by see-through [Music] Luigi I me too [Music] legalized [Music] Popeyes is ooh [Music] legalized [Music] tiny goodbyes and the scene in my [Music] my a five [Music] my sign [Music] Beauty I need to do [Music] No Eco by see-through [Music] Oh [Music] it's the brother in cuz I know we share family ties and all the world keeps telling us how you and now you really saw it like it's not about the language or geography no connection to crush a besides it's rooted deep in our history it's a spark that we carry inside if we join [Music] we would never be [Music] near the corner I intentionally lamentably with us a Papa save I love the meal sir people shake economy [Music] in Cologne [Music] we would never be apart in Coulomb [Music] a song that I feel is somewhat of an anthem for this tragedy one heart one heart the collective Jewish heart as we always say has certainly felt the pain of the Pittsburgh Jewish community over the last week during this week of funerals and Shiva and here we are in Pittsburgh on a Thursday morning reminding all of us that we have to turn our attention to communities that are in need communities that need a boost communities that need some love and affection and a show of solidarity and brotherhood and that's us in this case with the Jewish unity Initiative and jamming a.m. being here in Pittsburgh on this Thursday where I want sermon is our host at Congregation Shari tor and we thank him of course and he'll join us coming up later on before the morning was over as The Wall Street Journal continues in this morning's article as we know 11 of the worshippers gathered inside for Saturday Shabbat services would be dead the victims of a man who has spewed anti-semitic vitriol on fringe social media sites and the Afra mentioned police heroes that we spoke four of them would be wounded by gunfire thought to be the worst anti-semitic attack in United States history and that is as the mayor and governor alluded to earlier in the week that's what Pittsburgh is going to be known for right now for this horrific episode and for a gunman who appears the heart the collective Jewish heart worldwide by by walking into that shul on Shabbos and doing what he did and murdering 11 people you've been very outspoken in your praise of both the governor and the mayor I thought they handled things really well aside from I don't know if the president United States and someone in that position deserves to be to be how do I put it not ungraded when he comes to town but putting that aside putting that aside and believe me I I I certainly understand where both sides are coming from and I also would hope that both sides would understand that both sides are responsible for all that's going on in terms of the the rhetoric that's going on in this country right now but that's a bigger topic and for another time with everything that Rabbi Wasserman has going on now and frankly I mean you and I get up very early I'm completely humbled by the number of hours that Robin Wasserman puts in he has still been so incredibly gracious in terms of everything that he has done for us to make sure that we are set and everything that we need here to be able to produce this radio show and as we speak you know his numerous duties in this community continued to call well mop this is gonna laugh as I say this but I said this the only earlier in the car when he was commenting man it looks like we're lost ones up all night and I said well he's a Wasserman if you know anybody in the family this is the way they are they are up all night and they're helping people all day and all night and if you're going to have a Jewish spiritual leader in the Orthodox community play this role and be somebody who's on the front lines of the tijeras and the funerals and and body preparation and and and dealing with the with all these different things that have to be juggled as all this is happening over the last few days he is one of the people you want to be at the helm so you are you are recognizing someone who has incredible stamina and has incredible leadership and I think we picked this up at the butler home yesterday as the Lord lauded the way and they're pretty active themselves but as they've lauded the way our watchman deals with this community and what he's brought here over all these years the three of us are falling asleep last night and you know the butler's were just ready for the next set of guests to walk in and by the way would win walk dinner when we walked in to Pittsburgh they had where they were sitting with a rabbi from Great Neck New York's bisciotti community I'm mentioning this because again you know from hundreds of miles away from a different background than any of the people who you know who were victims here someone comes in a rabbinic leadership position attends funerals and and and leaves messages of condolences and that should not be overlooked there are some rabbinic leaders who have made it out here and once they got here you know we're thanked perfuse Lee again not not minimizing the efforts of those who wanted to come but we're encouraging but you know there were some who did make it and and certainly paid their respects and represented their communities very very well JM name at eight minutes before seven o'clock I do want to mention as we get toward the top of the hour that there was that there is some news from Israel as we know firstly in Yerushalayim Moshe Lyon and over bercovich are going to be next week's runoff for mayor of Jerusalem so the choice of Prime Minister Netanyahu is out Zev Elkin is not going to be in a runoff next week he's already conceded in in Haifa the 15 year run of my cousin Yona Yahav I think was 15 years has now ended cousin Jonah is gonna be replaced by a not Kalish wrote em a female mayor of Haifa and Ron hold I won his fifth term as mayor of Tel Aviv so he's entrenched in that position and in one of the most closely or most interesting races and for some reason a race that was followed very closely by our community meaning the American diaspora community for some reason I mean well because of the connection that so many people have to Beit Shemesh in Beit Shemesh ELISA block is going to be the next mayor in a squeaker by less than 500 votes but that is certainly significant moving forward in that community and I'm sure they're very I'm sure there are a lot of very happy JM their listeners engaged right now he's I know a lot of people that we know were on her side and fighting for her right to and rooting for her to to win that election it's a Thursday morning it's a 23rd of March on its very first day of November 2018 and we are in Pittsburgh we're in Pittsburgh showing solidarity in the aftermath of what happened there are there are accounts of the activities of the Pittsburgh Police Department and the SWAT teams and what they did and running into the shul this past Shabbos and they have to be thanked and we are intending to thank them again today as we did last night in person also I will say the following there's something about Jewish tradition you know our Jewish tradition tells us that there's no comparison between seeing something and hearing something that seeing is is really believing and being there last night after seeing all the pictures and all the footage and all the gatherings and the prayers and the protests and everything that we've seen coming out of Pittsburgh over the last few days to be there last night at the makeshift memorial and with with each one of the victims names on a Jewish star of david' it was really surreal to an extent to remind you of Arlington it reminded me of our Leah a little bit it had that it had that honor and it had the obviously and you know in the background is the is the shuls name because it's it's there as you as you stand in front of the show and it's very prominent again one of these old-style both sanctuaries and buildings in this in this older historic Pittsburgh neighborhood but I I found it interesting that Jewish traditions die hard and I thought this was a very important aspect at least it was to me in regard to this whole topic of how we respond to tragedy although it was a makeshift memorial and it was not the actual graves or tombstones of the victims everybody Jew and Gentile alike were leaving stones on top of the on top of the memorials II there were 11 of them set up and and I thought that that was significant it was one of those moments for me that reiterated that Jewish tradition and and Jewish presence is gonna go on that we are going to continue that the purpose of the stone of course is to is to erect our own MOT save our erect our own permanence so to speak in the in the collection of stones that are on a that are on a tombstone and here it was like everyone coming together and not just you know speaking the words and not just you know paying lip service to the the unity aspect but but making a declaration doing doing a physical act and showing that that we are together and I thought was the there was something about it that really hit me as being very sweet and being very and being a show of strength and then the first thing that came to my mind was Jewish tradition dies hard that it's just that there's that there's something to it that in the aftermath of this it may not be the actual tradition it may not be there were on a cemetery and this is you know how one leaves the cemetery by by leaving a stone but even here at this memorial in front of this rule we are going to to do what is traditional and to do what is you know whatever not expected but what would be you know proper in paying respects to the dead and I think that just a pivot from that is this initiative to show up for Shabbat asking people to make sure to be in shul wherever you go whatever congregation is yours make sure to go to shul this Chavez it is an unbelievable initiative and the goal is obviously to pack our tools on a Shabbos we're fairly right early we're frankly about 10 minutes before I don't alum though if that's the only time you can get there get there okay but put on a weekend on a Shabbos that it is that your knee-jerk might be to stay home that there is a concern that there is a few general correct or that you you wouldn't necessarily make the effort make the effort make the effort this is a really good Shabbos to show the world that we are going to be resilient in every congregation in the United States and we're science and we're gonna be showing up and we're gonna be showing up early and no matter who we are and what our background is we're going to be we're going to be gathering together in our sanctuaries and praying to God and the likelihood is that in cities around the United States and we in New York tomorrow gonna get an opportunity to speak with the chief of police of New York not the police commissioner for the chief of police the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the New York City Police Department is joining us tomorrow morning in the seven o'clock hour and chances are as people go in cities large and small in the United States to school this Shabbos chances are there will be police officers along the route that they'll certainly be and an awareness by the local police officers of what needs to be of what they need to know as people go to synagogue and that has to be acknowledged and again there's so many different themes so many different things were talking about here but these two right now are really important number one beings rule and number two recognize that in the majority of cities in other parts of the world people do not have the freedom to walk freely to shul they do not have the advantage of being protected by first responders where they are in the manner that that we are going to be the Shabbos and that must be acknowledged also also let's encourage everybody although I hope this doesn't even have to be said in the aftermath of what happened it's encourage everybody to really analyze their security concerns right I think it's part of the conversation you're gonna have with Rabbi Wasserman that was something that he and I that I that I briefly asked him last night as when we arrived here I was surprised that there were no police officers stationed outside and he gave me a unbelievably well thought through answer that I presume he'll share with you on the air but to me that would have just been something that I expected here for sure but but nevertheless not when you're saying recognizing the police force that allow there will protect us this Shabbos that will likely protect us from any Shabbat so to come thank a cop when you see somebody you see a police officer make sure to thank them for their service if you can't get to Pittsburgh to thank the people who are here make sure to thank those local officials who protect you day to day this is America's one and only Jewish moments in the morning radio program heard a listener sponsored digital radio around the world in the web at nah home single comm on the NAM signal network and of course on the beloved NSN app and those of you who are a longtime jam then listeners you'll get this reference when i say the most the three most comforting words in the history of broadcast they doug is next that I say that because Doug shulk and not only followed me for well is it 20 years or so I would say something like that that's what he years you know I originally preceded you thirty years ago meaning 1988 eighty-three a.m. to 6:00 a.m. you were starting at 6:30 right so the reason 6:30 Sunday night Monday morning 333 to 6:30 talk about graveyard shift Sunday night Doug show kids followed the day after jam and a.m. for many many years and that's where the Doug is next Comfort whole thing comes from I'm sure it brings a smile at any longtime listener and then half jokingly and half seriously when you moved to Pittsburgh we said at some point it is likely that we're going to meet up here because there's a really large nice historic Jewish community we never neither of us thought it would be under these circumstances horrific circumstances but I said delight to see you it is great to see you you're here how many years at this point a little over eight Wow and you can confirm that this is in fact one of the nicest small towns do we call it that or or neighborhoods in a big city in the United States you know it's felt like just another Brooklyn neighborhood to us so it definitely it's an incredibly welcoming diverse wonderful place to be I live two minutes up the street I know and right next to apologetic so oh so you're next to a different show yes and and and it is remarkable and maybe this is why it's Brooklyn like frankly that there are so many different ethnic groups people of diverse backgrounds and still the Orthodox and other you know Jewish denominations right here in town and it seems to everybody I think we knew this even before this episode but thinks everybody's really peaceful and you know and and living nicely side-by-side there's a high concentration of faculty and students from all the universities Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh Carlo Chad and University so it has a it has a cosmopolitan feel in what is really a small town I mean within weeks of being here we were meeting people who knew people who we've just met so it is definitely it has a a big world feel in a small world place tell us about Saturday how did you and the average person find that what was happening minutes from your home well my beloved wife Jessie was going to meet up with the group of people who are going to be election canvassing hmm they were gonna go to a neighborhood in the north hills where there are a lot of districts that are up for grabs so they were meeting at a central location to get together and then travel over there the central location was about a block from Tree of Life Shady Avenue and we were on that three last night and about 10:15 10:20 I got a text there's an active shooter a tree of life police have told us to stay in place I didn't realize she was right there yeah so that that's how I that's how I found out of me we don't have a TV at home so immediately got on the internet put the radio on and so when she heard that we have dear friends who are members of Dora - that bill in that one of the three congregations it uses that building the woman of the couple that we know is the president-elect of Dora - and they were couple was on their way to New York for a concert that they had long been wanting to see and they did they hadn't known about it Jesse cut in contact with them they turned right around him but came back and of course there had been going to funerals all week so it's and you told me that you actually knew some of the victims so I don't know if you know this but I went I went back to school I went to graduate school in 2016 I went to a Social Work school University of Pittsburgh that came about through after my mom passed in 2015 I moved my dad here he had advanced dementia and I moved him into an assisted living place and the experience of navigating social services for him caregiving that whole experience was an inspiration to me to go to Social Work school my mother had been a social worker my mother-in-law had been a social worker and it was just kind of a legacy it's were obviously where I was headed in my first year in both years of Social Work Schools students have to do a field placement where you are doing work in the field learning like crazy and my first year field placement was at the Jewish Community Center they have a County administered Senior Center they are called age well Pittsburgh which is a collaboration of Jewish family Children's Services Jewish Federation Jewish Association on Aging and the JCC so a number of the participants in the Senior Center which involved a daily hot lunch activities socialization a number of the participants were victims of atrocity don't believe there were two two of the two of the victims in particular our fellows who I remember always sat together at lunch and one of the one of the great joys for me and doing this internship was that I would sit and have lunch with me and meet lots of people and make them comfortable with me so that as I'm somebody who they would interact with if I was a known quantity and not just a stranger so yeah there were a couple I have another connection and that is one fellow who is injured and recovering damn leg er who is getting better and doing much better they good I heard that he was up on his feet the other day so after being in critical condition his wife is a elder care specialist and social worker at Jewish and Emily Children's Services and within days after I moved my father here my sister who had flown in to help from California we were a wreck it was he was very in rough shape when people with dementia suffer great anxiety and stress it can make the dementia worse so we sat with a woman who was helping us setting us up with services finding round-the-clock caregivers or at least people who could fill in the gaps and that woman was such an inspiration to me she she is the reason I went back to Social Work school and her husband Dan is that fellow who was injured he's a chaplain who for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and one of the things that he does as a volunteer is he goes and sits with elders and he sat with my father in his first months when my dad was here so so we've had Dan and his wife Ellen our hearts ever since and we pray for his speedy recovery and I mean he yeah it's it's a double blow and that if he weren't injured he would be the first person in line helping everyone else I am sure we're meeting a lot of those people helping so yeah Doug Shulkin this year for those of you who are a longtime j-man listeners I'm sure the name is familiar Doug followed me at W F mu for a very very long time Friday mornings at 9:00 a.m. you still do that show at 9:00 o'clock Friday you still do your life amazing when I moved to Pittsburgh I set up at Ken's suggestion I set up a 24-hour web stream sort of based on my my shows my tastes and use that as a platform to present my own live broadcast and because I have the ability to have remote deejays Kent we don't have W FM you don't want to have people have people doing lots of long music broadcasts remotely because of the technical issues and other issues but today station policy I was hoping to break that policy would I both only everybody went through this day she wanted to break that vowel I mean life life it became mobile so so I realized that if I could do a show on this platform remotely then one could and so I now have about 20 shows from around the country a couple in one outside of the country that so my own little mini radio station that's great that is cool and if people actually go to the W fmu website there's access to it from there I give the drummer some that's right for those of you who remember Doug's show's name it's amazing you walked into this community eight years ago and you really became immediately a real member of this neighborhood a real you know a real neighbor to everybody I don't think you can't I mean I think you have I do think you have maybe obviously elders who are shot in Norman as you get older people tend to isolate themselves which is something we try to help with but it's really hard not to if you're shopping on Murray Avenue you if you're a regular you interact with the shopkeepers you recognize people they recognize you it just grows and also I think Pittsburgh also is that way it's just has this very small town everyone knows everyone kind of a feel when we moved into our house we bought a house here just on the strength of my my wife's promised salary we could never bought a house and Brooklyn at the time but mm-hmm the people who were renting the house that we were in were dear friends with a family who we were friends with in Brooklyn in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn so it just like the world just shrinks so and anybody who goes to Paul eight said that Kizzy yeah seconds away from your home that's right literally next year literally next door as the rap I made in the overtures to your dungarees leaving you alone because if you need help with that you just let me know it's actually we love being next door you know on snow days I shovel you know past the end of my sidewalk they exalt past the end of their it's sidewalk the nice collaboration and yeah and I love the just the fact that there are people there is they're constantly there on foot in the neighborhood around it just feels like a used space as a public space and it is yeah it's a nice perspective it's wonderful phenomenal well great reuniting with you next time let's do it for some happy occasion please great to you Doug thank you so much Doug show kids everybody wfm you legend and and those of you who want to check his stream at you can go to the WF MU website it's called give the drummer some and he has been an amazing member of the Squirrel Hill community for the past eight years and everybody out there is getting the feeling and getting the message from the people here in Squirrel Hill that this is a real neighborhood a real community and one where the furthest thing from anybody's mind would be that somebody would walk into shul on a Shabbos morning and murder 11 people and here we are during a a funeral week during a shiva week saying that we are with you our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania more coming up from Pittsburgh at JM in the a.m. [Music] we see an enormous head not sleep we all know [Music] Lucille [Music] we are [Music] [Applause] [Music] jamón I am with tsimko liner here on a Thursday morning we are in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and the reason we're here in Pittsburgh is certainly well known after the terrible tragedy in the aftermath of the murder of eleven of our brothers and sisters this past Shabbos we felt it was important and appropriate to be here with our Jewish unity initiative simply to say our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh we are with you one of the people who could tell us directly about this past Shabbos and what it was like here in Pittsburgh and certainly knows this neighborhood and community very very well as commander adjacent lando of the Pittsburgh Police Department zone 5 commander Orlando is out of town not in Pittsburgh this morning so we're making contact with him via telephone but he's agreed graciously to join us and share a few words with us this morning here at JM and they am commander Orlando Shalom welcome to JME in the a.m. thank you very much take us back if you would from your vantage point to Shabbos morning and how this bucolic quiet peaceful neighborhood was transformed into this into this area of bedlam and horror this past August yes I mean such a tragic day I just happened to be on call all the commanders take turns on call each week and I was coming back from I was paged to deal with the situation and I just happened to be driving through Squirrel Hill it's not my district but it is where I grew up and as I was driving right through the business district in the area of Forbes and Murray I heard the call come over the radio and you know to be honest it was completely surreal my first thought was this is a prank call this is this could not be happening in our city for those of you you know listening the darn familiar with Squirrel Hill that business district is about probably about three or four blocks away from the synagogue and I just started heading that way and tried to get some confirmation that you know whether this was a real call or whether if someone was calling you at Franco and I arrived on scene you know probably thirty seconds after the call came in and there was already a car from the zone four police stationed there and I all you could hear was just rapid gunfire coming out of the front of the synagogue and it was just the whole situation was just it was so devastating I'm I grew up in Squirrel Hill that is my family synagogue my grandfather goes there every morning so you know trying to manage the initial situation but also trying to get confirmation of whether or not my grandfather was in there was you know this pretty difficult situation to say the least and and he happened just for those listening and concerned he happened not to be in the synagogue that morning but as you just said every morning that was his regular place that is his regular place yes so after about 30 minutes into the situation I got a phone call from my uncle who was able to track him down and I and he was safe but after speaking to him I learned that enjoys fine Bert was his ride to synagogue she's one of the victims and and she went without him on Saturday morning and and so I don't think that's something he's ever gonna get over Wow so I would assume again based in the background you just told us about commander Lando that that you knew most if not all of the victims in Saturday's attack I certainly heard all their names I knew some of them from seeing them around the neighborhood my my grandfather and my mother their ties were much closer but you know but I that's right when I went to Sunday school there I went to Hebrew school there you know I am actually I'm the reason nomadic out of town right now is one of my childhood friends lives over on the other side of the state we kind of grew up in there and it's real life and I just I came out here to you know visit and say hello but yeah it's just you know it's it almost as though it hasn't sunken in yet well what can what can you say about your colleagues we're loading them appropriately as is the entire world as they as you and they ran in to to go face to face up against this killer and to save as many people as possible and to and to do whatever was necessary I mean what could you tell us about the Pittsburgh Police Department and their reaction to what happened on Shabbos morning I can't say enough about how brave my brothers and sisters are I I was you know as the situation was unfolding I'm watching these police cars like screech up to the scene and these these officers some of them brand-new young officers getting out of their cars putting on their ear and and rushing towards danger and you know it was just it was something we trained for but we pray never happens and I'm just watching them as they're as their training is kicking in everybody there that day was incredibly brave but I have to say that the members of our SWAT team are I mean there aren't even words to express you know these guys they train every week they go through drills they work together as a team so when this type of thing happens they're prepared and to watch these guys run right into the synagogue knowing that there was someone in there with a high-powered weapon and and he wanted to shoot his way out it was it was just like you know almost it was unreal to listen to the radio transmissions and to know that these guys were going in there to do what most other people wouldn't and to stop this guy from getting out of the synagogue and going around the neighborhood because if the situation went mobile and these guys didn't do what they did who knows what would have happened god knows my brother my dears that he would have gone started working his way around other synagogues in the city so that the bravery that those men and women showed that day was unparalleled commander Jason Lando is with us Pittsburgh Police Department zone 5 the zone right next door to squirt to the Tree of Life zone 4 but as the commander just mentioned he grew up in the Tree of Life a synagogue this is a week of funerals a week of Shiva obviously a very difficult week for everybody here firstly we noticed just from our quick visit last night that people of all backgrounds of all diversity of all ethnic groups were at the memorial last evening I'm assuming that you would confirm what others have told us that no matter what people's backgrounds may be this is a very tight-knit neighborhood absolutely I mean it's you know score has always kind of been like a melting pot of the city it's a very diverse neighborhood and and it's just you know we don't you don't think of violent crime you know when you think of Squirrel Hill so I think this really just was a wake-up call to a lot of people that this can happen anywhere and what do you think going forward after this horrific week do you think this community can rebound do you think this community can can recover in any way from what has happened this past Shabbos it's certainly gonna take a while but I really believe that we will come out stronger as community after this just you know just one small case in point it was the line of people you know with everything going on across the country between you know police community and the division watching on the news yesterday there's a line of officers a line of citizens black white young old that didn't matter they're in line outside of the police station to just hug the officers and thank them and you know it's it's terrible that it takes you know a tragedy but you could see it's bringing people together who who might not otherwise have come together so it's you know a little bit of hope we will get through this together have other police departments contacted yours other the police department from around the country not just offer condolence and to give their support but also to to talk about the the bravery of the men and women that you described and how much they admire what happened here from your vantage point this passion of is there I mean there's just there's been an outpouring of support in many different forms from all over the country you know people wanting to to know just how they can help if they can donate money you know or food or whatever and it's just it's incredible I mean people that I've never you know I didn't know I've never met we're getting messages on our Facebook page phone calls saying you know I live in California and I don't know any of the victims I've never lived in Pittsburgh but you know but what can I do you know how can we help and and so you know we appreciate it and you know it's it's just so wonderful to hear people you know that concerned and just wanting to do something you know we're encouraging everybody nationwide to go to shul this job is to show resilience to show strength to be together to show unity and brotherhood and sisterhood in solidarity and I'm sure you'd reiterate that you want people to go out you want people to continue their lives and certainly to to pray and take advantage of this incredible freedom of religion that we have in this country absolutely I mean you know we I think the worst thing that we can do is to stop doing what we're doing out of fear but it's just important that we pay honor and pay respect to those that lost their lives but we have to move forward because if we don't then the people that spew this hate they're the ones that win and we can't let that happen commander Lando god bless you as we think about this happening in your shul the shul in which you grew up but it must be just so many more layers of sorrow and difficulty for someone like yourself we hope that the UN the community find comfort and solace from all the wishes of condolence and all the brothers all the solidarity and messages that are coming from around the world thank you so much for everything you've done and and the best of luck and the best of wishes moving forward thank you for having me take care commander Jason Lando zone 5 Pittsburgh Police Department yard and describe the horrific scene this past Shabbos and how he was on call and one of the first to respond and how familiar he was with the congregation and the people who were murdered in it's jamming a.m. on this Thursday as we continue from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania demonstrating that we have to be here for our brothers and sisters at all times and demonstrate Brotherhood and solidarity as part of our Jewish unity initiative that we take very seriously Rebecca Remsen is here Rebecca is from the Jewish family community services coordinating mental health services here in Pittsburgh Rebecca welcome to JM in the a.m. I appreciate you being here and I think that you on behalf of a lot of people can accept appreciation and thanks for all that you've been doing over the last few days this must be extremely difficult and coordinating mental health services I assume means that students and young people and old people are all as one can understand having trouble dealing with the aftermath of this episode so thank you for all those that you're helping this week thank you appreciate that what's involved in helping people this week what needs to be coordinated on your end to help people get through this well our team was on the ground first thing Shabbat morning even before the congregants filed into the JCC waiting to hear about their family members our team was there preparing the space and preparing the space to wait for news and we've been with the community ever since and will continue to be with the community for as long as they need us for the weeks months years ahead we are right now really trying to make sure that the people that need counseling services are receiving counseling services the everyone in Pittsburgh is affected by this and part of providing counseling services is understanding the scope and how many people are affected when you find out that people a Senior Center in Turtle Creek is total which is 20 minute drive away which is far in Pittsburgh terms is really dealing with Griffin needs counsellors we're gonna send someone there the scope is so wide everyone is impacted the Pittsburgh Steelers are all impacted just walk down Morrow Avenue and ask people everyone knows somebody everyone's at least that good morning or where's the milk and giant eagle to all the victims because that's what Pittsburgh is Rebecca Remsen is with us obviously the immediate family members they need special consideration that's quite obvious and people who are you know like commander Lando those who grew up in the shul and knew people who are victims they're obviously going to be affected tremendously how would you describe the effect among those you know in the more outer circles are they and I'm not using these terms clinically but are they are they exhibiting that they're just that they're depressed or they can't understand or they're trying to just wrap their heads around what this man did in walking in and trying to and trying and successfully murdering people what is it that people are grappling with that they're turning to your counselors for well what we're seeing is that there really isn't an outer circle everyone is directly dealing with post trauma whether they feel they could have been a target or it's a close family or friend friend this is all the Pittsburgh this is everyone synagogue and everything's so close it could have been any building synagogue or other exactly area Pittsburgh is different than New York in the sense that we're right now in Squirrel Hill it's a one-mile radius and the Orthodox conservative and reform communities all live here so so we are all each has a rich history and when you think about circles of communities our circles are all layered one on top of the other that's one of the things that again you reference New York some people in New York have difficulty comprehending or understanding how people from across religious denominations really knew each other and really interacted with each other and really served on committees together and you know and projects together etc and every time we meet anybody everyone is somehow connected to some of the people who were murdered this past Shabbos you have enough people you have enough volunteers staff members to deal with all this we have a plenty of staff members as well as volunteers JFCS has been serving the community for 81 years and we have a strong counseling services program led by our director of clinical services who I believe you'll be speaking with later our Stephanie small and we have received expert advice from the Israel trauma coalition they sent over a team from natal here United hatela just hopped on an airplane and came down here to help out and we're taking cues from the one family fund on how to work with the bereaved and injured families and we're really we're taking advice from everyone but please don't hop an airplane we don't need more people in the space right now all right well we made sure that we had our space covered so we couldn't go ahead and intruder anybody Rebecca thank you very much for joining us and continued success moving forward this is obviously a very very difficult time here in Pittsburgh and hopefully everybody will get through it in whatever way they can and and continue to move forward as a community thank you so much Rebecca Remsen JFCS coordinating mental health services in the aftermath of the murders of eleven of our Jewish brothers and sisters this past Shabbos and Leo rosomak who was a very familiar name to our audience many people don't realize is living in Squirrel Hill would that be is living in Squirrel it's all great to see you I regret as I said some of our earlier guess it's under these circumstances but it's great to see you and of course I apologize we're not contacting you but it's the second I heard the news I said oh my gosh you're here you're here in this community and you're here how many months two more for a total of four months and what can you say about this neighborhood and community and how different it is from where you come from I already knew how welcoming and opening it was it was I mean I have not had to worry about where I'm gonna eat a Shabbos oriented meal at all it was never a concern people are like oh who are you you know what are you doing here can we have you over and already knowing that I was this is unbelievable how they're able to come together how they're able to be so comforting to each other and I had no doubt because I already saw it yeah where were you sobs my mom sort of hating on me for it because I was in PZ and they told us there was an incident going on I didn't know what it was Oh meaning Polly said it yes sorry and I sent I run a group for the six and seven grade girls I had two girls they said their mothers were there so I sent them to shul and I just I left I was like I don't know what's going on I'll just I'll go home and I came here to Shari Tora for the Bar Mitzvah and my mom said so you left the shul and you went to another show but it wasn't until I got here that I even knew what was going on yeah this is still shocking and very very hard to believe that had happened and it happened in a neighborhood like this and now you know firsthand just how great a neighborhood this is yeah it's really unbelievable well like I said nice seeing you next time under better circumstances and continued good luck to you another couple of months and then back to New Jersey the arrows on mcwho is a resident of Squirrel Hill for these last couple of months very familiar of course to our jam in the a.m. audience and now with great pleasure although again as I've said to other guests this is not the way I thought we'd reunite rabbi Daniel Wasserman of course the spiritual leader of Shari Torah here in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and that's where we are we are in the atrium of Cherie Torah atrium and the entranceway of Shari Torah here in in Pittsburgh or my Wasserman as our host and I say welcome to JM in the a.m. thank you know welcome that's that's to say the least it's amazing what we're learning this morning about your community it's also anything that she thought she had to write it out for you and so this is a this is a a good sort of my teach time that people have my staff think I know who's sitting next to me I actually don't in your case I happen to go um we're learning a lot about your community the words close-knit and homey and small and tight and everybody knowing each other all of these have been terms of people are using about Squirrel Hill they're all true you know I've been here for almost 24 years and I've many times said that Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh is the American Jews community's best kept secret and I have said to people over and over again that and by the way the tragedy notwithstanding it still applies that if you're gonna hurl I'll put you on the play otherwise you really should come to Pittsburgh that's how great it is that's how great it is the cause of its people and you saw this immediately 24 years ago oh right right away you know it's I've said many times maybe it's not exactly accurate but trying to describe scroll from my perspective having grown up in the New York area said if you take you garden hills and you squeeze every drop of New York at it and you're you're getting close but it's that's in terms of topography and the businesses here you know in the Main Street but it but it's it's really the people when I came the first time I came I saw it was people were genuinely nice and it's not only not weird when you say hello to people in the street not just community members but it's a weird if you don't people of all backgrounds of all backgrounds and certainly in the Jewish community and people help each other and then the shoals are for better or for worse right on top of each other my house is six houses away from Polytechnic and and people are always there for each other not just this week people always there fortune well tell me about this week where were you when you heard what was going on on shop this morning so as you heard a moment ago we had a bar mitzvah and Murray Avenue is one of the main streets and so always sirens go by once in a while during doubt it went by once and you could tell from the sound that they were speeding up and in a second and then a third time and then a few of us looked at each other and said something's going on then I went downstairs and book costs we had a permit so there were a lot of people coming reports started coming in from people on the street or caretaker who isn't Jewish looked at the news some of the waitresses looked at the news and information started coming in that seemed to indicate that tree of life was involved we didn't know what the Tree of Life was it across the street because there's a police station along way as the children's they just stood across the street coaches Steelers lose 800 yards away so like all events like this a lot of the news media give out reports that they don't know but it was clear something was happening and in the midst of that I looked outside for a moment and I saw an armada of police cars you know four with two motorcycles and an SUV and a marked car and I said this is not a drill so we just wanted to lock them procedure and that kid when we were preparing the procedure I couldn't believe that there was such a thing we were doing and when we did it I couldn't believe there was such a thing that we were doing and I I stopped tava ting because I felt information was important and it was most important that the children be where they support where they need to be right I stopped Davi I said look there are reports Tree of Life shooting fatalities we don't know don't talk about it because you don't have any information let's top and throughout the Domenic any credible information that we had to update I updated everybody I shared with them or procedure I told them we lock it in the building down that we I didn't say who but it's we do have people in the show that are armed and have taken tactical training you know they're guys that mm-hmm that walk around and I've told them in the past god forbid anything happens don't you draw because you you know a target practice is not a room full of people we have people that literally take tactical training and so and so again we told everybody just relax stay away from windows just in case make sure their children are where they're supposed to be and regularly throughout the Avenue I updated them when it was abundantly clear that it was in Tree of Life and there were fatalities so it became a little bit more serious but I didn't want to reach there I didn't want to ruin the bar mates so you have all these considerations yeah we're balanced and by the way when you mentioned tactical training just reminding already we're in the state of Pennsylvania is that so the New Yorkers are not completely shocked by what you're saying if one were to walk from here to Tree of Life would take how long take me ten minutes okay so the other people a little longer so just a perspective and everybody's close-knit here everybody's together and you're very familiar with all the congregations of all backgrounds here in town right after Shabbos I assume you you jump into action so actually before Shabbos one of the one of the teachers in the school one of the rap I see her rabbi I have mon not only with us but he worked with zakah you know it's true so he knows so so he said to me we got to go up there and start talking to people right honestly we didn't even know that there was a command center for the community and for the police set up in the JCC cos we didn't have our phones right I think so after lunch after departments and what you had in mind obviously is the sank right the soul correct sure everything's done he walked up there and we began really in the dark trying to talk to the police to the FBI get them our names take these it turned out right after Shabbos we went to the JCC and and Brad are seeing our community security officer who is former FBI saw me there knew immediately what we were there for called me over a cold Marriott known over spoke to the FBI got us permission with him in Israel security officer to go to the scene and we went from there all right and this has been now a week of funerals a week I mean you are leaving the fabric edition all right that's accurate I'm one of the leaders one of the leaders so obviously lots to do unfortunately lots to do lots to do and many things to balance and their family members and their considerations to keep in mind and other leaders that I'm sure have input in all this a delicate situation very delicate and there are many many many people including one who just walked in who you'll interview later who have been working day and night just to reach out to people and to help you 11 have been laid to rest at this point I remember correctly I'm gonna say six don't hold me to it so they've been six funerals including one funeral for the brothers who passed away together for David and Cecil as they lived together and did everything together they ended up dying together at the hands of this madman they did and you know Cecil came to shul here Cecil he lived you knew him I knew I knew of all of them right I knew many of them were had his store across the street he's one of the election judges Tuesday we were gonna kibitz all day David and Cecil's against Cecil just a pure soul we stood say hello to each it's a rabbi him come for kiddush so you're affected by this as much as anybody else everyone is affected by it to greater and varying degrees everyone is affected by it having been in the scene only two of us were in the scene before any bodies were moved well four of us but two from the community right yes everybody didn't yell Wasserman with us he's hosting us at sorry Terrell I am and I am here in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood there's an outpouring of I call it Brotherhood unity it's the reason we're here we we try not to overstay our welcome or overstep our boundaries I know that there are people from around the world that are sending a lot of messages to you and a lot of encourage and what when you're on the receiving end of all this when you're a community leader in a community that really can fend for itself but at the same time is getting this outpouring of love what is your perspective so first that's the weirdest thing for me I haven't had a lot of time to read things and to watch news but there's so much of it that you know it gets in and I've been having this out-of-body experience that I'm sure others have been having where as you said outpouring and people and can we come and buses and messages and GoFundMe and vigils and projected on the walls of the old city right that was something know with Pittsburgh but you don't understand that happens for events in New York in Chicago in LA that doesn't happen for things in Squirrel Hill guess what now with those it happens for things as well and secondly I tell my kids all the time helping is what the person needs what you wanted to do and people have been so wonderful and most people get that some don't and you know I think it's commendable that our community mostly gets it yep mostly but some organizations have come and we said thank you especially in the context of the cover good we said thank you but we don't need you one o'clock in the morning Saturday night when we were communicating with the Emmy and the FBI and you can imagine that there was some miscommunication we spoke to the medical examiner himself who lives here in Squirrel Hill but when he got down to the guys on the ground there were questions we had 25 cover khadisha members who weren't asked to come they just heard standing in the pouring rain at one o'clock in the morning in the possibility that we may be involved in removing so bar crush em we have so many committed people whether it's you know the men and women men and women correct whether it's the target Eva whether it's Jeff and zs whether it's the federation whether it's the shools so many committed people who when they say how are you and what do you need they actually mean it and will actually do it that on it's unfortunate we have to use it and we mobilize before this and will mobilize after this but we didn't need Squirrel Hill one of the best-kept secrets in American Judaism huh the best-kept secret also it because your your name is Wasserman I am sure you have a perspective on the historical context of this episode you know that synagogues traditionally through the centuries were unfortunately utilized very often by the enemy to murder Jews it's no secret and then in 2018 in the United States we see that happen you must have some thoughts about the historical context of that I do however with all of these issues people have asked me how you doing and my I've had one answer the last five days asked me in a few days and I'll figure it out I haven't had a chance to think but I will tell you when we say Oh vinum okay so after the parts we all say together we ripped through the ending of you know log a and especially when I'm doubting Neila and I have the privilege of standing up in front of one and Dominique nila so I make sure to focus on a few lines and often I sing them to the tune of I take phone hey dub you know Malkina se llama and Haruki my shame Coachella Salem at Fatima all day I do it because people would were killed and slaughtered in your name and you know we think our look mm-hmm right 1594 page a full poster of pictures of people who are murdered because they were Jews and is there gonna be 11 more pictures right these are kadosh mama SHhhh 100 percent so you talk about historical perspective you talk about overcoming these are kadosh 'man and in the context of the Keynesian every time we were doing anything as we know any person was passed away 105 years old in their sleep at home in their bed there's care and coven and respect and awe but it's just magnified to the nth degree we can only imagine finally you've made to come in to us yesterday about security in general and that people are vigilant in the aftermath of these episodes and then unfortunately they tend to become more lackadaisical anything you think might be different both here and nationwide after this initially it'll be different we ourselves are starting to once the funerals will be done starting to struggle with ok what do we have to do because getting Brad Orsini our our security officer gave a number of different congregations give our congregation a security briefing and he started with you know the chances are he's right but and he's still run right correct but even then right I said come on Brad you know there was tilt there was bombers you know incidents I said to him yesterday at one of the funerals I said you know you got to change your presentation cuz it did happen the rabbi of the synagogue because of one of his presentations is that I never carried a phone on Shabbos right I carried the phone on Chavez and I believe he's right I keep a phone and you're my I don't carry around right but I can understand and understand there I keep a phone and we can tell the rabbi's those phone should be on yeah you don't want them to have to be turned on and and just cuz booting up qura an i keep one next to the ID EEMA by the way this whereas penis in the voice i know you're thinking i didn't get enough sleep you think I deserve I could promise I got enough sleep and I just lied to a 1.5 million listeners of knocking see but for the sake of your mother it's worth it's worth buying so initially initially we'll do it one of the questions we'll have to ask is this long term have we crossed the line my wife and I have discussed a number of times when these things have come up should I be wearing Kevlar under my jacket right suddenly that discussions not so crazy I always last story and we could go on for hours and there are other people here when I was a Robin was there Massachusetts so the show you walked in the ladies section was in fact the men's section was in the front and there was a guy who would whenever I made a drawer sure would stand up stand up his back against them of pizza and his hands against the wall nobody knew why he did I knew why he did it his hand was on his gun because he felt if everybody was was so focused or asleep which might also happen everybody else and somebody walks in the back so this is 1990 and everybody thought he was crazy after 9/11 he's not so crazy after Pittsburgh this week he's really not so crazy I don't know good my answer is very good nice don't know but ultimately God will protect us we have to be careful but it's all thank you for hosting us thank you for coming and we appreciate that and next time for a good occasion please go you're welcome thank you very much by the Elwha sermon of course spiritual leader here at sorry Torah in Squirrel Hill as we do what the Jewish unity initiative does which is be on the spot to express our love solidarity Brotherhood and sisterhood for our brothers and sisters especially after a week like this after a horrific episode the murder of eleven our of our brothers and sisters here in the pittsburgh pennsylvania community Annina butler who's a longtime friend she and not only is her name familiar to our audience but of course her husband judge Danny Butler also very familiar name to our audience one of the first people in addition to Roy Wasserman that we contacted once of this episode occurred and she's been coordinating God knows how many things from her home as people express their concern want to do whatever they could possibly do and we welcome her to JME and the a.m. thank you for being here this morning a welcoming community so it's so a against our grain to tell anyone please don't come right and that's the message I'm trying to deliver is gently and as sincerely as possible all this week that please come but maybe not the police right and in fact people should keep that in mind that maybe in subsequent weeks it would be a better thing for them to yes totally we welcome people we pride ourselves on being the most welcoming community we always tell young couples who are moving down and young families you won't have to cook your first year because you will be invited out of every single Shabbos and it's true and you said to me in the first five minutes that we spoke on Sunday you said to me I need to remind the world that this is a really amazing incredible peaceful community and they shouldn't think they shouldn't think of this vision and safe they shouldn't think of this when they think of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh me this meaning the episode absolutely when anybody comes to visit you know you can come to my house because the door is open I like don't lock it it's that safe it's kind of like going back to the 50s Maybury I guess they would say the so you're in Pittsburgh how many years right so you hear over 40 years so you could attest to all the things that you've said with great proof and and testimony that in fact this is a peaceful wonderful incredibly close-knit and phenomenal community and many of our guests so far this morning have said that any specific messages regarding this week in addition to if you're considering coming check with us first because will guide you properly I have a few examples of how close this is that I think your audience would appreciate sure one is that our different Orthodox rules all get together for Shabbos chuva and Shabbos hug adult Russia's we are the one warned Russia Russia for everyone that we all go we rotate which shul and which ever rabbi is hosting it the rabbi's of the other shoals are the ones who are speaking and we all get together in one show so there aren't competing speakers at competing times for those dresses it's just because we're that kind of close-knit community and frankly I have hats off to rabbis and for initiating that whole effort when he brought rabbi barrel wine to town to speak and that started the whole thing and it's been going on for years and years and it's a real source of pride it shows you the edge right here there are people listening right now I think you're joking frankly well that's why I'm trying to find ways to express to people that this isn't a dangerous gun-slinging town this is a super peaceful a wonderful idyllic Island where not only do Orthodox conservative informed people get along and yes we do serve on different committees together we partner actually we have a community wide cross the denominations Shavuos learn Athan at the JCC I mean there's things that have an epiphany yeah things are unheard of anywhere no it's really something I mean I love that we have reformed and unaffiliated Jews who are listening to our Orthodox rabbis on cheveux night and learning with them and sure they might not feel comfortable walking through the doors of our Orthodox shortly put the walk into the JCC and that's where those rabbis are for you know they're little and below but I'm before they come running back to their school for their all night learning we're on a we're on a strip here Murray Avenue which is also emblematic of how close-knit wonderful and peaceful this community is but did you notice all the languages going up and down Murray Avenue many of them we have restaurants every country on earth we have to understand we are ten minutes from the hospitals we are ten minutes from the universities and by the way some fabulous universities we I mean we have Carnegie Mellon with the driverless cars here which is really a sight to see and then we are 10 minutes from any kind of shopping we are 10 min we're ten minutes from downtown when my husband works in City Court he can run home for lunch and be back in court on time and you have a connection to the kosher pizza shop so that's oh yes that's even more beneficial to in your husband very well so because we are so close to every - to everything risk where this is living in the city here even though it's it's got a warmth I was commenting to my staff that it's unusual in that the Jewish community here in a couple other places in the United States is still so close to downtown it's still so close to the center of town and this is one of the places where that's right and someone from the Evo Institute Institute did a study on Squirrel Hill because they said it was one of the last American metals because you have the butcher baker and candlestick maker right on this you know on the same street oh yeah you know right you were at our home so just three doors away you're running around we have the major kosher store the regular grocery store the post office the library the bank it's all right here walking distance very safe and we all get along except for this one horrible person as the rabbi point to that a lot of the people that were murdered on Shabbos by that madman actually had businesses and interacted on Murray Avenue on a regular basis so a friend of mine was just coming through from Montreal coming back from Shabbos and she was coming through Global Entry and she brought me a present so coming through yeah yeah one can I say there's certain things that Montreal has and I will mention what so she comes to Global Entry and they say did you bring food she said well yes where are you from well she said I'm from Squirrel Hill USA oh honey what did you bring she said I brought comfort chocolate so so go through go through its oh my gosh I by the way that type of scene knows being replicated everywhere when people hear that and not only that not only people's in Squirrel help people see yarmulkes people see women who are noticeably Jewish and they are offering condolences and oh goodness I've gotten calls from the person who cuts my hair I was at the zio a dinner a night ago the waitresses came up to hug me well because I know them but they they each had to come and express how they feel when you walked into this shul this morning did you notice there were flowers on their door there are flowers on the door of the Jewish bookstore there I mean this is an addition to the memorials that are going up over by the shul but absolutely all of us any group of Jews that you get together with in Squirrel Hill will tell you about all the non-jews in their life who are reaching out with so much love we have a big family a clan that moved here last summer from France and I spoke to you know there were reporters who were looking for people to talk to so I spoke to the mother the matriarch of this clan the next morning and her reaction is from for this I moved from France really I can't tell you how proud I am to show her and her family as I spoke to her family yesterday how different America is reacting to accident I said we are hearing a loud roar not just a few mentions we're hearing a roar from the Jewish and non-jewish community and public officials absolutely your mayor is amazing uh all of our public official your governor is amazing wonderful just coming out so strongly against anti-semitism that although this is horrific really horrific we feel that we're involved with so much love that it's really the takeaway that I'm walking into Shabbos with it's America's one and only Jewish moments in the morning radio program heard on listen respond sir digital radio around the world in the webinar from single comment an awesome single network and of course on the beloved NS and app Nina Butler is here one of the community leaders whether she likes it or not I give her the title and the Shabbos you just mentioned it's interesting Shabbos in town yeah I mean this will be one of real brotherhood and sisterhood and people coming together we're encouraging everyone to be in stroll nationwide but here everyone's gonna be coming out to be together I'm sure it's true and I was heartened to see that on Facebook some people are posting reaching out to unaffiliated Jews to say if you come to my shul you can sit next to me I'll take care of you just please please come well and that's really beautiful and if you also want to tell us about this week specifically or we want to just concentrate on the positive elements of this amazing neighborhood I because one of the positives of this week frankly is not just the outpouring it's also I can imagine how many people here came together just to solve all the problems that have to be solved and how people are coming together to to reassure everybody in town that we're gonna be okay over here well we so appreciate hearing from Jews all over the country who are so here to get up and just run here and Thank You rabbi Wasserman for mentioning the guys from the guys from different cover khadisha organizations who just got on planes and came here these are not people who are paid to do it these are all volunteers who have big families they left their families and left their jobs and it wasn't for a few hours they were here for several days waiting to hear if help was needed and boy hats off to Rabbi Wasserman forgetting them all together after they'd been here four days and saying we appreciate that you're here but you know what our guys need to do this right and you're right you guys have more experience it's going to take our guys longer they're gonna have more shila's but this is something we need to do in order to heal so please understand that we appreciate you being here but you can go home now well yes it's a real special community and I appreciate that people just came from the fire station where they have mountains of food that's been it's amazing well but we've been introduced to Squirrel Hill unfortunately for this read you've been asking us for years to come on up here but it took this well you made every Butler so happy I have to say it was if the biggest rock star in the country was in town window jam in the a.m. walked in his friends well I got a little suspicious I have to hide I got suspicious when he said he's not showing up this morning but I'll take your word for it he's very happy where it's out I will take your word for thank you Mina Butler to you and your wonderful husband judge Danny Butler continue your amazing role a leadership role in the Squirrel Hill community Jay I'm in the am introducing Stephanie's small of Jewish Family Services to our global audience Stephanie a pleasure to welcome you to JM in the a.m. thank you it's a pleasure to be here I could only imagine all the different roles that you and your staff have this week and it really started no joke right after this episode began because almost immediately as this and centers being set up and families need to be dealt with and police need to and and the first responders need to speak to them your you and your staff are already in action correct so I was actually unlock down here at Cherry Tory with Robin Wasserman I didn't get to be there from the beginning but Jordan Golan and Dana Gould our CEO and CIO of Jewish Family and Community Services are amazing and they were there from moment two they got a call they were at the GCC they were with the families other colleagues of mine sandy and Leslie were there and they were there when they actually got word that one of our colleagues husbands was the one who shot and they were the ones who brought her to the hospital and told her and stayed with her so we have that kind of agency to begin with that were also close together and then we pray for the speedy recovery of those injured in the attack of course we mentioned earlier and spoke about the the the grieving and these services are provided to help people you know get through that process is that the main concentration of what the Jewish Family Service is doing this week or there are many other things that are happening at the same time for the most part we are really concentrating on the community mental health we're providing walk-in hours at the JCC from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day through Saturday and again Monday through Saturday hopefully next week are people taking advantage of it there are there are I actually I was at a community to Hill him thing last night and and one woman actually came over and told me that she went over and she said I didn't think it was for me and I said no it's exactly for you it's for anyone in this community because the entire community was affected everybody was affected you've heard from Nina you've heard from Danny for every watzmann you've heard from everybody how the community is so cohesive and so everybody was affected so we have mental health going on we've connected United HUD sella and the Israel trauma coalition with organizations all over we've had counselors go into the Hillel J you see we're having counselors go into different portions of the JCC you name it we've put a counselor there you have a request we're putting her there because everybody needs to grieve and everybody needs to process it because what people don't realize about this is and I learned this from these Roma coalition in an irrational situation in an abnormal situation every reaction is normal but people don't know that Stephanie smalls with us Jewish Family Services so last night we we pay a visit to the memorial right outside of Tree of Life and I noticed as everyone does people of diverse backgrounds people who do seem like residents and you can get a feel that there are people walking by who feel they want to pay respects etcetera many of them crying I mean this is this goes way beyond our community it seems this is something that everybody feels a part of even though obviously it wasn't their community directly that was a that was targeted it's correct everybody feels it everybody feels it the the sheer number of diverse people in Squirrel Hill as you've heard is is an amazing you know I grew up in Far Rockaway I'm not a native I'm a far walk away gal and and I've been here for 19 years and the differences are huge but it's on my block alone I have the former mayor's wife I have every kind of family you'd imagine they're everywhere they're everywhere and to give a quick plug my grandfather he's president pieces rabbi frame Sturm from National Council of young as well and I just know I remember him fondly which is why I wanted to mention whom I knew he was we didn't call him a friend I know and he was such an inspiration to me and I know that he would look at all of what we're doing heated here many years ago and he just he loves going to Jewish communities around the country he loved it that was like his whole you know he loved it and he came here and he fell in love and he met old students of his who come to the show everything and he just found like we all do the intense love this entire community has for each other and we're so blessed to be here I'm so glad you stopped by this morning meet you Stephanie small Kaka vote for aku a lady who's now a squirrel hill representative and a good one thank you very much Lou Weiss is with us Lou ice is an occasional writer for The Wall Street Journal he is the father of Barry Weiss staff editor and writer for the New York Times and and Lou is a local carpet salesman so those of you here in the Squirrel Hill community who'd like to replace your carpet we have met up with the right person this morning welcome to JM in the a.m. thank you for having me you wrote an article a mullick comes to pittsburgh it's obvious from the article that you were very familiar with the majority if not all of the victims in this attack is that correct I knew five but actually maybe actually six the six of the eleven so a good number of them and how do you explain it how do you how do you go through an episode like this and see people that you know murdered in cold blood and explain how it is that I'm Malik has come to this neighborhood well I mean I think if you look at it in the in the context of what goes on in Europe and what goes on in Israel and you know it's come here we didn't ever expected it here but um the anti-semitism has not gone away and this guy it's about as clear an analogue as you can possibly find because you know I was a Moloch doing the the the in the people in the back people in the back but in the innocence in specifically it in the chaplet The Tree of Life where those people were sitting in the back they were the the older people and special needs people the people on the front actually some of the people got got out and it's crazy you're talking to Mina Butler about that everything else I'm he asking me about the tower stuff which I which I know very little but you know it's it's evil and it's nothing we can say except that I pointed that earlier that those who know their Jewish history know that the synagogue unfortunately for centuries very often was used to murder Jews it's hard to believe especially for those who are in the Holocaust generation and there are members of the community here who still vividly remember in that period of time to believe that that can happen in the United States and 2018 but your point is that we we I don't know say we have to get used to it but we have to acknowledge that this is a this is a a scourge this is a disease is not gonna go away no it's not and I mean the most certainly the most tragic part is the loss of life be under that somewhere under that is the the sense of violation that it took place in the you know in the synagogue and you know be able to walk in any synagogue on Shabbat almost anything that I just walk in with the door lock that it's it's it's a pleasure I mean this is one of my sheriff Diamond chair tower this is one of my jewels and if I can get up early enough fight I make it here and I try to make it for rabbi Washington's birth hour and and you know it's I'm reformed you I understand very little of the toughening but I've got come here because I like the people and we're learning a lot about this unique neighborhood frankly because a lot of places that are tuned in right now are not I don't have the crossover that you are describing in terms of people of all backgrounds feeling comfortable everywhere I take it a little farther I mean I actually wrote a piece for the journal a few years ago about confessions of a synagogue hopper I actually not a derogatory term no no Reform congregation when I grew up and Beth Shalom with Temple Sinai you gotta get proper cut her throat like Gibson and Beth Shalom for when my kids were going to day school and I belong here and there's a buds minion that's fantastic with a singing psychiatrist that does the Torah commentary and I get discounted twos at some of these places but here I pay full dues for for me velocity gives you no break you know and it's a wonderful thing from that standpoint and you know just to be accepted everywhere and it's it's just again is I can't top what Nina father said I mean that's probably learn more about Judaism at her Shabbos table than any class I've ever taken Lewis is here occasional writer for The Wall Street Journal are you here your whole life yes for corn and bread and squirrel born and bred I've lived my life within about a mile of where we're sitting right now pretty amazing yeah and you're familiar with communities that are outside of Pittsburgh right you're somewhat familiar with the differences between your community and the ones that we speak to on a regular visits not so much really I mean yeah because I'm wondering if you're as shocked as I am when you're describing the way Squirrel Hill is and you see my surprise when we talk about this this relationship you have with everybody across the board I wonder if you realize that outside of this community it's not very common what you're describing intellectually I know that it's different another place but I just I have my bones-- I just don't you know expect any different than feel any different and you know we're we're lucky to be here but it's um no I I don't think it's I think it's like this everywhere but I know that it's not because people say it's not but I don't know why it shouldn't be who wrote the article of course for the journal on male comes to Pittsburgh that we referenced earlier how do you think the Jews our brothers and sisters in Israel who go through this a lot and if they don't go through directly obviously you know we know how often it happened is there how do you think they view what happened here - Spanish Travis you know I think I don't know I'd have to speak for that but I think that it's nothing that they're not familiar with and it's nothing that they don't know how to deal with and I think that here what the response we're seeing is somewhat like the response in Israel because they see it you know it's it's a stiffening of your resolve and it's stiffening of your spine and saying you know what I'm not giving in to this and you know we're gonna make it through it's very painful and I mean I was you know the other day I'm going to a funeral tomorrow it's something to say that you know this is what it is to be Jewish when you carry these values in the world you know concern for the downtrodden and personal and freedom freedom of people and Jewish values I mean people they respond because they hate those values they hate those things hard for us to comprehend them but they do and you know we're not bowing down to anyone else's you know all the idols and they present that and you know and frankly they what's gratifying is in the United States the response is so different oh and this pontius is so wonderful and I mean that's the difference between the United States I think in Europe and I think that in Israel I think I know I don't know that they're surprised but we've never been tested quite like this in this country wherever Wasserman as an aside we'll all the funerals have been conducted by time Shabbos starts we don't know yet we think they will be the by the time Shabbos begins the funerals will have taken place you're writing for the journal are you a fan of the journal um my Bible for many years and pasted my whole adult life my was my craziest thing is my thought what the Colombian was fighting against the Middle East Studies she writes for The New York Times yes but prior to that though she was in The Wall Street Journal for all of 10 years like God and then off and on and she worked for tablet magazine but as their politics editor she's actually it's crazy over her time she's been in Israel a lot of time she was at the road fella but she orit's the forward they the New York Sun and she started there that they she started they said they're going out of business in a month I the journal and and now the times does she know her current employer does not always do us the best of favors you know I think it's interesting they they brought her in and she had Bret Stevens who's her mentor he's on the up at yeah and and she's there too but they I think that they realized after the last election that they were missing a whole chunk of America even though they're both they never plays Bill safar never although I mean maybe they thought sup with David Brooks who is that and Brett certainly I think is is is a wonderful writer and a wonderful commentator and I mean they basically give her free rein to write what she wants to write then that she was interviewed at the Reform congregation a couple weeks ago with by the rabbi and he talked about it a little bit you know because you thought about going through vinick's got one point and she said basically I'm writing the BART hours that they're putting in the paper the birthday girl she's written yeah I was written on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur just written about yes you're obviously short about what happened here this week and she's because a decent background and it's it's nice they let her do that and it's you know it's just there's not many of her I would say at the paper too but to have now this probably there's more there's more the public of precedence there's more and I mean and and it frankly it's to the credit of the publishers sales partner and James Bennett oh I know he's her editor that was one of the people that brought her there and I think that it's to their credit that they said you know what we're missing something here and they want to challenge their readers I mean their readers are not happy well if you read some of the comments they write yeah but she's I think doing a good job there but I was more excited I'm excited she's there and but it did when she's at the journals a special assignment because that's my place and I don't know when I sent an article someone read it there a while ago and they they put it in is the first time I've ever wrote anything that's serious really and very timely yeah Lou I see the daughter we references a Barry White staff editor and writer at the New York Times he is an occasional writer for The Wall Street Journal an honor to speak with you this morning they have my pleasure thanks for having thank you very much we are here in Pittsburgh and you know why Jewish unity initiative has arrived and Squirrel Hill to just express our solidarity let people here know that we care let people know they're brothers and sisters around the world who felt the collective pain of this terrible and horrific episode from Shabbos and the murder of eleven of our brothers and sisters here in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania it's 18 minutes after eight o'clock more coming up keep it right here at JM in the a.m. [Music] a numb for a basin strawberry I said a no call my sister vervain and soon in Baja to remove Aashiqui Vega I said a new coral base [Music] no cobasys over [Music] but would be made by moving back out of the show [Music] eggie game meat or no beautiful [Music] I'm [Music] Malaya it's [Music] ha ha [Music] crazies [Music] my leg beautiful [Music] Jamna a.m. a faint no is certainly one of our themes that is a understatement as we continue to express our our love and solidarity with our brothers and sisters here in Squirrel Hill Pennsylvania with us live via telephone keeping in mind that Tuesday is election day is Jake Adler he's New York state policy director for teach NY yes and he is he is with us to remind us that we have a voice we have a voice when it comes to the public officials represent us in this country Jake welcome back to JM in the a.m. thanks for being where you are I greatly appreciate that and you know this this episode is not manat out of context to discuss this coming Tuesday on a day like today because we want I have been I don't know if you agree you'll tell me if you do I have been extremely impressed with the way the public officials of this area where we are now in Pittsburgh have dealt with this week's tragedy and we want people who represent us well and who are compassionate and who do their job well and are there at the forefront on our issues would you not agree you know obviously I think I don't think anyone can really come to grips with it yet we have that stress in our mind important to realize that you know public reaction and the tone and the public officials responses to issues like this and issues that are much more mundane than that are extremely important and kind of what comes next is also should be for you know foremost in our minds and I think that's really where civic engagement and voting and the whole the whole really comes into play so you know Tuesday is the chance so all of us with elections on Tuesday certainly with all those of us in New York to kind of come out in you know in mass and make our voices heard that our community does for our community does pay attention to what's going on community frankly does engage in the Civic process and and wants you know wants and needs certain things out of their government including security funding including you know a variety of other issues you know it all begins with voting on Tuesday oh it's so true then there's so much of a difference that people can make when they engage with their public officials you may get to know them when they make sure to alert them about our issues etcetera but all of it starts by getting the right people into office and as you remind us that happens is coming Tuesday Jake Adler is with us by the way Jake the one is real fun as an example has asked everybody who comes to their dinner on Election Day night to vote first make sure to vote and then come to the dinner wouldn't you love to see all of our educational institutions and all of the different organizations they're going to be active with events and with their regular day on Tuesday tell their constituents vote first and then come into work both first and then come to school vote first and then come and enjoy our event whether election day and primary day should be a holiday right it really recognizes the federal holiday I think you know certainly within our community really needs to really re-evaluate the way it used boating voter registration and an election day as well and you know if it was up to me you know that day would kind of be set aside as backwards thanks specifically for voting I understand people of jobs I understand that there's so many important organizations benefiting lacroix but we have to understand the importance of actually voting and and I would encourage every organization to understand that and not to not to stack the deck of event that day going forward because it just makes it more difficult for everyone to vote voting voting impacts everything about anything security and children schools and you know from closer to home voter is voting directly in fact the tuition credit so if we want to take these issues seriously which certainly we all talk about you do I think we have to reevaluate how we're how we're looking at the registration process how we're looking at the voting age a voter engagement process and really how we're looking at primary days and election days those are important days be there everybody this Tuesday Jake Adler the New York State policy director of teach NYS reminds us i remind everybody will certainly remind everybody on tuesday get out and vote and encourage everybody in your families to vote get every car debris in your communities to vote rabbis and cards are ready the Shabbos in your congregations to vote it all begins at the ballot box Jake great job you guys are doing thanks so much for joining me this morning appreciate that very much Jake Adler who is of course with the teach NYS and as New York state policy director with a very important reminder for us here at JM in the am more coming up we're in Pittsburgh we're in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood we are showing love concern solidarity Brotherhood sisterhood Jewish unity with our brothers and sisters here in Squirrel Hill in the aftermath of the Shabbos massacre that everyone continues to try and recover from all through this week of funerals and Shiva in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood as you heard right Wasserman mentioned those funerals will hopefully be completed before Shabbat and this will be a Shabbos of great unity not only in Squirrel Hill but for all of Jewish people worldwide as we encourage everybody to get to shul the Shabbos to emphatically state that we will continue to take great advantage of the amazing freedom of religion that we have in this incredible country make sure to do that this shop is simply by showing up in synagogue more coming up you're listening to JM and the a.m. [Music] seem shallow dive over aha [Music] the all a new deal [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] no you sure [Music] sham and the am one of the things we pray for peace Shalom a couple of family connections here to announce in the Squirrel Hill sorry Torah congregation first of all the historic rabbi before the days of the historic are my Wasserman here was my father's cousin or by Pope Coe who made such a mark on this right you'd agreed made quite a mark on this community an understatement about my wants Minh says and yesterday speaking of family yesterday was the bris of my great nephew the first baby after ten years since my father's passing and there have been thank God many many babies since then the first one to be named Zev Segal so rabbi zev Siegel now has a real name say there many Zeb's and many Zev ease in the family already as you could imagine thank God as I said thank God but this is the first child who has named Zev Segal which which brings a smile to all of our faces of course a couple of things first of all were made possible this morning of course by a generous sponsorship by the wonderful people at Bedford on Park it's one of the reasons we're able to broadcast today from Pittsburgh and I thank our friends at Bedford on Park as they continue to provide a delicious lunch and dinner to our amazing and incredible New Yorkers and those visiting New York every single day you can enjoy a great lunch a wonderful dinner including that 32-ounce prime cowboy cut steak which rivals the Nina Butler steak presentation of last night said yet just our regular Wednesday steaks right and you can enjoy chef Alex's incredible dishes plus I remind you that now as we get closer to the end of 2018 all the holiday parties and chronica celebrations and Thanksgiving family dinners are being planned make sure to keep in mind Bedford on Park they'll do an amazing job for you and your clients and your staff at 61 East 34th Street in New York City 61 he's 34th Street in New York City they're also a great location for chevre breakfast in the heart of Midtown so again Bedford on Park your holiday parties got scheduled now your Hanukkah celebration has to be scheduled Neriah Thanksgiving dinner has to be scheduled now they're at 61 East 34th Street Bedford kitchen calm Bedford kitchen calm set it up today with our friends at Bedford on Park so you were all set for the final months of 2018 also want to remind everybody the one is real fun dinner is Tuesday we just mentioned it in the context of election day as we continue to strengthen and want to continue to strengthen the the communities of the United States like this one Squirrel Hill that has gone through everything that they've gone through this week we also remind you that we have to strengthen and continue to build the State of Israel and one is your fun does a remarkable job doing that log on to one is real fun org one is real fun dot or get your reservations in for Tuesday night and support their efforts Tuesday night will be an amazing dinner caroline glick as the keynote speaker and we highly recommend you be there for the one israel fun dinner also keep in mind earlier in the week we spoke with our friends at oh hell they've got their big event coming up November the 11th go to Oh L family org Oh health family org for information on that and I do remind you that we have a full day of amazing programming including a live lunch that we're gonna be doing from this spot we're gonna be right here live lunch 11:00 until 12:00 at which point of Romney's gonna take over at noon so we could hit the road back to New York but 11:00 until 12:00 we'll wrap up this entire trip and there'll be many themes and many thoughts that I can guarantee you that we'll start at 11 o'clock between now and then at 9 a.m. unlocking greatness with Charlie Harare at 9:30 spin class pre election day with Michael friggin at 10:00 a.m. June the city speaks allison joseph's has guest jonathan Greenstein of adage a of Judaica house he will be Allison's guest in at 10:30 that's life of Maria Mel Wallach she'll discuss women and prayer with Robertson dr. Edina Schmidt men women and prayer we encourage all the women and all the men to pray together and be together in synagogues this coming Shabbos all right more coming up we're in Pittsburgh everybody we are at the Squirrel Hill sherry Torah congregation as the amazing and incredible Jewish unity initiative rolls on and Nina Butler who we introduced earlier as a community leader we thank Nina we think judge Danny Butler we thank her we Wasserman of course and my staff including of rummy and yoni and ZK and Mark sama candy Gaul Seagal and Simon who Simon Jacob our chairman who called in earlier to sauerkraut he is that the Jewish unity initiative is in Pittsburgh today and all of our families we thank everybody for being part of this amazing effort Nina Butler we introduced as a community leader earlier and she's back on the air with us a lot of unique things happened this week not all of them said some of them silver linings I guess we can call them yes what do you have in mind when I mentioned silver linings I have a few stories for you one is I think it paints a picture of our city to tell you that at the JCC we have walk-in counseling drop-in counseling from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. that you heard about already but what she didn't tell you is that the JFCS Jewish and children services having assistance from other mental health professionals coming in to how to assist from outside Pittsburgh not only on-site Pittsburgh of course agencies in Pittsburgh so they have to come up with what to put on a nametag just what do you put on the nametag so of course this is for counseling so you put the first name not my last name right first name nice and big right but then under there to your right the agency that the person came from oh these are the professionals that are helping out what do you put on the professionals name tag so it says Bill and now what right okay well you have to remember we're in mr. Rogers neighbor literally so under everyone's name is just the word helper someone walked in and looked at these name tags and said are you often the same family have to think about the answer to that and I think all your walls your fan all of your listeners know the answer to that question we are the same there you have to satisfy my curiosity so we were in your house last night yes how close is it to mr. Rogers house a couple blocks he literally yeah this is his neighborhood we did not lately all right obviously but it's not it's not a joke then that this is a unique type of neighborhood that he always portrayed a unique yes where where the land of make-believe came from my bed literally yes Murray Avenue might be the another example of how warmed the community is in general there were two boys with disabilities who were buried I call them boys of course they were in Urbana yes but they call them boys the same when I call my area boy because they were more like you know six eight year olds one of them was nonverbal but he would hang out in his free time at the fire station he was just a regular hanger router at the fire station and I know my son also hangs out there sometimes and I mean the firemen are so kind and it's interesting that our fire station has been named the station 1818 is that our fire so at the beginning of the rosenthal boys funeral in full dress garb the full fire station came marching down the aisle in a very formal way all uniform not to the caskets and saluted and then walk back up the other aisle and just they say something new David would love that and all the publicity everyone knew Cecil would love that he was just a greeter and like the mayor of this city he knew everyone and really sweet kids I always wanted to tell you about our by not--she root we have two girls each year who come from Israel to teach our kids in our day schools about Israel and Saturday night boys they really understand about tragedies they wanted to do something so motsu Shabbos they put out the word to their family I think you maybe just take a picture saying we are with you Pittsburgh could you just take a picture and send it to us and they thought they'd hear from ten people like in their wildest dreams maybe a hundred within a few hours they got four thousand photos what thousand from friends and family in Israel so we really are one people well about the uniqueness of the Pittsburgh community the or the rabbi of politic has sat at meetings with the conservative rabbi of one of these shores rabbi Perlman who is a showman Shabbat so this show so rabbi ya'akov this afternoon went to rabbi Perlman's home just to stay with him rabbi Perlman wouldn't answer the phone all day and got what for from the FBI who one who didn't know where the rabbi's of the shuls work as they weren't picking up their phones all of us had our phones bombarded as soon as Shabbos was over but something I think your listeners might be interested in as one thing we're good at in the Jewish community is cooking making meals for friends so of course we we know how to handle the Shiva Shiva lineup of meals and the Shiv us here are being handled through our United Jewish Federation through all the donations people are making they're paying for those catered meals but this rabbi thought that maybe that conservative rabbi is having a really bad week so people in the Orthodox community are making dinners for a conservative rabbi this week it's that kind you teaching us all lessons this morning I must say yeah I have one thing in closer and it's actually a visual that rabbi Wasserman gave me that I think I'm going to carry with me into Shabbos for those of us who have two prominent candles in additional the other candles are you like Friday night when you picture those two candles together well so maybe people keep in mind that we lost 11 precious Souls last shot is it's not even a week ago and it feels like a lifetime ago so I know that sounds we haven't even had another Shabbos it yeah so we really appreciate your coming to town thank you very much thank you again for being here and thank everybody in the listening audience for their love and concern for our little squirrel it's much appreciated what you're saying and thanks for all your help in helping us this week Nina Butler everybody her claim to fame Rory Butler's mother so those of you are familiar with camp ask you know exactly who I mean and why she's such a prominent woman because she is in fact Orie Butler's mother Edie Papa Lasky is here he is a Pittsburgh native and note that a Steeler fan oh yeah he's a hey he's a construction foreman it does work here in our shul in the historic shahri torah and he has a perspective from the general community here in Pittsburgh in the aftermath of the Shabbos attack that took 11 of our brothers and sisters Edie thank you for being here no problem tell me about the reaction of the community in general to what happened on Shabbos here in Pittsburgh shocking very shocking never expected it here out it's disturbing it is our people I don't know afraid to gather afraid to go to work afraid to leave their homes how would you describe it I think they did their mourning and they're just moving on to me you can't you can't dwell on it you got to move on it is shocking and disturbing but you have to let it go to tell me about the relationship between the Jewish and non-jewish community in this town there's no problem whatever whatsoever everyone seems to get along oh yeah yeah because we've been talking about brotherhood and sisterhood in our context because we speak mostly to a Jewish audience but you would say there's a real Brotherhood here among everybody oh yeah this brought a lot of people together unfortunately it had to be that way but it brought a lot of people out and don't individuals and all that was it surprising to you that members of the Pittsburgh Steelers came out the way they did not to be part of this are they viewed as real members of the community yeah because in New York I don't know if we would have that type of reaction from our sports teams frankly but it seems your teams feel like they're they're part of the community just like everybody else it's pretty remarkable and the Pittsburgh Penguins also have to be recognized I don't know if you're a hockey fan oh are you okay good so I'm comfortable speaking to you about it not all the football people are big hockey people but they also have to be commended because they saluted our community and and they saluted the you know the the topic of hate and not saluted but they made sure to address the topic of hate in what they wore and they were there both on home and on the road for our community which is pretty amazed so it's like small-town USA but with a big name exactly very small but big in nature yeah big in nature and I'll say it really has a big reputation nationwide I can yes everyone talks about Pittsburgh and how incredible it is ed thanks so much for being here today no problem a real pleasure and I really should a pleasure meeting you more coming up you're listening to Jim and the a.m. on a Thursday morning broadcast with a reminder that we will be back here at the shul at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time for the very first hour of our live lunch with our perspective and retrospective on some of the things in conversations that we had here we've met a lot of very interesting people and we're taught a lot of lessons this morning in addition to which we will full schedule the Thursday schedule that you're used to here at the Nasim Siegel Network with Charlie Harare and then spin class at Michael friggin and analysand Joseph's who whose guest this morning will be Jonathan Greenstein of the Judaica house and then that's life of Maryam al Wallach women and prayer with Rebbetzin dr. Adina Schmid Minh that'll be the topic women and prayer as we encourage everybody all around the all around the country to be in shul this coming shop is 11 o'clock from here 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time from here our live lunch literally five eleven until 12:00 then avrami will be live from noon until one o'clock as we head back to New York City more coming up we're at the sherry Torah congregation hosted by Rabbi Wasserman on a very special Jewish unity initiative jamming a.m. Thursday keep it right here at an awesome seagull Network [Music] halle-loo it's same I said it's same I said get hotter she she hos Katie's go Holly let's say my it's say my shed [Music] yeah halle-loo let's say my let's say my shed get hotter do she all oh she hold those sigh more like a nice girl she ball yeah [Music] it's a my shed and say my shed [Music] my shed let's say my shirt [Music] jam in the a.m. Thursday morning tomorrow what I would call I don't know a regular Friday not really it's not going to be a regular Friday it's gonna be an error of Shabbos the first job is after the massacre here in Squirrel Hill it's also gonna be a Friday where the Chief of Police not the Police Commission ever the Chief of Police the highest uniformed officer in the New York City Police Department is going to join us in the seven o'clock hour tomorrow to discuss safety security and reassure everybody that based on what he knows and the NYPD and based on what he knows from from Police Department's around the country thank God we should enjoy please God we should enjoy a safe secure Shabbos coming up everywhere no matter where we are so we'll talk about that also we have the weekly update Malcolm Homeline who was here earlier in the week we're here today Thursday he was here I think Sunday earlier in the week in Pittsburgh he'll join us and of course we'll talk about this story which I'm sure will dominate the weekly update and many of the stories as well including all the elections in Israel Miriam L Wallach is here and has a an update on what's happening on the NSN app I just want to read a couple of app comments before the show closes we had a figure who I think escena right yeah figure one writes poker toven koulikov vote for always stepping up to the plate without hesitation to show solidarity with those who need it most gonna be an amazing morning and I would say Cena yes thank God it really has been an amazing morning mayor fertig wrote we can't all visit Pittsburgh now each for our own reasons and more importantly for the reasons you just discussed the wishes of the families and the limitations on the community's infrastructure and that's why I appreciate that you made the trip I feel like you are representing all of us who can't be there thank you Thank You mayor Miami Harry Wright's knock'em thank you for posting your pittsburgh visit on facebook i'm a card currently in Ch lotion for my mother so i haven't been tuned in but your show and presentation is phenomenal you you true unity by a true unifier may you continue to go from strength to strength may we only know smote in the future mhm mhm Dalbir wrote great idea and an amazing broadcast from pittsburgh as you say I know a knock no I'm ahem and of course Adam Joe writes amazing always care that out appreciate everything oh and divorce a bond I'm sorry I skipped this one divorce of Israel had written I was touched to see the US flag and the Israeli flag projected onto the old city walls with the words Pittsburgh we stand with that was amazing we referenced it earlier that was amazing the rabbi IJF from Atlanta who's been posting a lot he writes Atlanta Jewish Academy and indeed all of Atlanta stands with our family in Pittsburgh absolutely and as we always say if it's an out of town community they must know each other so I'm sure it's Rob just kidding of course but we were not I know before the New York perspective we had to toss that it but to Atlantis credit they are associated with a lot of other out-of-town communities as they are the Jewish capital of the south oh hey nobody's around a famous Hummer brothers and sisters in Israel we are with you it's your favorite America's one and only Jewish moments in the morning radio program her done listening to response or digital radio around the world in the webinar I'm single common an awesome single network and of course I think beloved NS an app want to thank all of our guests a lot of very special guests today I want to thank Doug Shulkin those of you who are all wfm you listeners Doug used to follow me every single Friday for years and years and now he lives right next to Paul Lloyd said that here in Squirrel Hill and boy did he give us a perspective as it's so many other people big thank you to Rabbi Wasserman of course not just for joining us but for hosting us at 11:00 a.m. we'll be live from here at 11:00 a.m. we are alive with a complete wrap-up of this trip 11:00 a.m. until noon we are live with a complete wrap-up of this trip from the shul from sorry Torah until then of course Charlie Harare and then Michael friggin and then Alison Joseph's and then Miriam L Wallach then we continue live at 11:00 a.m. and then a rummy will wrap up the live lunch for this Erev Shabbos starting at 12:00 noon eastern time thank you so much for tuning in thank you everybody for all the wonderful comments make sure to be tuned in tomorrow morning for the weekly update and so much more till they're not home single reminding you remember the past live the present and trust the future [Music]