In the months since the attack, many public accounts have used the shorthand "three congregations" to explain the shared living arrangements within one large Squirrel Hill synagogue. Grouping these congregations together based solely on their mutual suffering ignores each congregation's individual characteristics. Each was created to fill specific religious and spiritual needs. Each developed along a particular path, reflecting different eras, ethnicities, practices, and ideas within American Judaism. Through their histories, each congregation illuminates a different corner of the larger Jewish history of our region.
Using rarely seen materials from the archive,
the exhibit focuses on the essential qualities of each of these three congregations, celebrating the individuality and identity of each.
The exhibit is located in the lobby of the Detre Library & Archives, on the sixth floor of the Heinz History Center, and can be viewed daily through Dec. 27.
Admission to see this exhibit is free but does not include admission to the rest of the History Center. This exhibit was made possible through generous contributions from Carolyn Slayton and Seth Glick, and an anonymous donor.