PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Andrea Wedner remembers Oct. 27, 2018 in detail. She picked up her mother, Rose Mallinger, to go to Shabbat services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, a quiet neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
They got there early, as they liked to do, and talked with fellow synagogue members before the service started on time. Not long after it started, however, they heard a crash.
What ensued was the murder of 11 Tree of Life worshippers at the hands of an anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant gunman. Wedner was injured, but survived — her mother Rose did not.
Wedner opened up to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the story of that tragic day and of her mother, who she described as a joyful spirit who loved her life.