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Photo Credit: Chris Preksta

When I was a kid in Swissvale, I always wanted to move to Squirrel Hill when I grew up.  
Even though fate led me to live in other neighborhoods in and around Pittsburgh, I never
stopped thinking of Squirrel Hill as the city neighborhood where I felt most at home, where I “fit.”

My life is full of beautiful memories of this lovely neighborhood.

The Sunday afternoon drives with my dad and mom and my three sisters and I piled into our
little Dodge Dart to look at beautiful homes in neighborhoods around ours because my dad
was an architect and an appreciator of beautiful homes.

We didn’t eat out a lot, but when my parents wanted to splurge Poli’s was the “good restaurant”
they chose.  Going there was a special event. I remember dressing up to eat there, and that
I had my first Shirley Temple there.

The Manor Theatre and the Squirrel Hill Theatre were the movie theaters closest to us with
the first run movies.  I still go back to the Manor often to see those slightly off-the-beaten-track
movies that don’t make it to the local cineplex.

Squirrel Hill was also home to Heads Together, the coolest little head shop in the city.  They
sold drug paraphernalia, record albums and waterbeds. The little hippie wannabe in me loved
hanging out there, even though I had little need of anything they sold but the albums.  It was
one of the few establishments anywhere at the time that was open all night, and I remember
going there with my co-workers from Winky’s Drive-In Restaurant at midnight on Friday and
Saturday nights after our shifts, still dressed in our uniforms reeking of hamburger grease.

Gullifty’s was one of my all-time favorite restaurants.  I went back there whenever I could
until they sadly closed a few years ago.

When I was in my 40’s I met the love of my life.  He was many things - a chef, a musician,
kind and funny and intelligent.  He was also Jewish.

I didn’t know a lot about Judaism when we started dating.  I met his entire extended family
for the first time when we attended his nephew’s Bar Mitzvah, which was also my very first
Bar Mitzvah.  No matter. His family warmly welcomed me into the fold and became my family.

For many years I attended services with him at Congregation Bet Tikvah which held services
at Rodef Shalom in Oakland, just a few miles from Squirrel HIll.  Through this liberal,
welcoming, warm congregation I learned to appreciate and love Judaism and they became
my spiritual community.

When we heard the horrific breaking news yesterday that an active shooter had entered the

Tree of LIfe Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, and as we watched the unfolding events and learned
that 11 people had died, six more were fighting for their lives, and that it was an anti-Semitic
act, you can believe that it hit close to home.  This was my city, my neighborhood, my spiritual community. It literally could have been us, and may have been people we knew and loved.

The larger truth is that any time a group of people living in our nation is targeted and murdered senselessly, it happens to all of us.  We must fight hate, by living with loving intentions and by casting our votes for leaders who value all life, and do nor perpetuate hatred and violence. But until and unless we elect leaders who are willing to address the common denominator in all these mass murders - the availability of assault weapons and high capacity magazines to the average citizen - the carnage will continue.