Almost five years after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s coverage of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting earned the publication a Pulitzer Prize in 2019, retired Post-Gazette Executive Editor David M. Shribman, who was raised in Swampscott, reflected on covering the tragedy, the city’s union over shared grief, and the ongoing fight against antisemitism in the U.S.
On Oct. 27, 2018, Robert Bowers opened fire in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, killing 11 and wounding six in the deadliest attack on any Jewish community in the country’s history, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Shribman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who lives just three blocks away from Tree of Life, said he was at the gym when a friend called him to inform him that police were gathered outside the synagogue and were believed to be shooting.
“I left the gym, no shower, and drove to that particular area, which is basically driving home. I couldn’t get anywhere close to it because there was so much police presence, so I did a really odd thing — I put the laundry in the washer… and then went into the office,” Shribman said.
When Shribman went into the office that Saturday, he said the Post-Gazette’s news staff came streaming in ready to break the story. Shribman said that the newspaper’s writers exuded stoicism and were intently focused on Sunday’s pages. The story — published with an 86-point-type Hebrew headline — wound up hitting home for almost everyone in the community.
“It was the first four words of the Mourner’s Prayer,” Shribman said of the story’s headline. “When words fail, perhaps you’re thinking in the wrong language.”
Shribman said a reporter who broke the story lived “within spitting distance” of one of the victims, and he later found out another Post-Gazette reporter’s mother went out to lunch with another victim every day.
Just as significant as the pain caused by the Oct. 27 shooting, Shribman said, was the sense of solidarity and unity that came in the weeks and months following the harrowing attack. The Pittsburgh Steelers replaced one of the three stars in the team’s logo with a Star of David in solidarity with the Jewish community, a change that Shribman referred to as a “symbol of Pittsburgh’s commitment to diversity and tolerance.”
“The community reacted to this in a very positive way. By positive, I mean specifically that they grieved along with the Jewish community. This wasn’t regarded only as a Jewish tragedy but as a Pittsburgh tragedy,” Shribman said.
A graduate of Swampscott High School from the Class of 1972, Shribman began his career in journalism at the age of 16 working at the Salem Evening News. He later worked as a journalist at The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Shribman returned to the North Shore on Wednesday to tell his story at North Shore Community College’s 49th Forum on Tolerance, and to honor his history teacher at Swampscott High School, Harvey Michaels, and the Michaels family.
When asked about the current state of antisemitism in the U.S., Shribman described the fight against bigotry as a perpetual battle, similar to the fight for liberty.
“The fight isn’t a fight that ends on a specific discrete day. It goes on forever. I think that fight is being conducted now and has a particular moment, right now. Those of us who lived through Tree of Life understand that this is not the last time we will have to fight this,” Shribman said.
