Itzhak Perlman headlines Pittsburgh concert honoring synagogue shooting victims
At memorial event, renowned violinist says: ‘When you see something that represents the worst of humanity, you want to confront it with some of the best of humanity’
Famed Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this week in a tribute concert to the victims of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, a month after the massacre.
The pieces played included Maurice Ravel’s “Kaddish, ”Arvo Part’s “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten,” and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, as well as an arrangement of the Book of Psalms’ “Eli, Eli” and pieces from the film “Schindler’s List.”
Between musical pieces, members of the community read texts honoring the 11 worshipers who were killed in Robert Bowers’ anti-Semitic rampage on a Shabbat morning in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Speakers included Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and Wasiullah Mohamed of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh.
“My response to the tragedy was plain horror,” Perlman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette. “I just couldn’t believe it. Something as terrible as anti-Semitism, it’s not a thing of the past. It still exists. It’s not over. Hopefully education and coming together like this will bring people closer and encourage our society to become better than this. It has to be better than this.”
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The @pghsymphony marked the one-month anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting with a stirring performance at Heinz Hall.
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— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) November 28, 2018
He said music was a fitting response to the killing. “When you see something that represents the worst of humanity, you want to confront it with some of the best of humanity.”
Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert also attended. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Pittsburgh is our home, and we will never let hate divide us,” he said, to intense applause.
The performance will be broadcast by PBS on December 11 at 8 p.m. EST.
