Pennsylvania flags to fly at half-staff on anniversary of Tree of Life attack

JTA — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed a proclamation calling for a day of remembrance and ordering state flags to half-staff to mark the one-year anniversary of the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue building that left 11 worshipers dead.

The proclamation extends the City of Pittsburgh’s resolution declaring the day “Remember Repair Together Day” across the whole state, according to local reports.

It also orders the state flag on all commonwealth facilities, public buildings and grounds to half-staff from sunrise until sunset on October 27, 2019, the one-year anniversary of the attack. The United States flag will remain at full-staff.

“A year has passed, but I continue to carry sorrow for the victims and their families of this heinous attack,” Wolf said on Friday when he signed the proclamation. “We must honor them by remembering, and through our thoughts, prayers and actions. I ask all Pennsylvanians to spend October 27 doing the same in their honor.”

Wolf honored the 11 victims of the attack last month while on a visit to Auschwitz, including writing their names in the memorial site’s guestbook.

“My visits to Holocaust sites reaffirmed my belief that we need to work every day to stop anti-Semitism and hate from growing in Pennsylvania,” Wolf also said Friday. “By reaching out to cultivate bonds of friendship and understanding, we observe the one-year mark of the attack at Tree of Life with action that helps strengthen our commonwealth and prevent hate from growing.”