Stronger Than Hate Memorial Collection

Collection

Identifier: 2019-0008

Staff Only

Content Description

The Stronger than Hate Collection consists of materials related to the campus response to the 2018 antisemitic domestic terrorist shooting at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It includes materials related to vigils and memorials held on campus, the university’s social media response to the event, as well as compiled lists of campus resources.

The collection also includes over 200 paper tags which were created as a part of a memorial art project organized by the group “Campus Uplift”. In the week following the shooting, members of the CMU community were encouraged to share reflections written on these paper tags which were then hung on a metal grate display in the Cohon University Center. Half of the tags were made into mulch and buried underneath a tree planted on campus in memorial. The rest of the tags were donated to the University Archives

Dates

2018-2019

Biographical / Historical

The Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre was an antisemitic domestic terrorist shooting which occurred during Shabbat morning services on October 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The shooting was the deadliest attack in history against a Jewish community in the United States.

“Stronger than Hate” was a logo created by graphic designer Tim Hindes in response to the massacre. The slogan was widely adapted throughout Pittsburgh as a symbol of solidarity in mourning the 11 lives lost and to support the ailing Jewish community.

Several memorials, vigils, and community art projects were led by the CMU community in response to the massacre and are documented in this collection.