HIAS and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting on October 27, 2018 social media and press coverage, 2018

Sub-Series

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Archived collection

The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was an anti-Semitic mass shooting that took place on October 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services. The suspect killed eleven people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors. It was the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States. A lone suspect, identified as 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers, was shot multiple times by police and arrested at the scene. Bowers had earlier posted anti-Semitic comments against HIAS (formerly, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) on the online alt-tech social network Gab. Dor Hadash had participated in HIAS's National Refugee Shabbat the previous week. Referring to Central American migrant caravans and immigrants, Bowers posted on Gab that "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered..." He has been charged with 63 federal crimes, some of which are capital crimes. He has pleaded not guilty. He separately faces 36 charges in Pennsylvania state court.

Dates

2018

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

The collection is in English, with some German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Eastern European languages.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers.

To access the archived websites, click on the "Archived Website/Collection" link in the Scope and Content note of the described website/collection. This link will take the user to the Wayback Machine landing page for the seed URL/group. From there, clicking on the dated link will take the user to the crawl of the website from that date.