Vice President Harris marks six years since the ‘unspeakable’ Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday commemorated six years since the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

“This unspeakable act – fueled by anti-Semitic hatred – was the deadliest attack on the American Jewish community in our country’s history,” Harris said in part in a statement.

On October 27, 2018, a white supremacist gunman opened fire at the synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, killing 11 people and wounding six others during Shabbat services.

In her statement Sunday, Harris mourned the lives taken that day and also praised the resilience and enduring strength of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. She also noted the increase in anti-Semitic incidents since the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and vowed to continue combating anti-Semitism.

“I will always work to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people in the United States and around the world, and I will always denounce anti-Semitism wherever and whenever we see it,” Harris said. “Doug and I are proud to have worked with President Biden to combat anti-Semitism, including through the National Strategy to Counter Anti-Semitism.”

“Today, Doug and I stand in solidarity with the survivors of this attack, the families who lost loved ones, and the entire Jewish community,” Harris added, referring to her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Earlier Sunday, President Joe Biden also marked the anniversary of the Tree of Life attack, saying in a statement that the shootings “shattered families, pierced the heart of the Jewish community and struck the soul of our nation.”

“For the families of the victims and the survivors, this difficult day of remembrance brings everything back as if it just happened – and our country holds them and their loved ones close to our hearts,” Biden added.

Biden said his administration remains committed to aggressively implementing the National Strategy to Combat Anti-Semitism.

“As the Talmud says, ‘It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it,’” Biden said in the statement. “On this solemn day of commemoration of the attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue, let us come together as Americans to ensure that anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms have no safe haven in America – for all the lives we have lost and all those that we have lost. can still save.”