At the Beth Abraham Cemetery in Carrick Sunday morning, Barry Rudel divvied out tasks to about a dozen volunteers. Some were asked to clean vines from the trees around the parking lot, while others removed overgrowth from graves and raked leaves at the entrance.
Many of the headstones at Beth Abraham were in good condition, although the ones where ivy and bushes have taken over were hard to miss.
“There’s one that looks like the Hobbit house back there,” said Rudel, the executive director of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh.
Rudel’s organization partnered with the 10.27 Healing Partnership and Repair the World Pittsburgh to host the volunteer day as part of a series of services events that honor the 11 lives lost during the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, four years ago Thursday.
The cemetery clean-up, in particular, honored the lives of Bernice and Sylvan Simon. The couple was killed while attending Saturday morning prayer services at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.
Their son, Marc Simon, told the crowd of volunteers Sunday that the community must never forget the events of that day.
“While nothing can bring them back to us, we must never forget what occurred on that tragic morning and continue to honor their lives in both thought and service, and to foster a constant reminder of the worst anti-Semitic attack in US history,” Simon said. “And with that, let’s go to work.”
The Simons weren’t buried at Beth Abraham, but many of the volunteers working on Sunday knew someone who was. That included Ronna Harris Askin, whose parents and maternal cousins were all buried at the cemetery, alongside friends from her childhood in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
“I know probably 30 of those graves, one way or another,” she said.
Harris Askin said visiting the cemetery—or, as on Sunday, cleaning up branches there—allows her to connect with those no longer alive.
“I like to walk around and think about the people and the influence they've had on my life and what I remember about them,” Harris Askin continued. “I’m full of little stories.”
Keeping the cemetery in good condition ensures others have a space to remember the stories of their loved ones, too.
Larry Nydes attended the cleanup in part to say thank you to Rudel and other caretakers of the cemetery. He found bushes strewn across the area where his father and several family members were buried, in the upper section of the cemetery’s main hill.
In Jewish tradition, mourners place stones on top of their loved ones’ headstones as a symbol of remembrance each time they visit the grave. Nydes said he arrived at the cemetery to do so, but couldn’t.
“You had to go through some bushes and branches just to get to the stone,” Nydes said.
Nydes said the volunteers’ efforts to dignify the graves and ensure visitors could get to them safely, are admirable.
“I think it’s just really wonderful,” Nydes said, “and so respectful to the families.”
Several other service events were simultaneously held on Sunday, including a gardening project for teens at the Sheridan Avenue Orchard and the painting of stones with uplifting messages to be left in neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh.
A blood drive, voter engagement event on gun safety and more additional commemorative service activities will also occur throughout the city on Oct. 30, Nov. 1 and Nov. 6.
A ceremony to remember all of the lives lost in the Tree of Life attack will be held Thursday night in Schenley Park.
