Cemetery cleanup honors lives lost 4 years ago at Tree of Life

This article originally appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on October 24, 2022.

Emma Duhamel, coordinator with “Repair The World” clears debris from graves at Beth Abraham Cemetery in Pittsburgh Sunday during the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh (JCBA) cemetery cleanup in memory of Bernice and Sylvan Simon.

The annual series of volunteer events is called the 10.27 Commemorative Days of Service, and it’s meant to honor the 11 people who died and the six other wounded on Oct. 27, 2018 by reflecting the Jewish concept of “tikkun olam,” or repairing the world.

…The cleanup was coordinated by members of multiple Pittsburgh nonprofit organizations including the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association of Pittsburgh, Repair the World and the 10.27 Healing Partnership.

The cemetery cleanup fits in with Judaism’s tradition of service and doing acts of love and kindness, said Emma Duhamel, with Repair the World. “We have over 18 different service projects going on across the city in commemoration of the lives that were lost,” she said.

“We are beautifying this cemetery in order to honor those that we’ve lost in a way that’s little more direct than some of the other projects.”

The Days of Service commemorations will be held on Sundays through Nov. 6. Each event honors a different Jewish value: civic engagement, community care, environmental stewardship and honoring loved ones.

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