Families of victims of Pittsburgh Tree of Life shooting will receive $3m.
About $5.45 million were raised from individual donors following the attack and sent directly to the Tree of Life congregation.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPOLICE TAPE (Illustrative)(photo credit: REUTERS)
Families of victims who were killed or seriously injured in the Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue shooting in October 2018 will receive over $3 million from donations, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.About $5.45 million were raised from individual donors following the attack and sent directly to the Tree of Life congregation. After months of research, an independent committee, created by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh last August, established how to distribute the funds.An “important step in the process of honoring the intent of donors was to review all the contributions to determine how the individual donor intended the funds to be used. The Committee said it respected this information where it was available and took great care to understand and honor donor intent when such information could be established,” explained the committee in a statement.“No amount of money can fully compensate for loss of life, serious wounds and congregational damage,” the committee added, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But it recommended the majority of the donations go to those who were most directly affected.The committee established that the larger share, over $3 million, will go to the families of those killed and seriously injured, that over $200,000 will go to individuals who were trapped in the building and survived without major injury, and that more than $23,000 will go to those who were outside on the building’s premises during the attack.The Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha Congregation is set to receive nearly $1.3 million for rebuilding. Congregation Dor Hadash and New Light Congregation, the two other congregations in the building, will each receive $240,000.Another $200,000 will be donated in honor of the first responders, added the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.“Tree of Life, together with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, who also lost cherished congregants in this attack, have been the recipients of so much love, goodwill and support, and for that we are grateful,” said Sam Schachner, president of the Tree of Life Congregation.“We will forever keep in our hearts the memories of those who were lost and those who continue to grieve and suffer. We also recognize the goodness of so many from around the world who cared enough to help remind us what we lost and why we remember,” he added.
