Denver native in Pittsburgh recounts events last Shabbat

Saturday, Denver native Rebecca Tessler Pollack was at her in-laws home close to Tree of Life to help prepare Shabbat lunch instead of going to Poale Zedeck about a mile away. A neighbor frantically rushed over to tell the Orthodox family about the chaos beyond their doors. “I stood on a side street watching police cars, swat teams and emergency vehicles surround the synagogue,” says Pollack, who moved to Squirrel Hill from Denver five years ago. “I felt surreal. I was scared,” she says. “I couldn’t grasp that something like this could happen in such a small community where we all feel so safe.” Pollack, a therapist at an outpatient mental health clinic in Pittsburgh, lives a half a block away from her Orthodox shul […]