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Edelman’s cleats pay tribute to Pittsburgh victims

Julian Edelman wore special cleats for the Patriots' Dec. 16 game agains the Steelers.

Julian Edelman wore special cleats for the Patriots’ Dec. 16 game agains the Steelers.

PITTSBURGH — New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman wore special cleats in honor of the victims of the shooting attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

As he showed in a tweet, Edelman’s cleats bore the words “In memory of The Tree of Life” written in Hebrew, the logo of the Tree of Life Or L’Simcha Congregation — the synagogue targeted in the mass shooting in October — and an Israeli flag, with the hashtag #strongerthanhate.

His tweet also listed in alphabetical order the 11 victims of the Oct. 27 attack.

The cleats were sponsored by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston.

Edelman’s father is Jewish and he has come out in support of the Jewish community in the past.

“My heart is broken for the families in Pittsburgh,” Edelman tweeted in October following the shooting.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft travelled to Pittsburgh ahead of his team’s game against the Steelers to visit the Tree of Life synagogue building and attend Shabbat services.

On Dec. 15, Kraft visited the building in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

After Kraft paid his respects at the site, he attended services at the nearby Rodef Shalom synagogue, where he was invited to speak. He told the congregation that as big as the Steelers-Patriots game is, attending services with Jews in Pittsburgh was even bigger to him, Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL Network reported.

She added that he spoke some Hebrew in his address.

The Steelers snapped a three-game losing streak and beat their division rivals on Sunday in Pittsburgh by a score of 17-10.



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