A Father’s Prayer: When the Tree of Life Synagogue Came Under Attack

On this episode of Our American Stories, on the morning of October 27, 2018, a quiet neighborhood in Pittsburgh turned into the scene of one of the deadliest attacks on a Jewish congregation in American history. Paul Kengor was driving with his wife when a text from their daughter appeared on his phone. She was hiding in a van just across the street from the Tree of Life Synagogue, where gunfire had erupted.

What followed was an hour of panic and helpless waiting as they tried to reach her. Eleven worshippers were killed, and dozens of lives were forever changed. Paul shares how faith and fear collided that day when his family came within moments of tragedy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
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and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot Com. There's some of our favorites.
In October of twenty eighteen, a tragedy struck a synagogue

(00:29):
in Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Paul Kangor's
daughters were nearly in the line of fire. Here he
is to recount that story.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Pray for us, I will call you later. That was
the text message that we received from our sixteen year
old daughter at ten sixteen am on Saturday morning, October
twenty seven, twenty eighteen, as my wife and I drove
toward Pittsburgh Strip District in downtown Pittsburgh, My wife called
my daughter immediately, Are you okay? Were you in an accident?

(01:06):
In a hush voice, My daughter explained that she, our
second daughter, and three friends, along with an adult friend
of ours, named Susie, were hiding in their van across
the street from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh's
Squirrel Hill section. They were there for a Saturday morning
retreat at a house across the street. They had arrived

(01:27):
at nine to fifty five am. They had initially stopped
the van directly across from the synagogue on Shady Avenue,
which would have been straight in the line of fire
between the police and the shooter.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
It's going to be a five eight ninety eight Broken's Avenue,
Tree of Life Synagogue, thirty four eighty U Coffee.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
They were planning to hop out and walk to the house. Mercifully,
the driver, Susie decided, almost on a whim, a gut feel.
She later conceded to find a parking so she could
walk the girls inside. Just as she moved to a
spot a little further away, police cars began flying in Okay,
initial reports of an active shooter one down in the

(02:13):
Tree of Life Synagogue. As a girl struggled to assess
the chaos, the police parked sideways in order to use
their vehicles as shields for the shootout. The street was
instantly closed off. Susie told the girls not to get out.
They all sat on the floor of the van, ducked
and listened and prayed and worried. We received that text

(02:37):
message about twenty minutes later, Shortly after, we talked to
our daughter, Susie, and the girls made a careful decision
to drive a little further away. Susie did a U
turn and went down the street just enough to pull
into a driveway that allowed them to put a few
houses and buildings of separation between them the synagogue and
the gunfire. After nearly an hour of chaos and confusion,

(03:00):
the girls decided to abandon the van and make a
run for it. One as we are paid down by gunfire.
He's firing out of the front of the building with
an automatic weapon. I can't get any clothes here, we're
under fire. They dashed across backyards and over fences to
meet a relative of Susie who lived down the street.

(03:22):
They could hear gunfire in the background. They met Susie's
relative in his getaway car. They escaped, They got free.
It was a scary day. It was also evil, an
act of evil against our beloved Jewish brothers and sisters

(03:43):
that a peaceful Saturday worship service. And while my loved
ones were okay, the same cannot be said of everyone
in that synagogue, eleven of which were murdered. I've since
returned to that spot about a half a dozen times
since last October twenty seventh. In fact, I'll be there
again this Saturday with the girls. It's never the same.

(04:04):
Each time I go, I pause the look of the
synagogue and say a prayer. I've since talked to other
parents who had dropped off their girls at the retreat
center that Saturday morning. One of them, a dad, marvels
of the conversation that he and his wife had had
that fateful morning. His wife typically dropped off his daughter
and then sat in the car and the drop off
lane at the Tree of Life Synagogue, where she waited

(04:26):
and worked on her laptop for a couple of hours.
On this morning, though, the dad, again another strange gut feel, Olvey,
decided that he wanted to drive his daughter to the
retreat center. He wasn't sure why, but he just tried
to convince his wife to stay at home. He prevailed
and talked her into it. She stayed at home for
some strange reason. They made that decision. Had they not,

(04:49):
his wife might have been one of the first ones
shot that morning.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
The suspect in the shooting is in custody. We have
multiple casualties inside the synagogue. We have three officers who
have been shot, and at this time we have no
more information because we are still clearing the building and
trying to figure out if the situation is safe, if
there are any more threats inside the building. So that's
all we have at this point.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
They were very lucky, so were we. My wife and I,
of course, are so grateful that our loved ones didn't
get caught in the crossfire. My kids had only one scrape,
one of the girls from hopping over a fence. And
yet I imagine that many of the families of the
eleven dead ask why God hadn't spared their loved ones.
I agree, that's one of those timeless questions that we

(05:34):
all ask. It's a question that believers of all stripes,
and the Jewish people in particular, have asked since liarly
the time of job. It's a mystery why some leave
this world in a violent way, seemingly prematurely, while others
seem to stay longer in this valley of tears, And
if and when certain people are protected and others are
or aren't. I have no answer there, though I know

(05:57):
that God is the author of life, and God wasn't
the one pulling the trigger in that synagogue. The evil
that transpired there was not an act of benevolence by
a loving God. I also feel confident in saying this,
the true Tree of Life is not an earthly one,
but an eternal one. This world, unlike the heavenly paradise

(06:17):
we seek, is full of sin and rot. The trees
in this world they decay and they die. Eternal life
and perfect bliss are not reachable in this world. They
come in the next. Now that might be small consolation,
I understand to the grieving and hurting loved ones of
the Tree of Life Synagogue, But honestly, I think it's

(06:38):
truly the best that we can say.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
And we've been listening to Paul Kinggor who teaches at
nearby Grove City College, and by the way, that's where
our own Robbie Davis went to college. And what a
story he told. Indeed, why do some leave this world
prematurely that the hens of a madman and a mass
murderer like this while others don't. And I don't think

(07:05):
Paul could have put it better, and I don't think
there's a better way to put it. It's a mystery.
And in the end, well we can't put ourselves in
God's in God's mind, and it's a mystery. Paul Kangor's story,
his family's story of a tragedy in Pennsylvania that still
lives with them today, and we'll live on with them forever.

(07:26):
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