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October 27th is a podcast that tells the story of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting through the voices of the local community.
Each episode introduces us to the story of a person who experienced the synagogue shooting and its aftermath: survivors and family members of those who were killed, Jewish community members, and their non-Jewish neighbors.
October 27th is adapted from Meanings of October 27th, an oral history project that interviewed over 100 Pittsburghers about their life stories and reflections on the shooting.
Visit the oral history archive: https://october27archive.org/oral-histories
Donate to support this project: https://bardian.bard.edu/register/meanings
I’m Noah Schoen, and I’m Aliza Becker and this is October 27th, a podcast about the October 27th, 2018 synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. Aliza and I co-founded an oral history project that recorded over 100 interviews with local Jews and non-Jews about their life stories and reflections on the shooting. Our interviewees taught us so much and we’ve created this podcast to share their insights with you. This is October 27th.
In Jewish tradition, the journey from death to burial is a sacred one—marked by ancient rituals and profound respect for the soul’s transition. Before the funeral, in tahara the body is washed and purified while prayers are recited. Then, in shmira, volunteers sit with the body, offering comfort to the soul by never leaving it alone. These practices reflect a core Jewish value called kvod hamet... honoring the dignity of the dead.
Rabbi Elisar Admon knows this work deeply. Originally from Israel, he spent years volunteering with ZAKA, a rescue and recovery organization that responds to terror attacks and other disasters. Even in the most painful and chaotic conditions, he made sure that Jewish burial practices were upheld. For Rabbi Admon, this work is an act of chesed shel emet—a true and selfless kindness.
After the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, Rabbi Admon guided the Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish burial society, as they prepared the bodies of the 11 victims for burial.
My name is Rabbi Elisar Admon. I'm here with my wife and six children. Grew up in Israel. Moved to Philadelphia, then South Carolina, and then Pittsburgh. Today I am here with my family and all other siblings, and my parents in Israel.
I grew up in Kiryat Ata, not so far from Haifa. I grew up in a nice family, great parents, with other four siblings. We play a lot outside. We spend a lot of time with friends.
All the house was about chesed, about kindness, about help other people, about look for others, what they need, and how can we support each other. It was wonderful life. Wonderful time that I really miss.
When I was twelve years old, my oldest brother die in the car accident. He was the oldest in my family. He's the first of the five, and I'm the youngest one.
So, I saw my father right before the funeral start, and I look at him. I wait for the tears, the cry. So he says, "Hashem natan, Hashem lakach. Yehi shem hashem mevorach," that God give and God take, but God is blessed forever.
So, the idea of a father that lost his child say that, “God, I blessed you by give me this gift for 23 years and now we decide to take this gift back.” It’s change all my life by the way that—we can cry, and we need to cry. but after all, we believe that whatever God do for us is all goodness. So, this actually change my thinking about faith.
And then I decide when I grew up, I will continue my brother’s legacy. So, I try my best to go after him by the way that he always help other people.
I decide to volunteer and became EMT in the Magen David Adom and also part of the ZAKA organization, because my brother he also was ambulance driver, so like it was in our blood.
And my father, his job in the IDF was called YAKAP, Yechidat Kevura Pikudit. His unit was in charge of bury soldiers. So, I grew up hearing about that, so I felt, “Listen, I think I can continue and deal with it also,” so I jump into...
After I joined Magen David Adom as ambulance driver, we realized that because of all the terrorist attacks, we already on the field take care about the injured people—so let's stay there and take care of the victims.
It was not easy. When you work as recovery, so you spend hours and hours and hours on the place. As EMT or ambulance driver, you can give the help, and you immediately drive to the hospital. Like you're done very fast. But as a recovery person, so like the Chevra Kadisha, you stay there, you collecting, you clean up after, and it's very emotional time. And you see a lot of things that usually you do not see.
Becker: How do you cope with that emotionally?
Admon: It's very hard to explain, but the simple answer we can say is that our mission as Jewish people to bury every single part of our bodies. I know that these people that died, and because they Jewish, they want to get this honor to be buried in the appropriate way. Therefore, we do our best to collect everything and to recover everything and bring this to the burial according to the Jewish tradition.
When you arrive on the scene, you automatically have to put the emotional on the side. We take a lot of breaks. We laughing a lot. We crying a lot. It's very hard. I cannot tell you that it's easy. But unfortunately, we have a lot of experience, especially in Israel, with all the terrorist attacks. But, of course, at this type of job you have to be very sensitive. Because, after all, you take care of body parts, something that we believe that the soul is still part of it. You know we have to show respect. We have to like take our time and do it very, very slow to make sure everything is collect. It's not so easy.
Becker: How would you describe this to someone who had no understanding of this tradition?
Admon: According to the Torah, the Bible the hadam hu hanefesh, the blood is the soul. The soul is a part of our body. Therefore, we have to bury the body in a respect way.
If somebody passed away and the body is in good condition, we wash the body, and we cover the body with tachrichim, a special cloth, white, and bury the body.
In the situation of a terrorist act or let's say car accident or somebody commit suicide, so it's not exactly the right shape, we do our best to bury everything, because we believe the soul is in each part of the body, We believe that when the Mashiach will come, all the people that died in the Jewish nation, they will come back. So, every person want to come back with a full body.
And one of the terrible pictures that I remember in my head was during Pesach. There was a big terrorist attack in the hotel in Netanya. And then Chol Hamoed they had another attack in Yerushalayim, and also another attack in Haifa in a restaurant.
This restaurant was owned by Jews and Arabs, and you could get whatever you want. Like if you’re a Jew you want to eat matzah because it's Pesach, Passover, you eat matzah. If you want to eat bread, you can eat bread. If you want wine, you get wine, but the smell of the restaurant was like the smell of matzah, bread, wine, and blood.
My team and me took care about a family that we start putting together. And we lay down them together next to each other. It was like father, mother, daughter, and son. All of them got killed by this terrorist attack. So, we respect them in the best way by putting together and say, alright at least you can be bury as a family.
When you going to a place like that and you see the bodies around—you think, “I could be there also. And thanks God I, I'm alive. I have a mission to do now.” And instead of stop and say, “Oh the life is terrible, people hate us, people try to kill us, it’s no reason to live.” We must stick with the living, the next generation is our hope.”
Almost every time after each event, like used to come home and automatically go to my kids' room and kiss them.
Becker: And what brought you to the United States?
Admon: In 2001, I start teaching in a school in Israel. After four years of teaching, we got a new principal, and he says “I think you're very good. You will like the idea of shelichut." So, I said, “What shelichut is?” So he said, “The Jewish Agency sends teachers all around the world to Jewish schools to help and bring the connection between Israel to the students.”
So, you know like, "America, I've never been America. You know, It's nice, sounds like okay maybe." I told my wife, and my wife she like, "No way. I'm not going to America like…”
Then another day, I ask her, "So, you know what, let's just try. Let's see how it's going." And we apply to the Jewish Agency, and with Hashem help, they found a principal from Philadelphia. We interviewed, he likes us, and we like him. And he say, "All right, come for one year with option, you know, for continue." "All right. One year,” you know I tell my wife. "You know, it's okay, it’s okay. One year, it'll be nice."
So we moved to Philadelphia. We really like it. The community was amazing. The work in the school was amazing.
I always believe that what the rabbis taught us many, many years ago, that, "Mikol melamdai hiskalti," I became smart from all my teachers. And the rabbi says that, "Mitalmidai yoter mikulam," that you get from your students more than from your teachers.
And I got involved in the community, in the synagogues, and I give classes in Hebrew. So, I realized that I giving more than I can give in Israel. My wife feel the same. So, we signed for another year and another year.
After five years, I felt, and my wife felt the same, that we still can give more. And I told her, "Listen, we will go back to Israel when I feel that done. So she said, "Alright, let's try to find different community.
.
We had request from school in Charleston, South Carolina for a couple. We drove there, and we liked the community. It was a very, very warm community. First moment that we arrived there like big family. And we realized, “Alright, this is our next place.
After three years, my oldest one almost reach 8th grade and I realize that for him I need a more religious school. So we look for more solid religious community.
Rabbi Weinberg is the head of Hillel Academy. And he said, "Listen, I have two positions for you." And we decide, okay, moving to Pittsburgh. And since then, we here.
Becker: Well, let's pivot to October 27th, 2018. Can you describe your day for me?
Admon: Okay. October 27, shabbos morning. I went to synagogue. It's called Shaare Torah on Murray Avenue. We had the bar mitzvah of one of my students. During the leyning, the kriyas haTorah, we start to hear sirens. And we always have sirens on Murray Avenue, it’s like very main street. But not so much. So, I went to the window, and I start to see like SWAT team car and undercover police cars, and horses and motorcycles and big trucks all said SWAT and the fire truck. I realize, it's not a normal law enforcement cars that we see here.
So we find by the janitor of the synagogue that was a shooting in the area of Tree of Life Synagogue. And then, as a community we start thinking what’s our obligation now. So, automatically we put ourselves on lockdown. We sent messengers to other two synagogues around us to tell them to be on lockdown and keep their place safe.
I remember one of the ladies came to the rabbi, and she says, "Rabbi, we have to do something. There was a shooting. We have to pray to Hashem." So he looks at her, he says, “Yeah, the best we can do is continue the service as usual."
Right before the kiddush I went to Rabbi Wasserman and I says, "Listen, we are Chevra Kadisha. And as the rumor says that some people got killed. And I assume if this happened in the synagogue, they are our people. We have to go there and introduce ourselves to the law enforcement and say, “How can we help?" He said, "No, no one let you to go in, and so…"
I remember these pictures from Israel. Like this is exactly a terrorist attack. So, what I’m doing a terrorist attack in Israel? "Listen Rav Wasserman, I'm going. I want you to come with me. You have better English. Come with me." Say, “Alright. We'll go together."
Now according to Jewish law, we cannot do anything on Shabbat with the bodies, So, I say, maybe I cannot go there and go inside to start collecting, but at least I can give some instructions on how to keep the bodies safe until after Shabbat.
On the way there, we between us talking like what we going to say and how we going to approach. Of course, they didn't let us go into the synagogue, but the officer ask us like "What do we need?" So we said, “We want to speak to the person in charge of the crime scene.” So, he says, "Alright.” He calls the FBI guy, Nick. And we told him the idea of honoring the victims. And he was looks like confused, because like they're still thinking about you know the shooter and like all the investigation.
So, I ask him about how many people died. “Are they inside or outside?" He said, "All of inside." So like, "One room? Big?" He's like, "Why do you ask all these questions?" I said, "Because if we need to collect and recover, I want to know how big is the scene. I want to make sure I have enough people on the team."
So, he realized by the questions that we have a mission. We are very serious about it, and we willing to work together and not like step on your toes. So he said, "You know what, I cannot let you go inside now—but come tonight."
I met with Rabbi Meyers of the Tree of Life. I get permission from him to go into the synagogue as a rabbi and start process of the recovery.
And then we got okay to walk in and walk through with Nick together. And he looked at me, I remember, if I know how to deal with this. But he realized that it's not my first time in this situation. I know how to dress, I know how to protect myself, where to walk, where to stand, what to step on, what not, asking the right questions. I make a map to myself about victims' locations. He checked us every single moment, and he realize we are very serious about our mission.
And so the first question we ask him “When do you think we can start to move the bodies, prepare for funerals?” So he says, "I don't know, maybe Monday, Tuesday." I said, "Listen, we really want to do it according to the Jewish law—fast as we can.
At 1:00 a.m. he called us, he said, "Listen, we ready to move the bodies, the victims." So we work with the medical examiners from one to five. And we didn’t do so much, because the medical examiners have their protocol. They have to photograph everything. It is specific way how to make sure every victim gets all the evidence before remove from the crime scene.
We laid out all the victims in one room. We had people, it’s called the shomrim, they sit in the medical examiner's and read tehillim until the last body released for the medical examiner.
I remember we gave a little bit of a hard time to the medical examiner people, because like they had blood on their body suits. So we asked them, “Don't throw it away—let me cut this piece with the blood. I want to bury it.” So, of course, they ask why, and they start asking questions. We explained to them.
So we had very deep conversation. I remember it was two ladies that work in there and they start crying. And I came to them, and I lower myself. And I says with tears, "It's okay to cry. We working together. I want to help you. “ And I start to share with them information about my experience from terrorist attacks in Israel and then they start to share experience, and we grieve in each other. Was very good to make the connection. I told them that we, the Jewish people in the community, really appreciate what they doing. And they took it very seriously. They realize we take care about each other—God will help us also.
Monday afternoon we got a phone call from Nick. He says, "Let's have a meeting, because I have good news for you." We came, and he says "Alright, tomorrow you can start clean up. Buy whatever you need, we working together."
And we decide, “Alright, let's go there tomorrow morning.” Now I had the issue that I cannot be there nine o-clock.” I say I have bris millah tomorrow, and I’m the mohel and I have to like perform the circumcision.
Alright, I finished the bris. And Nick see me, like, "Oh, how's the circumcision, the bris? And it was a very happiness time and you know was all the mix feelings. But was like "We are Jewish people—we never stop. We keep going, keep going,. So every ceremony like that, we happy about continuing the next generation." So, then he looked at me, he’s like, "How can you do it? How can you make the switch?”
I said, “Listen, this is not a circumcision only. It's more than that. It’s something that passing from whole generations for thousands of years. There's a covenant between us to God and is the first step of a Jewish baby boy to go into the Jewish life.” So, I said, “The same holy blood that I touch with my hand, the same hand going to touch now another type of holy blood of people that sacrifice themselves, and they died just because they’re Jews." So, I said, "'I felt it's a privilege. It’s a mission for me."
So he looked at me—is like both of us with tears in eyes. We hug each other. So, I said, "This is life. This is what keeps the Jewish people going and growing. We not stop. We have this cycle of life. We keep going and continue, continue, continue.”
His assistant called us, said, "We're done. And we walked through again, and then I brought my team. It was Tuesday night, we start. And we work around more than 24 hours, and we finished.
We had a very large team, both Chevra Kadisha, the Orthodox and the New Chevra Kadisha, it's called. We accept everyone. We said, "Whatever people feel comfortable with the work and do it, no problem." I divide them for men and women teams, just because it's very emotional and women feel very comfortable next to other women to cry and laugh, and the same about men. I forced them every thirty minutes, leave the crime scene, go to the side room, eat, talk about it, go back.
We switched between the men and women like every few hours to make sure another eyes, new eyes working through the crime scene to make sure it's clean. And there was a big challenge by dealing with the emotional and teach them how to deal with that. But all of us came as volunteers with the mission that we are one community and is the best honor that we can give our lovely people.
So, people take the day off, people didn't sleep in the night. It was crazy, but by the end, I look up, and I said, "God, thank you so much. We done.”
We have a great community, great people, great team that gather together in very short notice with no experience before, and did the same way people do it with a big experience in Israel after a terrorist attack.
I felt that God put me here in Pittsburgh as a shaliach to be here. And I feel blessed by being here at the right time.
Admon: Something changed, and we have to be prepared for that. So, first of all, I decide to go around and speak to local Chevra Kadisha and give a short training.
Automatically when I tell rabbis and communities, "Listen, let me give you a training.” "No, it's okay. If it happens, we will call. And it's not going to happen here. It's okay, like."
So whenever I go and visit friends and family, I tell the rabbis in advance, "Let me tell a story about Tree of Life.” So, this is my way, my mission, to try to have more professional people around just in case something happens.
Then I became a chaplain here in the Pittsburgh Police to give my experience to the officers by listening to them and use God‘s words from the Torah, from the Bible, so it helps each other. I'm not afraid of walking into the crime scene next to the officer. I say, Listen, "I know your job is to clean up. Let's do it together."
And then I closed the circle by became a chaplain in the State Police of Pennsylvania. You know, I am proud of myself of being involved with all these organizations. I am proud of myself that if something happens, chas v’shalom, we can answer, we can give the answers, If the community needs help, we have the right connections, and we can make the bridge and make sure everything is go well.
But I think that explain to the other religions why we so care about this process, The Tree of Life event opened the doors of them asking questions. And I think it's an opportunity for us.
I think it can bring more love and not hate. Because some people look at us as the Jewish people, like you are different. “You speaking different, you eat different, you are acting different." Yes, we are different, but it's not different that create hate. We try to explain the people what behind our tradition, behind our religion. Because like they really want to know. And it's make better connection. Make them understand that we are normal people. That we are more strict about this type of religious stuff, but we can sit together. We can talk. We can eat together. We can have parties together.
If God put me in the world and you in the world, we have to work together. We have to make this world better. We have to know how to deal with each other.
I think our mission as a Jewish people is to show the beauty about the Jewish people, to show the beautiful about our nation, to show how much we can give other people, how much you can give to the world and make the world better. And if each one of us is looking for other people, our life will be better, our world will be better, no matter Jewish or not Jewish. We support each other, we help each other and make us better people.
October 27th is written and hosted by Aliza Becker and Noah Schoen, and it’s produced and edited by Carly Rubin. We get administrative support from Tina Stanton Gonzalez of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. Our music is from Blue Dot Sessions and our closing theme is Tree of Life by Nefesh Mountain. If you want to support our work and the creation of more episodes like this one, you can make a donation at October27podcast.org where you’ll also find episode transcripts, a link to this full unedited interview, and more. That’s October27podcast.org. And lastly, thank you to all of the amazing Pittsburghers who shared their stories for the Meanings of October 27th Oral History Project. We’re so grateful for your trust and your generosity.