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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.
Aliza Becker: When I first met Monica Ruiz, I was immediately struck by her warmth and by how deeply she cared about the immigrants she served as executive director of Casa San Jose.
I was also impressed by how much she valued the dozens of Jewish volunteers who supported the center. They would remind her again and again that they would be there to help whenever needed —and that they would stay until she told them what to do.
After the October 27th synagogue shooting, Monica had the opportunity to return that support. She stood with her Jewish friends, just as they had stood with her.
Monica Ruiz: My name is Monica Ruiz, and I'm the executive director of Casa San José. We work primarily helping folks—recent immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America—and we do anything from teaching them how to ride the bus to helping them fill out forms to registering their children into school, and we also do a lot of advocacy.
The work that we do expands not only in Pittsburgh but in the region of Western Pennsylvania.
Becker: What was your relationship with your community growing up?
Ruiz: Well, initially, where I first grew up as a small child, We were the only family of color in the entire neighborhood. I went to a Catholic school, and I was the only non-white student in the school for a long, long time. But I never felt, I never felt like the “other.”
I think the Catholic Church has always been a place where I felt comfortable—just the nuns that worked there were just so genuinely caring, and I even thought I'd be a nun when I grew up. Right, so that’s how I saw that they would help so many people. And So, going to a Catholic school growing up gave me the foundation of who I am today and my morals and my values, and I carry that with me wherever I go.
And then, once we moved, things got different. You know we lived in a very diverse neighborhood—a lot of folks from the Middle East and umm Latinos. It was really amazing. And then I moved to Pittsburgh, and it was kind of like back to the old—when I was growing up, you know very predominantly white neighborhoods.
Here in Pittsburgh,it felt very lonely. When I first got here twelve years ago, there were so few Latinos, so few. I remember being very sad, because I missed hearing the language and seeing the people. You don't realize how much you miss it until you don't have it. And I remember there would be times where I'd be at the grocery store or something, and I'd hear somebody speaking Spanish and I'd run, I'd run over to the aisles to just say, “Hi,” because it was like something that really felt warm to me. And I was just at the store this weekend, and I heard somebody speaking Arabic and that, too, made me feel warm inside And I just looked to see who it was, just because those are sounds that, I guess, are comforting from growing up.
Becker: Can you talk about your connection to the Jewish community here?
Ruiz: Sure, when I first started organizing with Casa San José, You know one of the first folks that reached out was the Jewish community, and they haven't stopped
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I'm really very, very lucky to have made the connections that we have here.
And I always say that there are allies, and allies just say, "Hey, we're here when you need us. Just let us know if you ever need us." But the Jewish community said, "Hey, we're here when you need us, and we're going to stay right here until you tell us what to do. And remember, we're right here. Just tell us what to do." It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
Even after the shootings that just happened in El Paso. My first two emails were from Jewish allies. Just reaching out, some beautiful words, —some hope, and always, "We're ready for whatever you need."
I've been able to work alongside, break bread with, learn, you know, share.
It's greatly appreciated.
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one of the things that I remember the most, ah we were invited to like a dinner where —there was folks from the Jewish community and folks from the Latino community and then, I think, folks just from the larger community. And we started talking about the relationship and the ties and this whole sense of migration and what it means and how it's happened to many folks throughout the years and how the Jewish community has a strong sense of, “We all belong. We all belong. And we have been displaced people as well. And we have to start to come together and help one another.” And that's when I started to say, "Oh yeah, yeah, I knew that, but I didn't know it. And now I really see how this is all tied together."
Every time there's a tragedy that happens, they’re the first to reach out. You know and they're ready to mobilize, and they're ready to do something, they're ready to pray.
We had an action at the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. And you know I didn't really have to even ask them to do that. They felt a moral obligation to do it, and you don't see anybody else doing that. You don't.
You know, so, it's really beautiful. And as I said, you know even with the most recent shooting now, in El Paso, the wonderful words that they have said, and, again, a reminder of you know, “We're right here, whatever you need, we're right here.”
Becker: So let's move on to October 27th.
Ruiz: Sure. That day we were organizing some folks up in New Castle to register them to vote and help them get IDs. Many of them were Puerto Ricans that had just gotten here from Puerto Rico that were displaced because of the hurricane, and they didn't have IDs. And so part of the get out the vote initiative was to help them get their driver's licenses changed from Puerto Rico to here, and/or get a state ID.
And one of the people that I was with said, "Oh my gosh, there was a shooting in Pittsburgh." And then her husband called and said that it was in Squirrel Hill. So I looked at the time, and my son was in his Mandarin class in Squirrel Hill. And so I panicked. And then I said to myself, "Oh dear, so many of our volunteers are Jewish. So many. More than half of them are." And so I just started calling all of them immediately. And I didn't even have words to say when they answered the phone, but just the fact that they answered the phone was something that was—"Okay, I need to call the next person."
And it was just—it was surreal. It happened to us. It happened to us. We are now one of those cities that this has happened to and it was very tragic then, and it continues to happen, unfortunately, So very, very sad, very sad that someone could intentionally hurt people that have really been out to help others. Right, because he was upset about HIAS, and how they were helping refugees. And that's why he did that, because a Jewish organization was helping other people. It's really sad that this is the world that we live in.
Yeah, it was a very emotional day, and then, you know, then having to drive back. It's about an hour away. It felt like days just trying to get here just to try to be with the people that you love, because now our community was wounded.
Becker: What kinds of reactions did you hear from friends and family?
Ruiz: You don't believe that it could happen to you. And then it does, it does happen to you, because this happened to the Tree of Life, and it happened to Squirrel Hill, and it happened to Pittsburgh. And you feel it, you really feel it, because we're all one. And you know the way that the community came together afterwards even made you realize it even more. Unfortunately, it took such a tragic event for, for a lot of people to realize that.
Becker: What were the days after the shooting like for you?
Ruiz: I got a call from someone at Jewish Family and Community Services. They were looking for therapists. And umm in a former life I was in that field, and so immediately I started calling people who were therapists, and of course, of course they were ready to help. So, we were able to send folks that way.
Then, I felt like how they had felt this whole time, where I was just waiting for them to tell me to do something, you know, like, "I'm right here, I'm right here. Just tell me what to do, tell me how you want to do it." And then umm, when they had the march and the rally, a few days later, they did ask for my help, and I was more than willing to do anything that they asked at that point.
That night there was a vigil, and we were all there, and it was just incredible, even in that crowd, to see people just in the streets, mourning.
I was there, my family was there, members from the community were there, the staff was there. There were so many people there, so many people.
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I think it was raining, and it didn't matter. People were out there. You just felt a sense of togetherness. Like, at that point there was really nothing we could do, right, but be there for one another, offering hugs, offering a shoulder, offering a tissue, offering whatever that we could at that moment for one another. Ah, it was beautiful.
And then the march and rally that we had a few days later—there were so many people, so many people. It was unbelievable.
Again, it's sad that a tragedy has to occur for you to see so much unity, but I just remember marching alongside I think it was Eleanor and her kids, and her kids—I had my arms around both of her kids the majority of the march, because they just wanted that, I wanted to give it to them. And it was, you know again, another moment of just feeling here with you, "I'm right next to you. Whatever you need from me that I can provide, I will, but for now, if you don't need anything, I'm still right here.
Becker: Have these events had an impact on your relationship with Jews?
Ruiz: Only that they get stronger, only that they get stronger. And it's so unfortunate. I feel like we have to continue to stare these ugly things in the face. And having others around you doesn't really make it easier, but, I guess, just knowing that you're not doing it alone just helps you confront it, because I know it's not the last time it's going to happen, you know? Unfortunately it's not, it's going to continue to happen. And I couldn't imagine facing it alone.
It's in your face. This isn't something that is something that's happening in a different city or a different country or in a different time. It's happening today, right now, here. It's literally in our backyard.
Becker: Do you see connections between October 27th and other events?
Ruiz: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'll just talk about El Paso. The person who committed the shootings in El Paso isn't from El Paso, he's from Dallas. But he purposely went to the Walmart in El Paso because he wanted to shoot immigrants. When you have the President, just a week ago joking about shooting immigrants, that's what you get.
We go to October 27th. The rhetoric at that point was, “The refugees, the refugees, the immigrants, they're all bad, we have to get them out.” And then you've got a Jewish community helping people resettle. That's what fueled that. There's a definite connection, definite connection, because if not, these folks wouldn't be doing this. Why have these hate crimes increased so much in the last several years? There's a reason why that has happened. It's not because there's more people suffering from mental illness. It's not. I know a lot of people that suffer from mental illness, and they're not shooting people.
Racism didn't start at the election. That's something that's been happening all through time. But what happened at that election is that now it's okay to do it. Because guns are bad when they're in the wrong hands, and people's obscured thoughts of other people in a negative fashion are bad as well. And when you combine the two things together— that's the recipe for disaster, and that's what happens. And when you've got you know the leader of a country that's constantly saying things to fuel that anger and that fear in people—this is the result of that. That's how we got here.
We have to change the narrative. We have to change the narrative. Because if not, people are going to continue to hear these negative things, and it's going to fuel their hate, their fear of the immigrants taking over, their fear of the Jewish community, the hate.
Becker: And what is the narrative we should be providing?
Ruiz: Positive messages of togetherness. We need to focus on that, because this divide, because you are Brown, because you are Black, because you are Jewish, because you were born here—that is what doesn't let us come together and love one another.
And it's really hard to see beyond what you see on the news and say, "That person has a different religious belief than I do, that person was born in a different country than I was, but I need to unite with that person, because that person isn't the bad person. That immigrant isn't here stealing my job.” Right. "I am living in poverty, but it's not that immigrant's fault."
It's much easier to think, "No, no, no. That immigrant is taking my job," than to see for the larger picture. So really educating one another, embracing one another.
And everybody has their own biases, whether you know it or not, and until you've come to the realization of what they are, you're not going to change.
I took a class, and they said, "Well, everybody has a bias". And I'm like, "I dunno. I'm a social worker. I love everyone, whatever." And so I started thinking, and at some point I said, "Ah, I've got it.” I could not understand, and so therefore could not have a conversation with folks that were atheist. In my mind, I thought, "We've got to believe in something," right? "We're not so grand that we just got here on our own." But that's my thinking. And until I started to realize that my thinking was way over here, is when I started to turn myself around and learn more and want to be a part of learning and growing with other people. So, we all have them.
We're not going to get out of this place by just sitting here and saying, “Ah, that's my neighbor's problem.” No, no, no. It's all of our problems now. We all have to work together if we want to change the way that things have been happening.
There are laws that have been put in place to oppress people, not only in this country, but in other countries. And until we understand that and start to work together, we're not gonna, we’re not gonna make a change.
We can't allow ourselves to be divided, because then we don't win. And we have to make conscious efforts to interact with other people and genuinely caring for one another.
You know now everybody is on their phone. The other day I had to take the trolley downtown for a meeting, and I didn't make eye contact with anyone. Not one person, because everybody's with their face down in their hands. I don't like this world, you know? I still like to pick up the phone and call people and hear their voice, and I like to talk to people. You know I really hope that that doesn't get lost.
Becker: How do you want October 27th to be remembered?
Ruiz: Oh, man. It was a tragedy. But I also feel like it was the beginning of something here in Pittsburgh.
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It was the beginning of something here in Pittsburgh, something where the narrative started to change. People really came together across all of the lines that you could think of. People even crossed bridges and tunnels to get there, which is something that you know here in Pittsburgh we don't do. I felt like a Pittsburgher that day. I had never felt like a Pittsburgher before. I had been here eleven years? Yeah. And I just always felt like this outsider here, but that day I felt like a Pittsburgher, I was proud to be a Pittsburgher, and I vowed to do something to make this better.
Noah Schoen: 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.