A light-filled atrium is featured in the new Tree of Life museum, education center and synagogue building, to be erected in Pittsburgh at the site of the Oct. 27, 2018 shooting that killed 11 worshippers, one of the “deadliest antisemitic attacks in American history,” said Michael Bernstein, the synagogue’s chairman of the board of directors. An exhibit at the University of Pittsburgh introduces information about the shooting, items gifted to Pittsburgh’s Jewish community in its aftermath, and an overview of the history of antisemitism in America.

The building will include an education center and museum on the grounds, and will continue to be the spiritual home of the synagogue’s congregation. Lead architect is the renowned Daniel Libeskind, who has designed Holocaust memorials and also the master plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site after 9/11. Libeskind has described the design theme as bringing light into darkness, tailored to the programmatic needs of the community. An outdoor memorial is being designed by a committee representing the nine families who lost loved ones in the synagogue shooting.