The FBI typically would not headquarter its mass casualty victim support services in a building like the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.
Typically, the FBI looks for an isolated, hard-to-find building that’s easy to secure and closed to the public as the site for its family assistance centers, where the agency helps witnesses, survivors and families of victims get information and services after a tragedy.
The JCC, an anchor of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community located just a few blocks from the mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, didn’t fit with the FBI’s usual approach.
But the community wanted to be there, said Rebecca Elam, a victim specialist with the FBI’s victim services division.
“At the end of the day we meet the needs of the victims,” she said Tuesday at the JCC. “And the victims wanted to have it here because this is the heartbeat of the community; this is where they felt safe.”
Ms. Elam and others with the FBI set up a family assistance center in the JCC within hours of the Oct. 27 attack at Tree of Life synagogue, which killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others, including four police officers.
The JCC went on to fulfill a critical role after the attack, from coordinating vigils to hosting a funeral to offering help to people processing the trauma. On Tuesday, local Jewish leaders and members of the FBI met with representatives from Jewish community centers across the United States to discuss how they handled the Tree of Life shooting and what other Jewish communities could do to prepare for a similar attack.
Nearly every local leader who spoke stressed the importance of maintaining good relationships with local officials before a crisis happens.
“You cannot build relationships on the ground in a crisis if you don't already have them,” said Brian Schreiber, CEO of the Jewish Community Center. He stressed that the center had very little time to prepare for the influx of people after the shooting, and said having a plan already in place was key.
Jeff Finkelstein, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, encouraged those in the room to hire security directors for their synagogues and schools. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh hired a former FBI agent Bradley Orsini as their security director in 2017; Mr. Finkelstein said Mr. Orsini’s active shooter training saved lives during the massacre.
“People who were in the synagogue said because they went to the training, they knew to hide,” he said.
He also suggested that community centers designate one person to deal with people who want to help after an incident — in particular, those the FBI calls “spontaneous helpers,” or people who aren’t affiliated with a relief organization. Dealing with those people was challenging although they had good intentions, he said.
Jordan Golin, CEO of the Jewish Family and Community Service, said a food pantry run by the organization received two suspicious packages during the week after the shooting. The Pittsburgh police bomb squad responded and found nothing hazardous, police said Tuesday.
“These were apparently not unexpected,” Mr. Golin said, and warned attendees to look for such “copycat” attacks after a major incident.
Mr. Golin and the other speakers also emphasized how personal the attack felt, even as they dealt with it professionally.
“These were our friends, our neighbors, our family we were worried about as we were trying to figure out how to meet the needs of the community,” Mr. Golin said.
Shelly Bradbury: 412-263-1999, sbradbury@post-gazette.com or follow @ShellyBradbury on Twitter.
First Published: November 13, 2018, 10:13 p.m.
