_Squirrel Hill_ and being a Christian with Ethnic Jewish Heritage

                                Flyer advertising the event with author Mark Oppenheimer's event in Mobile, Alabama next week. 

  Brian and I will attend a lecture/ book signing with Mark Oppenheimer, the writer of the new book _Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue & the Soul of a Neighborhood_ next week. The event, hosted by the Mobile Jewish federation, will be in Mobile on Wednesday evening. Brian, the wonderful spouse that he is, is willing to go with me to hear this author -- a well-known Jewish person with deep roots in Pittsburgh speak to an interfaith crowd.. It will be healing for me-- a Christian woman with family roots in Jewish Pittsburgh--continue to heal from the horrible attack on Tree of Life Synagogue. 

 I am Christian and proud of my faith. But as a person who was raised interfaith {we had a diverse, fun-filled childhood and was not baptized until age 20, violence against any Jews is personal to me. The fact that this occurred in a neighborhood in Pittsburgh that I've walked more than once further connects me to this neighborhood & the people who live here. 

  As I am connected spiritually to the Central Gulf Coast Episcopalian Christians, I am connected by literal DNA to Squirrel Hill Jews. 

 Antisemitism is real, and I've had things said to me as a child that no one should hear. People are cruel-- and it has been my experience that adults utter antisemitic {as well as racial, and anti LGBTQ+} slurs. My schoolmates didn't give a second thought of my interfaith background. However, some of their parents were not kind. Growing up in a rural, working-class area where everyone went to church on Sunday, so we were the odd family. 

Growing up interfaith in Greater Pittsburgh was a mostly wonderful way to be a child. My brother and I learned about various special days that our mom celebrated as a child. We also learned at an early age that not everyone prays in the same way. Our parents wisely did not push either Judaism or {Roman Catholic} Christianity on us. 

 Again, I say that I am proudly Christian, and totally at home in The Episcopal Church. But I am also proud of my heritage-- especially since Jews are almost nonexistent outside of the Pittsburgh City Limits. 

 I cannot and shall not forget that some Americans hate people just for different ethnic/religious ways of life. Each and every American should NEVER FORGET that all of Abraham's Children need to learn to get along. 

Shalom...

Sarah McCarren 

1/20/22