After weeks of wrenching testimony, jurors delivered a guilty verdict June 16, 2023, for the gunman who killed 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 – the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. The next phase of the trial will focus on sentencing, and whether Robert Bowers should face the death penalty.
The name of the synagogue, Tree of Life, has almost become shorthand for the tragedy. Yet it highlights a symbol from the Bible that has transformed over time, coming to represent how the human and the divine relate through revelation. In Jewish Scripture and Jewish thought, the tree of life speaks to fundamental aspects of what it means to be human in the world.
