Jewish girls from a nearby Chabad orthodox school had walked to the Tree of Life Synagogue, prayer books in their hands and blue ribbons tied to their hair and wrists, to sing.
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The façade of the synagogue had been broadcast around the world. Etsy was accustomed to seeing it on a screen, until she and her classmates walked toward it Monday afternoon
“It’s moving right in front of us, and the names of all the people, and you just felt it in the air, it was tangible,” she said a few hours later from a meeting room at her school. Sisters Talia, 14, and Ayala Rosenthal, 17, joined her in an interview with USA TODAY. “I feel like by going back to the place and praying there and singing there, we just showed everyone that, you know, we can and will remain strong.”
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“I don’t want to be hated,” Talia said. She wore blue bows in each of her pony tails and a ribbon around her neck.“I know how it feels to be hated, and I don’t want that for other people.”
But outside her school, symptoms of hatred abounded. Three police SUVs stood sentry near the front entrance as students were dismissed. On a concrete path, someone had written “love and peace to you,” which felt like a plea rather than a guarantee.
‘I don’t want to be hated’: After Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Jewish girls bring song to Squirrel Hill