Four months after his city experienced the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, in which a gunman killed 11 congregants and wounded six during Saturday prayers at the Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto says city residents and the local Jewish community will not be broken, but warns a similar incident could happen again in the future.
Peduto spoke to Israel Hayom during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum. He was in Israel this week as part of a tour organized by the American Jewish Congress for mayors of cities from around the world.
"Pittsburgh's a very resilient city. It went through an economic collapse in the 1980s and the 1990s that was one of the greatest economic crashes in American history. It's been flooded in the 20th century. It burned to the ground in the 18th century. But it's always found a way to pick itself up and brush itself off.
"We're a town with a very big heart," he said. "We watch out for one another and we watch out for our neighbor, and that's what's going to get us through this."
Peduto said the issue of firearms in America and the war on ant-Semitism must be tackled simultaneously.
"We see acts of anti-Semitism increasing around this world," he said. "We have to recognize that it takes steps in order to get to the point, like Oct. 27 [the day of the Pittsburgh attack]. And if we don't address it proactively at the beginning, then we have the danger that it could repeat."
When asked whether America was still the safest place for Jews, Peduto replied, "Work to make it."
