Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who helped lead Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life congregation through the tragic 2018 mass shooting, will retire at the end of July.
Myers, 70, announced his retirement earlier this year.
Over the weekend, Myers said he began downsizing the collection of materials he’s amassed during four decades in religious services.
“I found original mimeographs, four-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disks and a DOS handbook,” Myers wrote on his Tree of Life blog. “I’m rather pleased that I was able to shrink my possessions down from 150 boxes to 60.”
Myers began serving as rabbi and cantor at Tree of Life in 2017, and was leading a 2018 prayer service when convicted gunman Robert Bowers opened fire in the Squirrel Hill synagogue, killing 11 people.
He said that while he has seen a lot of change over the years, certain things remain the same.
“Worshipers continue to look for a meaningful service and a thoughtful sermon,” he wrote “Celebrating a simcha and mourning a loss have not changed. This has been the calling of a lifetime and my privilege to do so.”