The sense of authenticity in HBO’s “The Pitt” — a medical drama starring Noah Wyle and set in a fictional Pittsburgh ER — comes in part from its frequent local references.

Frick Park. Giant Eagle. Primanti Bros. Zambelli Fireworks.

The first season of the show saw the medical staff of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, led by Wyle’s Dr. “Robby” Robinavitch, caring for the victims of a mass shooting. While the fictional massacre occurred at a music festival, the event brought to mind the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

But Episode 3 of Season 2, which premiered last week, dealt head-on with the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

The episode featured an elderly Russian woman named Yana Kovalenko (Irina Dubovna), coming to the ER for burns resulting from dropping a samovar on herself after being startled by the sound of July Fourth fireworks. As Robinavitch is treating her, she hears his last name and recognizes it as Jewish. She asks him where he goes to synagogue and he responds “Rodef Shalom.”

She then tells him she is a member of Tree of Life and explains that she was traumatized by the shooting.

“I was on my way inside, October 27th, 2018, to the synagogue, when the shooting started,” she says. “There’s nothing I could do. I went in after the police arrived. I felt I had to. I’m better now, but New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July, when kids have their fireworks and firecrackers … ”

While having the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting featured so prominently in a hit television show felt validating to some Jewish Pittsburghers, it felt somewhat confusing to others. And for some, it felt inaccurate.

“While I understand that the producers of any show use some artistic license in telling or retelling any story, I do think it is important to clarify that no victim, witness, or member of the public was ever taken back into the synagogue the day of the shooting,” Jason Lando, Pittsburgh’s acting police chief, told the Chronicle.

Lando, who attended Hebrew school at Tree of life as a youth, and who was incident commander the day of the shooting, nonetheless appreciated that “The Pitt” acknowledged the shooting.

“As a Pittsburgher and someone who has very close ties to the Tree of Life, I appreciated that the producers of ‘The Pitt’ took the time to acknowledge the most tragic event in our city’s history,” said Lando, whose grandfather was a regular at Tree of Life Shabbat services, but happened to stay home that day because he wasn’t feeling well. “I thought it was done in a respectful way, and reinforced that the Pittsburgh community will never forget that horrific day.”

The morning after the episode’s premiere, Maggie Feinstein, executive director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, began hearing from many community members, but “not because it was poorly done,” she said. “It was because for the people who know the events of 10/27 intimately, it feels confusing to have the reference in a fictional show.”

Other references in the episode to Tree of Life and the shooting include Robinavitch telling Kovalenko that he heard the synagogue is being rebuilt. She responds: “Yes, something new, ‘Remember, Rebuild, Renew,’ that’s their slogan,” referencing the Tree of Life’s rebuilding campaign’s actual former slogan.

In another scene, Kovalenko thanks Perlah (Amielynn Abellera), a hijab-wearing nurse, for the Muslim community’s support in helping fund the funerals after the shooting.

“That being such a significant event in the city of Pittsburgh, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity,” Wyle, who also wrote the episode and is executive producer of the show, told Variety.

“When I started researching it, the aspects of it that moved me the most were the community outcry afterward from the Muslim community and the solidarity with the Jewish community of Pittsburgh working together to grieve and mourn the loss,” Wyle said. “It was the most underreported aspect of the story, and perhaps the most hopeful moving forward.”

Following the shooting, Muslim organizations raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the victims of the shooting and their families.

On Oct. 27, 2018, an antisemitic gunman entered the Tree of Life building and murdered 11 people: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger. He seriously wounded six others, including four first responders. He was tried in the summer of 2023, found guilty and sentenced to death. He is appealing the sentence.

This article was originally published in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.