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Gov. Tom Wolf to bring Tree of Life mezuzah to Holocaust memorials in Lithuania and Poland

Gov. Tom Wolf asked Rabbi Jeffrey Myers how he could honor the 11 victims.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, center, shakes hands with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf in January.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, center, shakes hands with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf in January.Read moreMatt Rourke / AP
    by Marc Levy, The Associated Press
    Published 

HARRISBURG, Pa. — When Gov. Tom Wolf visits Holocaust memorials in Lithuania and Poland, he’ll carry the mezuzah that was outside the office door of Rabbi Jeffrey Myers when a gunman killed 11 people in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue last year.

Wolf said Friday that he called Myers ahead of his trip to the two countries, where he'll also visit Pennsylvania National Guard troops and meet with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

Wolf asked Myers how he could honor the synagogue shooting victims.

At Myers' suggestion, Wolf says he'll carry the ornate mezuzah and sign the victims' names in memorial books at the Paneriai Holocaust Memorial in Lithuania and at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp memorial in Poland.

The mezuzah is a case several inches long that holds a tiny scroll of verses from the Torah and is mounted in doorframes.