Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victim Joyce Fienberg grew up in Toronto

A woman who grew up in Toronto and celebrated many of life’s milestones at the city’s oldest Jewish temple is being remembered as a “very special person.”

Joyce Fienberg, 75, was one of 11 people killed when authorities said a gunman expressing hatred of Jews opened fire on worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Fienberg spent most of her career as a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, retiring in 2008 from her job studying learning in the classroom and in museums.

But before that she was a member of the Holy Blossom Temple community in north Toronto, where a photo of her as a teen still adorns the temple’s “wall of honour.”

Deanna Levy, a spokeswoman for the temple, said the photo is of Fienberg when she was 16 years old.

“She has family members in our congregation and in Toronto. May her memory be for a blessing,” said Levy, adding that the temple had services Sunday morning.

“Right now we are just offering comfort to families…. We are just trying to stay strong.”

Fienberg and her husband moved to various cities in the U.S. and eventually settled in Pittsburgh where Stephen was Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University. He passed away in December 2016.

Fienberg spent most of her career at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center, retiring in 2008 from her job as a researcher looking at learning in the classroom and in museums. She worked on several projects including studying the practices of highly effective teachers.

“Joyce was a cherished friend for many in LRDC,” the organization said in a Facebook post. “For those who knew her in LRDC she was an engaging, elegant, and warm person.”

Dr. Gaea Leinhardt, who was Fienberg’s research partner for decades, said she is devastated by the murder of her colleague and friend.

“Joyce was a magnificent, generous, caring, and profoundly thoughtful human being,” she said.

Steve and Joyce had two sons; Anthony, who lives in Paris with his wife and five children, and Howard, who lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter. Joyce’s brother, Dr. Robert Libman and his wife live just north of Toronto.

Rabbi Yael Splansky, who has worked at Holy Blossom for 20 years, says she never knew Fienberg personally, although she wishes she had.

She says she’s “already hearing a lot of memories about her” from members of the congregation who knew her.

“I know there’s a whole generation of Holy Blossom members who grew up here with her, who went to school with her and celebrated her wedding day here at Holy Blossom,” Splansky said in an interview on Sunday.

Splansky said she first heard of the attack toward the end of her own Saturday morning service, which included a bar mitzvah and a wedding celebration.

“It was a typical, joyful Shabbat here,” Splansky said.

“We were concluding the service with our joyful closing song, when one of the guests of the bar mitzvah family actually, came up to me and whispered in my ear.”

The news “spread very quickly through the congregation,” Splansky said, and as the day unfolded it became apparent that one of the victims had ties to Toronto.

“None of us got much sleep last night,” she said, adding that it was confirmed Sunday morning that Fienberg was among the dead.

Splansky lamented what she called a “worrisome” rise in anti-Semitic sentiment, saying members of her own congregation have been targeted, particularly at high schools and university campuses.

However, she takes strength by looking at the Holy Blossom temple itself, built in 1938 – a time “when anti-Semitism was really raging in Toronto,” she said.

“For our ancestors to have built that with such pride – to say, ‘We are part of the Canadian landscape, and we are proud citizens of this country, and we will contribute to it and help to build it’ – that was real courage,” she said.

“We should take strength from them, from that earlier generation, that really saw the worst of what history can bring. And we can face our future with greater hope.”

The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and its advocacy partner the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) are planning a community wide vigil in honour of the victims of the horrific tragedy in Pittsburgh. The vigil is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. at Mel Lastman Square in North York to bring the community together in a “show of solidarity as we try to grapple with this unspeakable act of anti-semitism.”

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