Eight years ago today in Pittsburgh, on the Shabbat morning of Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman walked into a synagogue and killed 11 Jews from three congregations as they prayed. 

In the aftermath, my colleague Noah Schoen and I created an oral history project that interviewed 105 Jewish and non-Jewish Pittsburghers about their life stories and reflections on the shooting, and a podcast to share their narratives more widely.

At a time when our society is fracturing across lines of difference, the stories we gathered offer wisdom for how relationships and solidarity can bring healing and bridge divides. Here are four lessons from our interviews.

Reach out to offer support

In the aftermath of the shooting, non-Jewish Pittsburghers reached out to Jewish friends, neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances with texts, phone calls and in-person expressions of comfort. 

Steve Weiss, a survivor of the shooting, talked about how his colleagues started asking him more about what it meant to him to be Jewish. Nina Butler, a lay leader in the community, recalled a quiet visit to Hillel Academy made by then-mayor Bill Peduto to let students know he had their........

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