PITTSBURGH Susan Friedberg Kalson stood near the synagogue where a day earlier a co-worker of hers was killed and a family friend was badly injured. Tears welled in her eyes and words caught in her throat as she recounted the horror of it all. Then she saw a familiar face. This is a friend I need to hug for a second, she said, excusing herself.

Kalson, 59, and the friend, a woman about the same age, held each other. Just call me when you want to talk, the woman told Kalson. Just call me.

Thats the community, Kalson told HuffPost afterward. You literally cant go a block without seeing someone, and in many cases someone youve known all your life. Kalson grew up here, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. She raised a family here. She runs a health center here. She goes to temple here.

On Saturday, a white supremacist came here. He walked into the Tree of Life synagogue with a gun and massacred 11 people, committing the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. The attack has thrust Squirrel Hill in a very real sense Mr. Rogers neighborhood into national headlines. Progressive and tight-knit, picturesque and tree-lined, home to one of the largest and most iconic Jewish communities in the U.S., Squirrel Hill nevertheless wasnt immune to terror.