Iranian Refugee Has Raised Over $1M for Tree of Life Synagogue Victims

Shay Khatir, a 29-year-old refugee from Iran with no direct connection to Pittsburgh, started a GoFundMe campaign for the victims of the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue that has now raised over a million dollars.

"I just wanted it to be helpful to the community and for the survivors and the victims," Khatir said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

After waking up at the home of a Jewish friend after a long night of Halloween parties, Khatir was shocked to hear about the shooting Saturday at Tree of Life that took the lives of 11 congregants and injured six others, including four police officers.

Khatir is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and had previously used GoFundMe to raise funds to cover summer internships. He was nevertheless surprised by how quickly his campaign for Tree of Life went viral. Since initiating the account, which is set up so that Khatir has no control over the money and the funds go directly to the congregation, he has been in contact with the president of the synagogue.

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