Iranian refugee raises over $600,000 for Pittsburgh synagogue where shooting took place
Published October 29, 2018
Flowers sit at a makeshift memorial down the street from the site of the mass shooting at the Tree Of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 28, 2018. Shay Khatiri, a 29-year-old graduate student and Iranian refugee, has raised hundreds of thousands for the synagogue in the wake of the attack. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
(JTA) — A refugee from Iran has raised over $600,000 for the Pittsburgh synagogue where a gunman killed 11 people on Saturday.
On Sunday, Shay Khatiri, 29, started an online fundraiser to collect donations for the Tree of Life synagogue. As of Monday afternoon, he had raised over $640,000, far exceeding his expectations.
“I thought to myself, ‘Worst comes to worst, it will raise like $500.’ Which is better than nothing but it’s a little above that now,” he told WJLA.
Khatiri is a political refugee from Iran and a currently a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, according to WJLA. He identifies as a Deist.
He was inspired to raise money when seeing a Jewish friend’s reaction to the shooting.
“She told me what happened and she was just broken,” he told CNN. “Seeing how upset she was, I wanted to donate to the congregation.”
He says that seeing the donations come in has inspired him.
