7 years later, acts of service keep the memory of synagogue shooting victims alive

At Beth Abraham Cemetery in the South Hills, volunteers spent Sunday morning raking leaves, shoveling soil and cleaning headstones.

Among them was 20-year-old Ben Richlin, a University of Pittsburgh neuroscience major who joined about two dozen of his Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity brothers for the annual cemetery cleanup. His grandfather passed in February, and as he looked across the rows of gravestones, he imagined what each one represented — a gathering of family and friends mourning someone they loved.

“These gravesites mean so much to a lot of people,” Mr. Richlin said. “It’s gratifying to be able to do something this personally valuable. Families will visit their relatives and see that it’s being kept up and that they are being honored like they should be.”

The cemetery cleanup was