During the week, anyone who wanted to get inside Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue had to ring the doorbell and be granted entry by staff because the front door was kept locked. Not so on Saturday — the Jewish Sabbath — when the building was open for worship.
A gunman who had expressed hatred of Jews exploited that vulnerability, so common in so many houses of worship across the country, in a singularly horrific way.
Armed with a rifle and three handguns, the shooter walked inside the synagogue during Saturday morning worship and began firing, killing 11 and wounding six before police took him into custody, officials said. The attacker traded gunfire with police and was shot multiple times but survived.
The man shouted “All Jews must die” when he stormed the synagogue, according to local media and authorities. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, according to the leader of the Anti-Defamation League.
Robert Bowers, 46, was charged late Saturday with 29 federal counts, including weapons offences and hate crimes. Law enforcement officials planned to discuss the massacre at a news conference Sunday morning.
Four police officers were among the wounded.
The country’s latest mass shooting drew condemnation and expressions of sympathy from politicians and religious leaders of all stripes. With U.S. midterm elections just over a week away, it also reignited a longstanding and bitter debate over guns. U.S. President Donald Trump said the outcome might have been different if the synagogue “had some kind of protection” from an armed guard, while Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, up for re-election, noted that once again “dangerous weapons are putting our citizens in harm’s way.”
Calling the shooting an “evil anti-Semitic attack,” Trump ordered flags at federal buildings throughout the U.S. to be flown at half-staff in respect for the victims. He said he planned to travel to Pittsburgh, but offered no details.
In the city, thousands gathered for a vigil Saturday night. Some blamed the slaughter on the nation’s political climate.
“When you spew hate speech, people act on it. Very simple. And this is the result. A lot of people dead. Senselessly,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light Congregation, which rents space at Tree of Life.
The shooting raised immediate alarm in Jewish communities around the country. Authorities in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and other cities sent extra patrols to synagogues and other houses of worship.
Little was known about Bowers, who apparently had no criminal record but who is believed to have expressed virulently anti-Semitic views on social media. Authorities said it appears he acted alone.
Worshippers “were brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith,” said Bob Jones, head of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, though he cautioned the shooter’s full motive was not yet known.
Scott Brady, the chief federal prosecutor in western Pennsylvania, pledged that “justice in this case will be swift and it will be severe.”
It wasn’t clear if Bowers had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
The gunman targeted a building that housed three separate congregations, all of which were conducting Sabbath services when the attack began just before 10 a.m. in the tree-lined residential neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, about 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and the hub of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
The synagogue door was unlocked on the Sabbath “because people are coming for services, and the bell would be ringing constantly. So they do not lock the door, and anybody can just walk in,” said Marilyn Honigsberg, administrative assistant for New Light. “And that’s what this man did.”
Zachary Weiss, 26, said his father, 60-year-old Stephen Weiss, was inside the synagogue but was unharmed. Weiss said his father told him that he and Tree of Life’s rabbi helped congregants take shelter and follow the active-shooter response training they’d received months earlier. Stephen Weiss made it out of the building and used a janitor’s cellphone to call his family at home.
The attack, his son vowed, “will not define our congregation and will not define our city.”
The killings come amid a rash of high-profile attacks in an increasingly divided country, including the series of pipe bombs mailed over the past week to prominent Democrats and former officials.
Michael Eisenberg, the immediate past president of the Tree of Life, said synagogue officials had not gotten any threats that he knew of before the shooting. But he said security was a concern, and the synagogue had started working to improve it.
“You know, you’re always worried that something would happen,” said Myron Snider, head of the cemetery committee for New Light. Snider just got out of the hospital on Thursday and missed Saturday’s service.
“But you never dream that it would happen like this,” Snider added. “Just never, ever.”
The social media platform Gab.com said the alleged shooter had a profile on its website, which is popular with far-right extremists. The company said the account was verified after the shooting and matched the name of the gunman.
A man with the same name posted on Gab before the shooting that “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
HIAS is a nonprofit group that helps refugees around the world find safety and freedom. The organization says it is guided by Jewish values and history.
Bowers also recently posted a photo of a collection of three semi-automatic handguns he titled “my glock family,” a reference to the firearms manufacturer. He also posted photos of bullet holes in person-sized targets at a firing range, touting the “amazing trigger” on a handgun he was offering for sale.
OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:
Nazi Animal Who Shot Up Pittsburgh Synagogue Yelled “ALL JEWS MUST DIE”
WATCH: Chabad Shliach To Pittsburgh Speaks Outside Of Scene Of Shabbos Morning Massacre
Every Shul Should Have An Armed Person – A Halachic Analysis
List Of Recent US Attacks In Which Jews Were Targeted
Jewish Organizations & Officials Issue Statements About Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
Police Boost Patrols At Synagogues After Pittsburgh Shooting
Misaskim Heading To Pittsburgh To Assist Local Chevra Kaddisha
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Shabbos was the yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, who said that Jews must arm themselves and foresaw a time when the U.S. would be anti-Jewish.
most are presumably still unaware what “event “was taking reportedly taking place
If correct indeed then are not our sympathies misplaced?
Kahane Was one of the leading Warriors against such people
I’m not sure at this moment in time I would invoke the musar of someone who was designated as a domestic terrorist by the U.S. government