Robert E. Crimo III, the suspect who shot up a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing 6, went into a shul on Pesach with his motives unknown, a Chabad shliach says.
Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz said he recognized photos of the shooter and realized that he had seen the man before.
“During the last Passover holiday, that person entered the Chabad synagogue,” Rabbi Schanowitz told Israel National News. “We have an armed security guard sitting in front… I approached him and sternly asked him to leave as I noticed he was not a member of our community.”
Rabbi Schanowitz’s shul, located just two blocks from the site of the shooting, sheltered 4 Lubavitch bochurim who had been running a tefillin stand at the parade until shots rang out. He also visited the Highland Park Hospital to help and comfort the more than 30 people who had been non-fatally injured in the attack.
“There was chaos… there was an overload of unexpected trauma,” he told The Forward.
“I told them I was clergy and wished them all the best,” he said, adding that “most of the people I saw were not of the Jewish faith, there were a few who were… You have to do what you have to do. I thought I should at least make sure that there’s clergy on the premises.”
At least two Jews were killed in the shooting, with one of them identified as Jacki Sundheim, a school teacher and congregant at a nearby Reform synagogue.
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5 Responses
A Reform “synagogue” is not a synagogue. It’s the temple of a religion other than Judaism. Please list it as a Reform temple and not as a synagogue. Thank you.
This shows us how much we must thank Hashem every day. So many miracles happen to us daily without us noticing.
Who knows what this maniac was thinking when he went into shul? Who knows what would have happened without the shliach’s quick thinking?
In a chabad house, it takes lots of intuitiveness to decide if someone is a lost Jewish soul or a dangerous terrorist. Thankfully, Hashem helped the shliach make the right decision.
JaneDoe: A yid is murdered and your response to this tragedy is to kvetch about the reporter’s use of the term “synagogue”. What a disgusting response. Hopefully, others will show more sensitivity when you experience tragedy in your life.
WHAT A NES HE DID NOT OPEN FIRE THERE
not Gadol, Doe has as much right to her words, which are correct and as blasphemous as many other things, I just wonder now with his visit to Chabad and the two block radius that this miserable youth wanted to hurt Jews too……