Knightly News | Pittsburg Shooting

By Molly Voit

On Saturday, October 27th, a gunman armed with multiple weapons, including an AR-15 style rifle and three handguns, opened fire in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue. The shooter was shouting anti-Semitic slurs while disrupting the Bris taking place – the ceremony occuring eight days after a Jewish baby boy is born. The police were notified of an active shooter at 9:54 a.m. Upon arriving to the synagogue, police engaged with the shooter as he was attempting to flee the building. Two police officers and two SWAT officials were injured in this interaction, resulting in the suspect retreating back into the building, but surrendering soon afterwards. The suspect is now in custody at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to treat gun wounds possibly from the police officers or possibly himself. The suspect murdered 11 congregants and wounded six others, including four police officers in what the Anti-Defamation League has declared the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in contemporary US history. According to Scott W. Brady, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the shooter is being charged with 29 criminal counts consisting of hate crimes and the misuse of firearms. Following the other acts of violence this week, many responded to this event by calling for stricter gun laws or harsher punishment for gun violence. The shooting has also sparked responses from the interfaith community in support of America’s Jewish community, especially in Pittsburgh.

Leading up to the shooting, the shooter expressed far-right, anti-Semitic, anti-immigration, and white supremacist views on Gab (a Twitter-style social media platform with few restrictions on its content). It is therefore often used by many alt-right extremists who have been kicked off of more mainstream platforms. The shooter’s feed also included hateful messages against the Jewish non-profit organization HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) , that provides support to refugees and immigrants. The weekend prior to the shooting was the National Refugee Shabbat, a project initiated by HIAS, described on the organization’s website as an “opportunity to deepen our understanding of today’s global refugee crisis, connect with the Jewish movement for refugees, commit (or recommit) to taking action, and either celebrate your community’s achievements in working with refugees or launch new efforts.” Two and a half weeks before the National Refugee Shabbat, the shooter posted a link to HIAS’s page on Gab about the Shabbat project with the caption, “Why hello there HIAS! You like to bring in hostile invaders to dwell among us?” His attitude towards HIAS was also expressed in what he posted five minutes before the police were notified Saturday morning: “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 released a statement Saturday regarding the shooting; “There are no words to express how devastated we are by the events in Pittsburgh this morning. This loss is our loss, and our thoughts are with Tree of Life Congregation, our local partner Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS) of Pittsburgh, the city of Pittsburgh and all those affected by this senseless act of violence. As we try to process this horrifying tragedy, we pray that the American Jewish community and the country can find healing.”

Members of HIAS along with First Lady Melania Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli government officials, the European Union, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, American-Palestinian Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour, former President Barack Obama, and many others released statements condemning the shooting in the days following the attack. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, continued with his planned visit in Illinois because he did not want to let someone who is “sick and evil” change his schedule. Before boarding his plane to Illinois, Trump claimed that “If there was an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop him,” and that gun laws had “little to do” with the shooting. At the campaign rally in Illinois, Trump stated, “We must stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters to defeat anti-Semitism and vanquish the forces of hate. That’s what it is. Through the centuries, the Jews have endured terrible persecution. You know that. We have all read it. We have studied it.” He also spoke about the gunman, claiming that, “We have to bring back the death penalty. They have to pay the ultimate price. They have to pay the ultimate price. They can’t do this. They can’t do this to our country. We must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly, ‘Never again.’” In contrast, Barack Obama tweeted Saturday night about the shooting calling for stricter gun laws; “We grieve for the Americans murdered in Pittsburgh. All of us have to fight the rise of anti-Semitism and hateful rhetoric against those who look, love, or pray differently. And we have to stop making it so easy for those who want to harm the innocent to get their hands on a gun.”

The shooting has sparked an interfaith response in support of the Jewish community. For example, Linda Sarsour expressed solidarity by posting on Twitter, “I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit. ― Khalil Gibran.” In addition, interfaith vigils have been held around the country in support of the victims’ families, Pittsburgh, and the American Jewish community as a whole. Different congregations in Pennsylvania joined together in Pittsburgh’s Sixth Presbyterian Church Saturday for a vigil where the pastor, Reverend Vincent Kolb, stated that “it is in that spirit of neighborliness that we gather here tonight to be allies to our Jewish neighbors who have been victimized and traumatized by this tragedy.”

The Victims of the Attack

Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland, City of Pittsburgh

Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township

Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood Borough

Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

David Rosenthal, 54, (brother of Cecil), of Squirrel Hill

Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg

Sylvan Simon, 86, (husband of Bernice), of Wilkinsburg

Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington, City of Pittsburgh