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A Gunman Killed 11 People and Wounded 6 in a Pittsburgh Synagogue

AGBF

AGBF

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jan 26, 2003
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A gunman killed 11 people and wounded 6 others at a synagogue in Pittsburgh today. Four of the wounded were law enforcement officers who heroically ran towards the danger. It was definitely a hate crime as the gunman was shouting anti-semitic slogans as he fired. Later he was found to have a strong presence on the Internet as a violence-advocating anti-semite. I am including a link to the Southern Poverty Law Conference which tracks hate groups.

I hope you will join me in mourning and or supporting all the congregants and law enforcement officers who lost their lives or were wounded in this unspeakable act. My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch...illing-least-eight-people-and-wounding-others


AGBF
 
HI:

It is difficult to process this news. I am sad sad sad.:(2:cry2:

kind regards--Sharon
 
Too many crazy people. :(sad
 
Here is some footage from the candlelight vigil held in Pittsburgh tonight. A high school student named Cody Murphy (seen at the beginning of the video) was instrumental in putting the vigil together at a moment's notice.

 
stracci2000 said:
I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, so this hits home for me.
Another very sad day in our country.
Click to expand...

I remembered that, stracci. And I believe Matata and at least one other frequent poster also did. We had a discussion about places of origin once and it struck me that Pittsburgh was mentioned by three of you. I am so sorry.
 
Among the sadness today, I heard some inspiring things. I believe that something said by Mark Hetfield of The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), an organization of which I had never heard before today, may have been the most inspiring.

Apparently the gunman ranted about against HIAS and said he could not allow more Jews to enter the United States before he went on his killing spree. Mr. Hetfeld was observing the sabbath in his own temple and did not respond to the many people who attempted to reach him to tell him that a mass shooting was taking place in Pittsburgh and that the gunman was saying that the reason for his rampage was that he has to stop HIAS. (And when told about the gunman, Mr. Hetfeld had never heard of him. He said the shooter had not been "on (their) radar".)

When he was interviewed, Mr. Hetfield recounted the history of HIAS. It was, indeed, started in the nineteenth century to help Jews to escape the pogroms of Russia and other eastern European countries, but today it no longer needs to help Jews. The immigrants it helps come from many other parts of the globe. (I have now had occasion to do some research on this.)

What I found moving was Mr. Hetfield's brief speech about this. He said, "We used to welcome refugees because they were Jewish and now we welcome refugees because we are Jewish".

To hear his interview go to 3:10 on this YouTube video.

 
What a sad, depressing day this has been for me, as well as for all of humanity. I am practically speechless. I feel for the families, their world turned upside down. They got up, got dressed, and went to pray.
How can we be safe anywhere?
Thank you to the first responders. It was bad, but could have been even worse without those brave people. My heart aches.
 
AGBF said:
I remembered that, stracci. And I believe Matata and at least one other frequent poster also did. We had a discussion about places of origin once and it struck me that Pittsburgh was mentioned by three of you. I am so sorry.
Click to expand...

This is my hometown. My high school is right down the street from Tree of Life. My Elementary/Middle School is right down the street, in the opposite direction. Tree of Life is minutes from my childhood home. My husband & I lived around the corner from one another, in this quiet, beautiful & peaceful community. I have friends who still live there, and who still worship, there.
When I was in HS, I was an invited guest by friends, to attend Hebrew Classes at Tree of Life. I was welcomed with open arms & kisses on the cheek. I shook the hand of Rabbi Alvin Berkun (Ret.), and had a huge crush on his son, (Rabbi) Jon Berkun, who is now, in Florida. Jon & I stay in touch, and he was the first person I reached out to, this morning. His folks still live in his childhood home, one block from TOL, on Solway Street. I was relieved to learn that Rabbi stayed home with his wife, who was ill, this Saturday morning. Otherwise, he would have been there, at the time of the shooting.
So far, all of my friends have confirmed they are safe. Our little peaceful community has been rocked, but not broken.
Hate does not live here; evil invaded the beautiful place I call home.
We are tough. We are resilient. We will get through this, and we will have peace, once more.
Prayers have been up for all those who lost their lives, today, as well as their families, and all others who survived this attack.
I am devastated, and heartbroken.
#UnitedWeStand
#StandAgainstHate

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AGBF said:
A gunman killed 11 people and wounded 6 others at a synagogue in Pittsburgh today. Four of the wounded were law enforcement officers who heroically ran towards the danger. It was definitely a hate crime as the gunman was shouting anti-semitic slogans as he fired. Later he was found to have a strong presence on the Internet as a violence-advocating anti-semite. I am including a link to the Southern Poverty Law Conference which tracks hate groups.

I hope you will join me in mourning and or supporting all the congregants and law enforcement officers who lost their lives or were wounded in this unspeakable act. My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch...illing-least-eight-people-and-wounding-others


AGBF
Click to expand...

Vigil, tomorrow:
522DFC57-2B9A-4D48-BE4A-E2680F66D208.png
 
My family isn't Jewish, but the cantor for the synagogue in my hometown neighborhood graciously agreed to offer El Malei Rachamim at my father's memorial service two years ago. Its haunting plaintiveness is nigh universal. Some of you may remember this from the December 2012 Newton, CT prayer vigil (Rabbi Shaul Praver). How I wish that we, as a nation, had no reason for it again.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4757617/rabbi-shaul-praver-newton-ct-prayer-vigil
 
Matthews,

I am very sorry that you have been hit so hard by this national tragedy. Although I was aware that we had members with roots in Pittsburgh, I really did not expect that anyone from our little group here-least of all someone like you whom I have come to admire and feel fond of-would be personally hurt by the events in Pittsburgh today.

I have become used to the way you follow threads in Hangout, encouraging the best in people. I have come to think of you as a spiritual person even though you do not spout "spiritual" things. I don't know if you know it, but I always feel good about your presence in a thread. I feel as if you will always do the right thing.

So I feel you didn't deserve such a bad turn. (And I know bad things happen to good people so that I am talking nonsense.)

Hugs
(((Matthews)))
Deb
 
MollyMalone said:
My family isn't Jewish, but the cantor for the synagogue in my hometown neighborhood graciously agreed to offer El Malei Rachamim at my father's memorial service two years ago. Its haunting plaintiveness is nigh universal. Some of you may remember this from the December 2012 Newton, CT prayer vigil (Rabbi Shaul Praver). How I wish that we, as a nation, had no reason for it again.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4757617/rabbi-shaul-praver-newton-ct-prayer-vigil
Click to expand...

It's really beautiful, Molly. Did you accept the cantor's offer?

(Our fathers must have died at about the same time.)

Deb
 
AGBF said:
It's really beautiful, Molly. Did you accept the cantor's offer?
(Our fathers must have died at about the same time.)
Deb
Click to expand...
Oh yes. I was hopeful that he would do it as he knew my father well because he also was-is the Jewish chaplain for the hospice program that my father was greatly involved with for almost 20 years.

@Matthews1127 , how our hearts ache for you and all others whose world has been rocked by today's shooting in a deeply personal way.
 
AGBF said:
Matthews,

I am very sorry that you have been hit so hard by this national tragedy. Although I was aware that we had members with roots in Pittsburgh, I really did not expect that anyone from our little group here-least of all someone like you whom I have come to admire and feel fond of-would be personally hurt by the events in Pittsburgh today.

I have become used to the way you follow threads in Hangout, encouraging the best in people. I have come to think of you as a spiritual person even though you do not spout "spiritual" things. I don't know if you know it, but I always feel good about your presence in a thread. I feel as if you will always do the right thing.

So I feel you didn't deserve such a bad turn. (And I know bad things happen to good people so that I am talking nonsense.)

Hugs
(((Matthews)))
Deb
Click to expand...

@AGBF,

Your words warm my heart. I am very fond of you, as well, and I have a great deal of respect for everyone, here, in our group. This community really does bring out the fabulous in people. I’m so happy to call you all my friends, here, on PS.
I am a very spiritual person, not religious, but extremely spiritual. I accept people of all faiths, creeds, ethnicities, and have adopted some of their beliefs into my own. I believe everyone can learn from someone else, without compromising what they have already known or learned. I wish more people would try.
This tragedy is two-fold for me. The attack occurred in my old hometown, and was committed by a man who lived in my new back yard; his apt is located approx 10 min’s drive from where we currently live, in the South Hills Suburbs of the City. This crazed man was my neighbor, in an adjacent borough!!
What is happening to our world??? Schools, churches, synagogues, shopping malls, concerts.....the list goes on & on! What’s next?!? I shudder to think!!
Deb, you and so many others have made me feel at home, here. I’m so pleased to know that I have been a small light of pleasantness on PS. I believe in positivity, and building others. It’s important for people, here, to have some place to go to be happy, when the “real world” is crumbling around us.
This event will rock the Jewish Community from Pgh to Israel. I can only imagine what @diagem, and others are experiencing across the sea, watching this unfold. The desecration, disrespect, and hate that was unleashed, yesterday, within approx 20 minutes, was nothing short of brutal, and devastating. The senselessness of it all is mind-boggling. All we are left with is “WHY???”
Through all of my anguish, yesterday, I realize that I failed to acknowledge so many people who were heroes, yesterday; our first responders. The SWAT team, local police officers, county police officers, state police officers, EMT’s, Firefighters, and Medical Staff who were dispatched into harm’s way, and who were able to prevent this tragedy from being a total massacre. The lives they saved, their actions of running into open fire to get people out of that Synagogue, it’s all just so amazing! They did a fantastic job, and one of our own City cops took him down, and made the arrest, before he was taken to the hospital. So many acts of Valor & Heroism occurred, yesterday, in the face of pure evil. I’m so very proud.
These are truly trying times.
May God have mercy on us all. :cry2:
 
I've become dead inside, all this horrible hate. Pittsburg, a beautiful city.. to everyone and to our friends here on PS who are from Pittsburgh, I am so sorry.. to all us Americans who want a better America I say to you, I'm with you. We need a change.
 
MollyMalone said:
Oh yes. I was hopeful that he would do it as he knew my father well because he also was-is the Jewish chaplain for the hospice program that my father was greatly involved with for almost 20 years.

@Matthews1127 , how our hearts ache for you and all others whose world has been rocked by today's shooting in a deeply personal way.
Click to expand...

Thank you, @MollyMalone. I hope the world finds Peace. We need it now, more than ever.
 
@Matthews1127 , I am sending your hugs. Many of us feel your hurt and pain at the tragic event that took place yesterday, No family should ever have to feel this kind of pain. We all need to help and support each other.

Yesterday was a painful reminder of how life can change in a instant. Before I went to sleep last night I read an article about how courageous the police and emergency, swat team, emergency responder, doctors and nurses were and how they put their lives on line to help all those in the synagogue. All I could think of was what I used to tell my nieces and nephews when they were young and what I will continue to tell their children. When tragedies happen in our country, look for all the helpers. Anerica is full of wonderful helpers. Look at all the people who came out to support and hug each other last night for the vigil held for the victims. We have so many wonderful people in our country who try their best to help people in need and just help our communities. We all need to make efforts to help each other every day. The country needs to love and support each other.

We need to get back to the way our country was after 9/11. This division has to come to an end. This is not who we are as a country.
 
Matthews1127 said:
Our local coroner just released the names of the victims. Two families are planning funerals for 2: brothers & a husband/wife.
Click to expand...

I heard the names and ages of the dead read on television. I spoke about this with my daughter. I think this has been the most upsetting time in the whole incident for me. Somehow hearing the names and the relationships of the people to each other and their ages made it much, much more terrible than it had been-in my mind-yesterday.

What I thought of was how each of these elderly people had carefully taken care of himself, going to doctors' appointments, having painful surgeries, and reaching ages like 84 and 97 only to lose their hard-earned lives for nothing. I thought of how they faithfully, perhaps with difficulty, made it every Saturday to worship despite their ages and infirmities only to be gunned down for doing what they had probably done as dutiful members of the community throughout their long lives.

That he hit these elderly people, these people who had probably done so much good to others in their lives, just undid me. My daughter, who used to volunteer in a nursing home where she loved the elderly women, couldn't get over that one of the women killed was 97.

One news station, in attempting to show how other presidents have handled similar crises, played a video clip of President Obama after the 2015 murder of nine black members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015. Seeing him sing "Amazing Grace", one of my favorite hymns, a cappella was balm to my soul.
 
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