Eight men and three women were murdered yesterday by an anti-Semitic gunner during Shabbat services in the Etz Chayim synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On Sunday morning, Dr. Karl Williams, chief medical examiner of Allegheny County, said the 11 people were identified late Saturday and their next of kin notified.
He released the names of the victims of the shooting during a news conference:
Joyce Fienberg, 75
Richard Gottfried,65
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66
Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and his brother, David Rosenthal, 45
Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86
Daniel Stein, 71
Melvin Waxn, 88
Rose Malinger, 97
Irving Younger, 69
According to the Washington Post, a synagogue member, psychologist Arnold Freedman, 91, stayed home and did not attend the synagogue services on Shabbat morning, because a repairman was working in his basement. Shortly after the shooting had started, he began receiving urgent calls from his friends who were concerned about his well-being.
“Our climate in the country now is really troubled. You see these hate crimes, and anybody on either side of the spectrum, right or left, are going to blame the other. It’s terrible,” Freedman told the Post. “Unfortunately, there’s too many people like that, and they have too much access to guns.”