Adelaide Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky’s friend Daniel Leger among those injured in Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh

THE “dear friend” of an Adelaide Rabbi is among those fighting for life after an anti-Semitic gunman opened fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing 11 people and wounding six others.

THE “dear friend” of an Adelaide Rabbi is among those fighting for life after an anti-Semitic gunman opened fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing 11 people and wounding six others.

Beit Shalom Synagogue’s Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky, who worked in Pittsburgh for a decade before moving to Adelaide in 2006, said she is a close friend of father-of-two Daniel Leger, 70, who was critically injured in the attack on a Saturday morning service.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted a doctor at the UPMC Presbyterian who said Mr Leger — a nurse and a hospital chaplain — had been shot in the torso during 46-year-old Robert Bowers’ 20-minute rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue.

Rabbi Kaminsky led a synagogue 25km northwest of Pittsburgh, and had worshipped dozens of times at the Tree of Life synagogue in the prestigious suburb of Squirrel Hill.

“The last time I was in Pittsburgh in January 2016 (visiting) and I worshipped at the synagogue,” Rabbi Kaminsky said. “It has been quite personal for me.

Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky, of Hackney’s Beit Shalom Synagogue, is a close friend of Tree of Life shooting survivor Daniel Leger who remains in hospital in a critical condition.

“I think he (Dan) has had two surgeries that I have heard of, (he’s) lucky that American trauma surgeons are really skilled at working with gunshot wounds.

“He’s a very, very much loved person not just by me but other people.

“Squirrel Hill is a beautiful neighbourhood, and has a really close-knit community.”

An interfaith prayer vigil, in honour of the victims, was held at the Hackney Rd Beit Shalom Synagogue at Hackney on Sunday night.

Rabbi Kaminsky said the Tree of Life was a perfect target for a shooter because its doors were “wide open to welcome strangers”.

“I think at least in the Jewish community we have to start using the terminology of soft target … some synagogues have had to reflect upon how they can stop being soft targets,” she said, declining to comment whether local congregations were considering changing to their own security protocols.

A crowd gathers in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh for a memorial vigil for the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Picture: AP / Gene J. Puskar

“I really hope and pray we see sensible gun control coming in the US, until that happens, in the meantime, we need to build more accepting communities.”

She said there had been a resurgence in the past 10 years of critics identifying Jews as the cause of all the world’s problems.

But she said there was rising anger against not just Jews “but all people who do not fit into the mainstream”.

Officers secure the scene after multiple people were shot at the Tree of Life Congregation. Picture: Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

“I think we really need to be vigilant and make sure that this country, which is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world, doesn’t let that go, let that be gnawed away,” she said, citing disgraced Queensland Senator Fraser Anning’s “final solution” speech to Parliament.