Pittsburgh synagogue shooting: Gunman kills 11 in ‘anti-Semitic’ attack
The suspected gunman responsible for a 20-minute rampage at a Pittsburgh synagogue shouted “all Jews must die” as he killed 11 people.
The Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, scene of America’s latest mass shooting this morning is a typical Jewish suburban synagogue, nestled on a street corner in the wealthy Squirrel Hill neighbourhood.
But the peace of Shabbat morning was destroyed when a gunman shouting “All Jews must die” ran in and opened fire for 20 minutes. At least 11 people were confirmed dead.
Services, including a baby-naming ceremony, had been under way for less than 30 minutes when the first reports of gunfire emerged.
The gunman, named as Robert Bowers and linked to neo-Nazi activity online, was hit in an exchange of fire with police and surrendered. He was not known to law enforcement authorities before the shooting and was reportedly armed with an AR-15 rifle and two handguns. Four officers were reported to be among six people wounded in the assault.
Bowers, 46, was quickly linked to a series of virulently anti-semitic posts on social media. Some of the posts blamed Jewish refugee groups for encouraging immigration and “bringing in invaders that kill our people”.
At a massive rally in southern Illinois, US President Donald Trump condemned the shooting as an “evil anti-Semitic attack.”
“This evil anti-semitic attack is an assault on humanity,’’ he said. “It will take all of us working together to extract the poison of anti-Semitism from our world. We must unite to conquer hate.” - President Donald Trump.
But he said cancelling his appearance would make “sick, demented people important.”
Bowers was not an admirer of Mr Trump and wrote in one social media post: “I did not vote for him nor have I owned, worn or even touched a Maga [Make American Great Again] hat.”
The suspect opened fire on a group of 40 to 50 people gathered on the main floor after he burst into the building. He then went downstairs and fired more shots at a smaller group before climbing to the third floor where a police SWAT team cornered him.
The attack, one of the deadliest against Jews in US history, devastated America’s Jewish community, which has been on edge over signs of increasing anti-semitism in public debate.
“Jews targeted on Shabbat morning at synagogue, a holy place of worship, is unconscionable,” said Jonathan Greenblatt the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent campaigner against anti-semitism. “Our hearts break for the victims.”
Rabbi Chuck Diamond, a former spiritual leader at Tree of Life, said he had never told his congregation what to do during an attack, but had begun to worry. “There’s a lot of anti-semitism out there and a lot of hate out there,” he said.
The attack occurred the day after the arrest of a Florida man known as an outspoken Trump supporter who is suspected of sending parcel bombs to prominent Democratic figures, including former President Barack Obama. Democrats accused Mr Trump of fanning extremism with careless language that has sometimes included hostile references to “globalists” — seen as a euphemism for Jews — and to the Jewish financier George Soros.
Social media accounts attributed to Bowers linked him to a far-right group of conspiracy theorists known as QAnon.
One social media profile of Bowers was removed shortly after the gunman was captured in a firefight with police. Before it vanished, however, it gave a horrific glimpse of a man steeped in anti-semitism and white supremacism who poured out his hatred in a vast stream of vitriol. A message posted hours before the attack stated: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
Bowers was described as an active poster on Gab, an alternative version of Twitter that is popular with white supremacists, white nationalists, members of alt-right groups and others who have been kicked off mainstream social media sites. Gab said after the shooting that it had backed up all Bowers’s data before closing his account and informing the FBI.
A social media post by Bowers on Saturday said the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society “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.”
Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania said in a statement that “these senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans. We must all pray and hope for no more loss of life.”
Wolf added, “We have been saying ‘this one is too many’ for far too long. Dangerous weapons are putting our citizens in harm’s way.”
The tragedy capped a violent and troubling week for a divided America. There was already a sense of a change in tone, a moment when the violent rhetoric of the Trump era had begun to spill over into violent action. Pittsburgh will do nothing to calm fears of the potential whirlwind to come.
“It is a very horrific crime scene. It’s one of the worst that I’ve seen and I’ve been on some plane crashes,” Wendell Hissrich, the Pittsburgh public safety director said.
The attack took place during a baby naming ceremony, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. It was unknown whether the baby was harmed.
The synagogue is located at the intersection of Wilkins and Shady avenues. The tree-lined residential neighbourhood of Squirrel Hill, about 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, is the hub of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
Until the suspect was taken into custody, the neighborhood and all synagogues in the city were in a lockdown, with people ordered to remain indoors.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was heartbroken by the Pittsburgh shooting, describing the attack as “horrendous anti-Semitic brutality”.
Mr Trump himself initially tweeted: “Looks like multiple fatalities. Beware of active shooter. God Bless All!” He later tweeted that the events “were far more devastating than thought”.
Watching the events unfolding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Law enforcement on the scene. People in Squirrel Hill area should remain sheltered. Looks like multiple fatalities. Beware of active shooter. God Bless All!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2018
Talking to reporters during a visit to Andrews air force base in Maryland, the president said: “It’s a terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country” and added that the attacks could have been prevented if the synagogue had its own security.
When asked whether gun legislation needed to be changed to prevent further shootings such as this, he said that “gun laws had little to do with it”.
“If there was an armed guard inside the temple that would have been able to stop him, maybe there would have been nobody killed except from him,” the president said.
“We can look at it two ways. But if they had somebody to protect people . . .
isn’t it a shame that we even have to speak that way?
“That we even have to think that way inside a temple . . . but certainly the results should have been better,’ he said.
When asked whether every place of worship should have armed security, Trump said: “I hate to think of it that way. It’s certainly an option.
“This world, this is a world with a lot of problems and it has been for many years, many many years, and you could say for many centuries but certainly you want protection and they didn’t have protection.
He also described mass shooters as “whackos” and said the death penalty should be applied.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder called the shooting “an attack not just on the Jewish community, but on America as a whole.”
Squirrel Hill is home to almost half of Pittsburgh’s Jewish population. The Tree of Life is a conservative synagogue, which means that it adheres to many religious traditions but also introduces more modern and egalitarian aspects of worship. Saturday services are the busiest time of the week, when families with children come together for the Sabbath.
Anti-semitic attacks rose 57 per cent in America in 2017, according to the Anti-Defamation League. America has long been seen as a refuge from the anti-semitic virus that has long infected Europe.
In British synagogues, every community has voluntary security on the door for Shabbat services. But in America it has historically been different. The Tree of Life had no formal security on the door, even after so many mass shootings.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue had warned in July that he feared more shootings unless the government acted on gun control.
In 2010, Tree of Life Congregation — founded more than 150 years ago — merged with Or L’Simcha to form Tree of Life Or L’Simcha. The synagogue is a fortress-like concrete building, its facade punctuated by rows of swirling, modernistic stained-glass windows illustrating the story of creation, the acceptance of God’s law, the “life cycle” and “how human-beings should care for the earth and one another,” according to its website. Among its treasures is a “Holocaust Torah,” rescued from Czechoslovakia. Its sanctuary can hold up to 1250 guests.
Michael Eisenberg, the immediate past president of the Tree of Life Synagogue, lives about a block from the building.
He was getting ready for services when he received a phone call from a member who works with Pittsburgh’s Emergency Services, saying he had been notified through scanner and other communications that there was an active shooter at their synagogue.
“I ran out of the house without changing and I saw the street blocked with police cars. It was a surreal scene. And someone yelled, ‘Get out of here.’ I realised it was a police officer along the side of the house. ... I am sure I know all of the people, all of the fatalities. I am just waiting to see,” Eisenberg said.
He said officials at the synagogue had not gotten any threats that he knew of prior to the shooting. The synagogue maintenance employees had recently checked all of the emergency exits and doors to make sure they were cleared and working. “I spoke to a maintenance person who was in the building and heard the shots. He was able to escape through one of the side exit doors we had made sure was functioning,” Eisenberg said.
Jeff Finkelstein of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh said local synagogues have done “lots of training on things like active shooters, and we’ve looked at hardening facilities as much as possible.” “This should not be happening, period,” he told reporters at the scene. “This should not be happening in a synagogue.”
Just three days before the shooting, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers posted a column on the congregation’s website, noting that people make time to attend funerals, but not for life’s happy occasions.
“There is a story told in the Talmud of a wedding procession and a funeral procession heading along parallel roads, with the roads intersecting,” Myers wrote on Wednesday. “The question asked is: when they meet at the fork, which procession goes first, funeral or wedding? The correct answer is wedding, as the joy of the couple takes precedence. In fact, the funeral procession is to move out of sight so that their joy is not lessened.” Myers ended his column with words that now seem all too prescient. “We value joy so much in Judaism that upon taking our leave from a funeral or a shiva house, the customary statement one makes (in Yiddish) is ‘nor oyf simches’ — only for s’machot,” Myers wrote. “While death is inevitable and a part of life, we still take our leave with the best possible blessing, to meet at joyous events. And so I say to you: nor oyf simches!”
The Sunday Times, AP
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
‘Hunted down and locked up’: PM condemns latest anti-Semitic attack
Anthony Albanese has condemned a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes which has culminated in the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives outside Sydney, declaring the perpetrators 'would not succeed' creating hate and division.