Mass Shooting At Pittsburgh Synagogue

[PennySycamore]

@Themanda Duggar,  I am so very sorry for your loss.  Cecil and David Rosenthal sound like wonderful people.  

[Briefly]

3 hours ago, Themanda Duggar said:

The Rosenthal brothers who were killed were my childhood neighbors, their sister and mine were very close friends.  They were both developmentally disabled, and were very sweet.  Cecil, the older of the two, spent so much time in synagogue with elderly people, mostly Eastern European immigrants, that he spoke with a Yiddish accent, even though he’d been born and raised in Pittsburgh.  David, his younger brother, was fascinated with the police and fire departments, and spent lots of time at the neighborhood police and fire substation, where he was treated like one of the guys.  That substation is only a couple blocks away from Tree of Life, and I imagine it was officers from there who were the first ones on scene.  I can’t imagine how painful it would have been for those officers to find David.

These two are the only ones I knew personally, my parents knew a couple of the others, too, and one of them was a friend of my grandmother’s.

May their memories always be a blessing.

I would like to add my condolences and express my sorrow.

I am so afraid that things like this will keep happening, that it's just going go get worse.

[Jana814]

My friend’s mother is from Pittsburgh, most of her mother’s family is still their my friend’s parents were married at this temple. 

[Howl]

Condolences to all affected directly and indirectly by this horribleness. 

At least one person in the administration had something to say that wasn't a prepared statement, and didn't mince words

Quote

ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT — The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter who is accused of firing on citizens gathered to worship Saturday is “the poorest excuse for a man you could ever come up with,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday.

The shooting is tough “on all of us who believe in freedom of religion as one of our most fundamental rights that our country was founded on,” Mattis told reporters traveling with him to the Czech Republic.

“This individual — I won’t even call him a man — he’s the poorest excuse for a man you could ever come up with. Who would use a weapon in a house of worship, on unarmed innocent people and even shoot four policemen, then surrender himself,” Mattis said. “This is a coward. He is not a man by any definition that we use in the Department of Defense.”

 

 

[fraurosena]

Truth.

 

[lilwriter85]

I'm sorry about your former neighbors Themanda Duggar.

[Howl]

I don't know why I didn't think about this, but Jared and Ivanka are observant Jews.  That none of them are capable of offering comfort, guidance, leadership, compassion for this country is simply beyond shocking.  Yes, I said beyond shocking.  I keep thinking I'm beyond being shocked, but I'm not. 

[Audrey2]

I read yesterday that Squirrel Hill was the neighborhood Fred Rogers lived in. I was heartbroken- the man who taught gentleness and kindness, acceptance of people who looked different, sounded different, and worshipped differently than  you had his neighborhood desecrated by this piece of pond scum. Mr. Roger's wise words after 9/11 came back to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." Yes, my eyes are still leaking as I write this. @Themanda Duggar, I can't imagine what you and your community are going through, but please know others weep and mourn with you.

[GeoBQn]

Mike Pence must looooove rubbing salt into wounds.  Fuck him and everyone who thought this was a good idea.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/413108/mike-pence-gets-jews-for-jesus-rabbi-to-pray-for-pittsburgh-synagogue/

[Destiny]

@Themanda Duggar, I am so sorry for your and your community's loss. 

[KeshetParparNesicha]

18 hours ago, Howl said:

I don't know why I didn't think about this, but Jared and Ivanka are observant Jews.  That none of them are capable of offering comfort, guidance, leadership, compassion for this country is simply beyond shocking.  Yes, I said beyond shocking.  I keep thinking I'm beyond being shocked, but I'm not. 

Jared and Ivanka wrote Trump's original statement on the shooting, which I suspected as soon as I heard it - it was much too articulate to be a Trump Original. I'm grateful for that much, at least.

[candygirl200413]

And now they are all in the city where the mayor and other leaders did not want them to attend. That plus Pence's BS is really making me mad.

[PennySycamore]

@GeoBQn,  I was just coming to post that thing about Pence.  How fucking tone deaf do you have to be to pull such shit?  Jews may disagree with each other about many things, but they're all in agreement that Messianic "Jews" aren't Jews.

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

How fucking tone deaf do you have to be to pull such shit?  

Oh, I think he knew exactly how offensive it would be to the Jewish community but that the evangelical community would love it. 

[libgirl2]

On 10/27/2018 at 12:50 PM, Rachel333 said:

The shooter was anti-Trump (Trump wasn't racist enough for the shooter) so Trump is all over this one. He just said that the shooting wouldn't have happened if the synagogue had guns inside.

 

So now we have to have armed guards at houses of worship? Where do we stop? Schools, theaters, grocery stores...... anywhere is a target. 

[KeshetParparNesicha]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

Jews may disagree with each other about many things, but they're all in agreement that Messianic "Jews" aren't Jews.

AMEN.

[libgirl2]

On 10/27/2018 at 6:33 PM, Rachel333 said:

I'm reading that the shooter was particularly angered by the caravan and believed that Jewish people were behind it. You know, the caravan that Trump won't stop talking about and using to stoke fear.

You can't have hateful talk be part of the norm, targeting certain groups, advocating a reporter getting assaulted and not expect it to bleed out into society. People get emboldened especially the wahoos. 

On 10/28/2018 at 7:33 AM, GeoBQn said:

This has been a really difficult few days for me.  I am not connected to the Pittsburgh community (though I know people who are), but I work for a Jewish organization in my city and it was my job to keep putting out community wide e-mails about statements, updates, and info about our community vigil tonight.  It was gut-wrenching to watch my friends posting about their grief all day on Facebook, only to watch it start anew after sundown, when all of the Shabbat-observant Jews found out.

I was really close to throwing something into the wall when I read Trump's comments about armed guards, which many synagogues already have.  I was just on a Jewish mission trip to visit the community in Cuba, and for all of the challenges they face, the one thing they don't have to deal with is anti-semitism.  There are no armed guards in front of their buildings.

The shooter became enraged because of synagogues participating in World Refugee Shabbat, an event coordinated by Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS.  They began as an organization to help Jewish immigrants, but now they help immigrants and refugees of all origins.)  It was held the weekend of October 19th, the weekend we read the part of the Torah where G-d tells Abraham to leave his native land.  My husband and I went to the event at our synagogue, where we heard refugees in our area talk about their experiences.  A woman in the congregation is trying to form a "welcoming circle" for refugee families that are assigned to our city.

One of my friends e-mailed my organization asking if the vigil tonight is going to have police present.  While we haven't had any violence, an apartment complex in our area got spammed with Nazi flyers in mailboxes.  My friend says she doesn't want to go to the vigil if there won't be police there.

Didn't Trump tweet about that? 

On 10/28/2018 at 1:45 PM, Themanda Duggar said:

The Rosenthal brothers who were killed were my childhood neighbors, their sister and mine were very close friends.  They were both developmentally disabled, and were very sweet.  Cecil, the older of the two, spent so much time in synagogue with elderly people, mostly Eastern European immigrants, that he spoke with a Yiddish accent, even though he’d been born and raised in Pittsburgh.  David, his younger brother, was fascinated with the police and fire departments, and spent lots of time at the neighborhood police and fire substation, where he was treated like one of the guys.  That substation is only a couple blocks away from Tree of Life, and I imagine it was officers from there who were the first ones on scene.  I can’t imagine how painful it would have been for those officers to find David.

These two are the only ones I knew personally, my parents knew a couple of the others, too, and one of them was a friend of my grandmother’s.

May their memories always be a blessing.

I am so sorry. When I saw that on the news, my husband and I just shook our heads in sadness and discuss. Why should those two special and sweet men have been killed?

18 hours ago, GeoBQn said:

Mike Pence must looooove rubbing salt into wounds.  Fuck him and everyone who thought this was a good idea.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/413108/mike-pence-gets-jews-for-jesus-rabbi-to-pray-for-pittsburgh-synagogue/

I saw that today, a real slap in the face to the victims and their loved ones. 

[Briefly]

On 10/30/2018 at 3:34 PM, formergothardite said:

Oh, I think he knew exactly how offensive it would be to the Jewish community but that the evangelical community would love it. 

I think he is probably preparing for his own run later on.  He's despicable.

On 10/30/2018 at 3:47 PM, libgirl2 said:

So now we have to have armed guards at houses of worship? Where do we stop? Schools, theaters, grocery stores...... anywhere is a target. 

I have no problem with someone having a gun, obviously I want them to be trained and sane, etc.  But I don't think that they belong everywhere.  Houses of worship are one of those places where I would not be comfortable with them.

On 10/30/2018 at 2:23 PM, PennySycamore said:

@GeoBQn,  I was just coming to post that thing about Pence.  How fucking tone deaf do you have to be to pull such shit?  Jews may disagree with each other about many things, but they're all in agreement that Messianic "Jews" aren't Jews.

Pence doesn't care about any of that.  He's only interested in himself and his own interests.  He's playing to the extreme right crowd and he is disgusting. 

[Duggarite]

ThemandaDuggar so sorry for your loss. I am so sorry that this has happened. 

[front hugs > duggs]

On 10/30/2018 at 4:47 PM, libgirl2 said:

So now we have to have armed guards at houses of worship? Where do we stop? Schools, theaters, grocery stores...... anywhere is a target. 

I 100% agree with this sentiment. However, I have been to several synagogues in NYC, NJ, and South Florida, and armed police are unfortunately kind of standard for Shabbat/high holidays in my experience.  Even before this tragedy, I always appreciated it knowing how some people felt about us as a "people". 

[Jana814]

My temple has guards out for the high holy days. Everyone has to have a ticket and shoe it to the guard. I don’t know what they have on Shabbat because I don’t go to services that often. It wouldn’t surprise me if their will be a police officer this Saturday. 

[RidiculousFundies]

On 10/30/2018 at 10:47 PM, libgirl2 said:

So now we have to have armed guards at houses of worship? Where do we stop? Schools, theaters, grocery stores...... anywhere is a target. 

I am heartbroken for everyone involved in this story and send condolences from across the ocean.

We live in a country with an appalling crime rate and it's the norm here for almost all shops to have armed guards, our house has burglar bars on all windows, vicious dogs, alarms inside and outside the house and a CCTV system around my house. It's bad. But it's normal to us and it's sad that Trump thinks MORE guns are the solution to the US problems. Because it's not fun to live like that, especially at a place of worship

[smittykins]

Every time there's a school shooting, some gun nut will propose hiring armed veterans as security guards. 

[Themanda Duggar]

I live in Oregon now, and attended a service/vigil at our local synagogue.  Our police were out in force, and the standing room only crowd was well guarded.  The relief I felt in seeing the police presence makes me so sad.

I mentioned in my earlier post that David, the younger of the Rosenthal’s sons, had spent as much time as possible at our neighborhood police and fire substation.  One of my friends who attended Cecil’s and David’s funeral told me that it opened with the officers and firemen from that substation, in dress uniform and with their hats in their left hands, walking one by one to their caskets, saluting them, and then continuing on.  The final one was wearing a yarmulke.  This would have been such a thrill to David, and is a testament to the love and respect our whole community felt for these brothers.

I hope they always knew how loved they were.

I don’t know how to wrap my head around this at all.

[Briefly]

3 hours ago, Themanda Duggar said:

I live in Oregon now, and attended a service/vigil at our local synagogue.  Our police were out in force, and the standing room only crowd was well guarded.  The relief I felt in seeing the police presence makes me so sad.

I mentioned in my earlier post that David, the younger of the Rosenthal’s sons, had spent as much time as possible at our neighborhood police and fire substation.  One of my friends who attended Cecil’s and David’s funeral told me that it opened with the officers and firemen from that substation, in dress uniform and with their hats in their left hands, walking one by one to their caskets, saluting them, and then continuing on.  The final one was wearing a yarmulke.  This would have been such a thrill to David, and is a testament to the love and respect our whole community felt for these brothers.

I hope they always knew how loved they were.

I don’t know how to wrap my head around this at all.

That is such a beautiful thing for the officers and firemen to do.  I'm now in tears.

My daughter just texted me from the Day of the Dead observance in Tulsa to tell me that their is an altar of remembrance there for the Synagogue victims.  She hopes that it is not taken wrong, but that people realize that it is a tribute to the innocent people who lost their lives.

10 hours ago, front hugs > duggs said:

I 100% agree with this sentiment. However, I have been to several synagogues in NYC, NJ, and South Florida, and armed police are unfortunately kind of standard for Shabbat/high holidays in my experience.  Even before this tragedy, I always appreciated it knowing how some people felt about us as a "people". 

I had never thought about it from that point of view.  That does make very good sense.