Grieving city gives Trump a roasting
Pittsburgh’s Jewish community began burying its dead yesterday after the synagogue massacre, holding funerals for a beloved family doctor, a pillar of the congregation, and two 50-something brothers known as the Rosenthal ‘‘boys’’.
US President Donald Trump arrived in Pittsburgh to pay his respects and encountered hundreds of shouting, chanting protesters with signs such as ‘‘It’s your fault’’ and ‘‘Words matter’’, a reference to allegations his bellicose language has emboldened bigots.
Pennsylvania’s governor and the mayor of Pittsburgh declined to join him during the visit.
Earlier in the day, thousands of mourners jammed a synagogue, a Jewish community centre and a third, undisclosed location for the first in a week-long series of funerals for victims of the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history.
Dr Jerry Rabinowitz, Daniel Stein, and Cecil and David Rosenthal were among 11 people killed in the shooting rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue on Sunday. Robert Gregory Bowers, a 46-year-old truck driver who authorities say raged against Jews, was arrested on federal hate crime charges that could bring the death penalty.
With Tree of Life still cordoned off as a crime scene, more than 1000 people poured into Rodef Shalom, one of the city’s oldest and largest synagogues, to mourn the Rosenthal brothers, aged 59 and 54. The two intellectually disabled men were ‘‘beautiful souls’’ who had ‘‘not an ounce of hate in them – something we’re terribly missing today’’, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, a survivor of the massacre, said at their funeral.
Rabinowitz’s funeral was held at the Jewish Community Centre in the city’s Squirrel Hill section, the historic Jewish neighbourhood where the rampage took place. A private funeral was held for Stein, the 71-year-old men’s club president at Tree of Life.
The other victims’ funerals have been scheduled through until Saturday.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump landed in Pittsburgh after the day’s services and lit candles at the Tree of Life for the victims. Outside, they laid white roses as well as stones for each of the dead, a Jewish burial tradition. They lady later went to a hospital to visit survivors.
Hundreds of protesters gathered near the synagogue and the hospital.
‘‘He didn’t pull the trigger, but his verbiage and actions don’t help,’’ said Squirrel Hill resident Paul Carberry, 55, wearing anti-Trump patches on his hat and jacket.
Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto had asked Trump not to come while the city was burying its dead. He and Gov. Tom Wolf, a fellow Democrat, said they would skip the president’s visit.
Meanwhile, former vice-president Joe Biden condemned the surge in hatefuelled violence in recent days at a midterm election campaign rally in Wisconsin. The Democrat said ‘‘words matter’’ as he condemned Trump’s rhetoric against the media and his political adversaries.
‘‘I am sick and tired of this administration,’’ Biden said. ‘‘I am sick and tired of what’s going on. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I hope you are, too.’’ –AP