Famed cross-maker changes tack
Within hours of a gunman opening fire Saturday at a Pennsylvania synagogue, Greg Zanis already had promised to deliver a tribute he has grown all too accustomed to making.
Zanis made 11 wooden memorials with the Star of David for the 11 people gunned down and six others injured inside of the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, a historically Jewish neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
“(It’s) the first time I ever done that without putting up a cross,” said Zanis, a 67-year-old retired carpenter from Aurora, Illinois. He has made memorials with the Star of David before but never for all the victims at a
memorial.
Typically, Zanis makes crosses as part of his Crosses for Losses initiative to honor the deceased, particularly after mass-casualty attacks. He has crafted more than 26,000 of them over the past two decades, he said.
He built 58 crosses for the 58 people killed at a country music festival on the Strip in October 2017, placing them at the “Welcome
STARS
Federal prosecutors are pressing for the death penalty against Bowers, who authorities say expressed hatred of Jews during the attack and later told police, “I just want to kill Jews” and “All these Jews need to die.”
O’doherty just shook his head at the thought of Bowers and those who have targeted racial and religious minorities in other recent shootings, and even random acts of violence with mass casualties like the Oct. 1 shooting last year in Las Vegas.
“All they are doing is pulling people together,” O’doherty told the Las Vegas Review-journal. He noted that Squirrel Hill is home to Jews, Muslims, Christians and people who practice other religions.
O’doherty said the crimes are committed by the delusional. “They sit in their little dark caves. You can’t let these a------- win.”
Expressions of sorrow
At a makeshift memorial down the street from the Tree of Life synagogue, people placed bouquets and wrote expressions of sorrow and remorse in chalk on the sidewalk.
Light rain and dark brooding skies marked the day.
People came to remember not only the victims, but also the heroes, some of whom, like Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, made the ultimate sacrifice for their acts of bravery.
“He tried to assist some of the victims. He went out of the building and tried to come back in and he was shot,” said Patricia Conderato, 50, a patient of Rabinowitz’s since she grew up in Squirrel Hill.
In addition to treating Conderato when she was a young girl, Rabinowitz served as a pediatrician for her son.
“He was always there to help,” she said.
Attorney Michael Metro, 52, said Rabinowitz was a pillar in the community and a doctor who, during the first days of the AIDS epidemic, treated patients with the disease with dignity and without discrimination.
“I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t think so much about him,” Metro told the Review-journal.
He said Rabinowitz was “trying to help people when he was murdered.”
Just outside the synagogue, where the gunman used an assault rifle and three pistols to gun down his targets, well-wishers, neighbors and members of the congregation filed by to drop off flowers and pray at makeshift memorials.
Rabbi’s actions hailed
Another hero hailed by survivors is Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Life Congregation, which rented space in the Tree of Life basement and was leading prayer when the gunfire and chaotic noises from the floor above signaled danger.
Perlman closed the door to their prayer room when he sensed danger and pushed the congregants into a supply closet, where they hid.
One of the congregants, Melvin Wax, opened the door and was fatally shot. Two others also died.
A survivor, Barry Weber, told WPXI-TV Pittsburgh that he saw the shooter, but it was dark and the shooter did not see him.
“If there would have been light in that room, you would be talking to my widow,” Werber said.
Perlman remembered the three deceased members of his congregation at a Sunday vigil, where he spoke about the loss.
“We lost three pillars of our community,” Perlman said. “We mourn their life,” and what happened “will not break us.”
Rabbi Jeffery Myers called 911 when gunshots rang out at the synagogue. He credited police for their quick response and bravery to rescue those being terrorized inside the place of worship.
“It’s because of their bravery and heroism that I am standing here,” Myers said.
As the community prepared for burials, the White House announced President Donald Trump would visit Tuesday. That news drew mixed reaction in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The first funerals also are set for Tuesday.
Trump denounced the evil of anti-semitism immediately after the shooting, and he suggested that more armed security in places of worship and schools could better protect gatherings from gunmen intent on killing innocents.
That suggestion was rejected by Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat.
The mayor also suggested the White House confer with the families of the victims before traveling to Pittsburgh.
“If the president is going to come here, he has to come here to mourn,” said Tammy Hepps, who wrote a letter to Trump demanding he denounce white nationalism and tone down the political rhetoric that some believe has stoked recent violence.
But Myers said the president would be welcomed at any time.
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@ reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.