The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Victims remembered: ‘The loss is incalculable’
Thousands pack hall; thousands more stand outside in rain
PITTSBURGH >> They were professors and accountants, dentists and beloved doctors serving their local community.
A day after the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead, officials released the names of the victims. The oldest of them was 97. The youngest was 54. They included a pair of brothers and a husband and wife.
Said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light Congregation: “The loss is incalculable.”
Nine of the victims were Cecil and David Rosenthal, Melvin Wax, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, Joyce Fienberg, Daniel Stein, Rose Mallinger, Richard Gottfried, and Irving Younger.
Cecil and David Rosenthal went through life together with help from a disability-services organization. And an important part of the brothers’ lives was the Tree of Life synagogue, where they never missed a Saturday’s services, people who knew them say.
“If they were here, they would tell you that is where they were supposed to be,” Chris Schopf, a vice president of the organization ACHIEVA, said in a statement.
Achieva provides help with daily living, employment and other needs, and the organization had worked for years with Cecil, 59, and David, 54, who were among the 11 killed in Saturday’s deadly shooting. They lived semiindependently, and Cecil was a person who was up for all sorts of activities: a concert, lunch at Eat ‘n Park — a regional restaurant chain known for its smiley-face cookies — even a trip to the Duquesne University dining hall, recalls David DeFelice, a Duquesne senior who was paired with him in a buddies program.
“He was a very gregarious person — loved being social, loved people . ... You could put him any situation, and he’d make it work,” chatting about the weather or asking students about their parents and talking about his own, says DeFelice.
And when DeFelice recognized Hebrew letters on Cecil’s calendar, the elder man was delighted to learn that his buddy was also Jewish and soon invited him to Tree of Life. DeFelice joined him on a couple of occasions and could see that Cecil cherished his faith and the sense of community he found at temple.
Emeritus Rabbi Alvin Berkun saw that, too, in Cecil and David.
“They really found a home at the synagogue, and people reciprocated,” he said.
Cecil carried a photo in his wallet of David, whom Schopf remembers as a man with “such a gentle spirit.”
“Together, they looked out for each other,” she said. “Most of all, they were kind, good people with a strong faith and respect for everyone around.”
The two left an impression on state Rep. David Frankel, who sometimes attends services at Tree of Life and whose chief of staff is the Rosenthals’ sister.
“They were very sweet, gentle, caring men,” Frankel said. “... I know that this community will really mourn their loss because they were such special people.”
Melvin Wax was the first to arrive at New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood — and the last to leave.
Wax, who was in his late 80s, was among those killed when a gunman entered the synagogue Saturday and opened fire during Sabbath services. Fellow members of the congregation, which rented space in the lower level of the Tree of Life Synagogue, says Wax was a kind man and a pillar of the congregation, filling just about every role except cantor.
Myron Snider spoke late Saturday about his friend who would stay late to tell jokes with him. He said “Mel,” a retired accountant, was unfailingly generous.
“He was such a kind, kind person,” said Snider, chairman of the congregation’s cemetery committee. “When my daughters were younger, they would go to him, and he would help them with their federal income tax every year. Never charged them.