Other views: Synagogue slaughter ‘a pure act of evil'

Rob Eshman, Los Angeles Times:

“The Jews gunned down in the Tree of Life synagogue died for a cause . ... Whether they supported the cause or not, they died defending the right of desperate people to find safe shelter . ... In the case of the Pittsburgh terrorist, the early facts seem to point to his fear of Mexicans and Central Americans seeking refuge in the United States . ... He ranted about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, an organization devoted to helping refugees of all faiths find their feet in a new country, as if it were alQaeda.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Fox News:

“This was a pure act of evil. You've heard that from the president and vice president ... that's what it is. We all condemn this in the strongest terms.”

David M. Shribman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“Because this was our neighborhood, caught in the crossfire of the strains of the global village, and for once the hurt was ours, and the victims were ours, and the need to heal is ours. ... In our grief — shared across all faiths — we need something to lean on, to steady us. We might reflect on the passage from Proverbs that lent its name to this place of tragedy, a reference to the metaphor describing Judaism's most sacred text, the Torah, as a tree of life, or, in transliterated Hebrew, Etz hayyim: ‘It is a tree of life to all who hold fast to it; its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.' ”