Synagogue attack verdict brings out range of emotions in Pittsburgh Jewish community

David Knoll sat in his Squirrel Hill home Friday morning, waiting for the news to break.

He wanted confirmation of what he already knew: Robert Bowers committed hate crimes against Jews when he killed 11 congregants inside the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018.

Then, at 11:52 a.m., U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville began reading each guilty verdict against Bowers — 63 in all.

Knoll started receiving emails faster than social media feeds would load.

“We all knew he was guilty. This wasn’t a shock at all,” said Knoll, 44, an Orthodox Jew who works in real estate.

Now attention turns to the sentencing and whether Bowers will receive the death penalty.

“This was the table setting, but the meal hasn’t been served yet,” Knoll said. “I believe if anyone is worthy of the death penalty, it would be Bowers.”

The Jewish community had an array of reactions Friday to a verdict that many had been anticipating for more than 4½ years.

Some expressed relief, while others felt a reopening of painful emotional wounds.

Many Jews followed the trial closely as it unfolded online. Others intentionally avoided the news because the testimony and evidence scared them.

“Everybody I’ve talked to — those who’ve lost someone, survivors, members of the affected congregations — has felt on edge,” said Rabbi Mark Goodman, associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill. “They’ve felt a little re-traumatization. They’ve felt overwhelmed.”

“We’ve been through several points. I think the one-year anniversary and the two-year anniversary points, we took a deep breath,” he said. “And I think the verdict is a deep breath, too.”

Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, a shooting survivor who testified during the three-week trial, said he was grateful to God for getting him to this day.

“I am thankful for the law enforcement who ran into danger to rescue me, and the U.S. Attorney who stood up in court to defend my right to pray,” Myers said. “Today, I’m focused on being with my congregation and praying, singing and clapping in praise of God as we do each Shabbat. In the face of the horror of our community has experienced, I can think of no better response than practicing my Jewish faith and leading worship.”

Jewish organizations rushed to offer their perspective on the verdict.

Jeff Finkelstein, who heads the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, was “pleased with the verdict” and stressed it showed the shooting was “an antisemitic incident — period, end of statement.”

The World Jewish Congress’ statement called the verdict “a vindication of the American system of justice.” The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh thanked “the citizenry of the greater Pittsburgh region for standing with the Jewish community.”

Others focused on the verdict’s emotional weight.

Jo Recht, president of Congregation Dor Hadash, which Bowers said he targeted for its support of the refugee resettlement group HIAS and which lost one congregant in the attack, shook in federal court as Colville read the verdict.

With each passing count, each finding of Bowers’ guilt, she experienced quick surges of complicated feelings.

“I found it to be both traumatizing and empowering,” Recht said. “There was relief. I believed he was going to be convicted on all those counts, but I wasn’t sure. You never know in a trial.”

“The extent of the hatred and violence and antisemitism, it’s such an enormous problem,” she added during a news conference near the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh. “This is an opportunity for people to engage in that and to try to do something to diminish the problem.

“There was almost a sense of, ‘Are we opening a door now to a different dialogue?’”

Stephen Cohen, co-president of the New Light Congregation, which lost three congregants in the attack, told reporters that testimony during the trial revealed to the Jewish community things they didn’t know about the shooting.

While that opened new wounds and was traumatizing, Cohen said, it also was cathartic.

“We did hear what happened,” Cohen said. “We relived those events with a positive ending, at least at this stage.”

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, told reporters Friday that Squirrel Hill, the center of Jewish life in Pittsburgh, is the heart of his legislative district.

As such, he said it is his duty to recognize and fight antisemitism.

“We each have a role making Pennsylvania safe and welcoming for all generations to come,” Frankel said. “Hate is not a dragon that we slay, but a wildfire that we battle back to its embers only to battle again tomorrow.”

Editor’s note: Correction: David Knoll’s name was incorrect in an ealier version of this story.