Local Jewish community remembers Pittsburgh shooting victims with vigil
AMBERLEY VILLAGE, OH. (WKRC) – Cincinnati is among the communities around the country gathered Sunday to mourn the loss of the 11 killed at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. The shooting at the Squirrel Hill synagogue has Jewish people in greater Cincinnati angry and upset.
"It doesn't matter if you're a Jew that goes to synagogue every week or someone who never goes or who has to Jew culture. Every single one of us felt this,” Rabbi Meriam Terlinchamp said.
Terlinchamp and Shep Englander, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, helped put on the last minute vigil Sunday night at the Mayerson JCC.
"Many innocent people were killed while they were praying," Englander said. "It wasn't an accident that the shooter was there because he wanted to kill Jews. He yelled all Jews must die before he started shooting.”
Before moving to Cincinnati, Englander live in Squirrel Hill. He says he and his children would walk past the Tree of Life Congregation every Saturday.
"It's a place that you feel very safe being Jewish because there are so many kinds of Jews and we live so close Lee together," Englander said. "So, for this to happen right in the heart of that neighborhood really sends a shockwave through the rest of the country,” said Englander.
Englander got of the word of the shooting from a friend in Pittsburgh. Englander was in Israel.
"He texted back that he was standing outside the synagogue and the police were in the middle of a firefight with the shooter,” Englander said.
Just hours after the shooting, Terlinchamp says emotions are still high and all over the place. There’s anger, there’s sadness, but together the Jewish community will rise above hate, again.
More gatherings are to be expected at individual congregations this week.
