![]() So we both moved into the direction of the gunfire, which perhaps was a stupid thing to do, but that’s what we did,” Leger said. We knew instinctively that what we needed to do was try to do something to help. Jerry Rabinowitz decided to see if they could assist anyone who might be injured. Leger, now 75, and two other members of Dor Hadash were gathered in an upstairs room about to start a Torah study when they heard gunshots. Jurors also heard testimony from Dan Leger, who was severely wounded in the attack. ![]() She said Gottfried, Wax and 71-year-old Dan Stein were “the three main pillars of our congregation.” On the morning of the attack, Gottfried and Stein were in a kitchen near the sanctuary planning a men’s group breakfast for the next day when Bowers killed them.īowers, like on the trial’s first day, showed little emotion as he sat at the defense table. She recalled fondly how in 2017, she and her brother carried Torah scrolls as they paraded from their old synagogue, which the small congregation had sold in a downsizing, to their new location in rented space at the Tree of Life building. “I was rededicating myself to Judaism,” she said. She recalled how her brother, Gottfried, became more observant after their father’s death and how she later began attending services regularly, getting so involved that she had an adult bat mitzvah - a Jewish right of passage that she hadn’t had as a teenager. Attorney Soo Song began Wednesday’s proceedings by asking Black about her affiliation with the New Light congregation. Black didn’t learn until later that her 65-year-old brother, Richard Gottfried, was among the 11 people killed in the attack.īowers, who only surrendered on the day of the attack after police shot him three times, had commented on Gab, a social media site popular with the far right, that Dor Hadash had hosted a refugee-oriented Sabbath service in conjunction with HIAS, a Jewish agency whose work includes aiding refugees.Īssistant U.S. Wax, 87, was hard of hearing and had opened the storage door, apparently believing the attack was over, she said. I thought by remaining calm, I would not give my position away,” she testified in the Pittsburgh federal courtroom.īlack, 71, recalled how she remained hidden even as she saw congregant Mel Wax, who had been hiding close to her, drop dead after the gunman shot him. They soon realized it was gunfire, so some of them hid in a storage room. history, Black told jurors Wednesday about how she and others in her New Light congregation heard loud noises as they started Sabbath services. Testifying on the second day of the trial of the man who carried out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. PITTSBURGH (AP) - It was her brother’s active faith that inspired Carol Black to recommit as an adult to being a practicing Jew several years ago, and their shared commitment brought them to the Tree of Life synagogue on the October 2018 day it was attacked.
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