#Chabad of Poway Synagogue Shooting

[girlactionfigure]

antisemitism

On this day in 2019, a white supremacist carried out a deadly shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California, United States. The gunman entered the synagogue’s foyer and fatally shot 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye. According to witnesses, she had heroically tried to shield Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, the congregation’s founder, who was also wounded in the attack. The assailant then turned to a side room, where he shot and injured a man in the leg and also wounded his eight-year-old niece. He was understood to have fled before calling the police himself to confess that he had committed a shooting at a synagogue because he believed that Jews were trying to “destroy all white people,” and was subsequently apprehended approximately two miles from the synagogue. He was later convicted and sentenced in federal court to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional thirty years.

[lorilovesowls]

Lori Gilbert-Kay went to Synagogue on Saturday to celebrate the last day of Passover. She never came home. Lori was murdered simply because she was Jewish. Today, we mourn with Lori's family and friends and wish those injured in this despicable antisemitic attack a speedy recovery. Baruch Dayan Ha'Emet. May Lori's memory be a blessing.

All the hate in this world is so heartbreaking. 😥

[carminavulcana]

On the last day of Passover, a deadly shooting at the Poway Chabad House synagogue had left One person dead and two others injured.

Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed as shielded the Rabbi was, at that moment, giving his sermon on the last day of Passover. He is also injured, but alive. Lori's loss is felt deeply around the world - may her memory be a blessing.

Baruch Dayan Ha'Emet.

Dear Jewish friends, I am here for you if you need to talk. I am so sorry that this has happened to you and I can only promise you that I will stand by you against anti-Semitism in all its forms.

All my love and prayers are for you.

[fulcrum-agent]

This is cued up to where the Rabbi from the Poway Chabad speaks to the press. It’s incredibly moving, yet hard to watch. What he asks is rather challenging, but also the best thing to ask right now.

[outsidetheknow]

Poway, Calif.: A Tight Community With San Diego at Its Doorstep by BY DEBRA KAMIN

Poway, Calif.: A Tight Community With San Diego at Its Doorstep by BY DEBRA KAMIN

By BY DEBRA KAMIN

Residents say they like the country setting and good schools, as well as the access to urban jobs and sandy beaches.

Published: January 22, 2020 at 03:01AM

from NYT Real Estate https://ift.tt/37eu6HF via IFTTT

[americanmysticom]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/opinion/poway-synagogue-shooting-meme.html

Mass Shootings Have Become a Sickening Meme

Online messages from suspects in shootings at a California synagogue and  New Zealand mosques were similar.

By Charlie Warzel - THE NEW YORK TIMES

[welcometothenod]

"A straight A student who played the piano"

" A STRAIGHT A STUDENT WHO PLAYED THE PIANO"

Are y'all fucking kidding me with this? Are y'all serious, ABC? Listen. I love true crime. I love researching people like this and knowing what makes them tick. But for fuck's sake, can the media quit turning them into anti-heroes and constantly propagating more mass murders by screaming about the event 24/7? He killed someone. He tried to kill more. If you're gonna put cutesy fun facts about anybody out there for the world to see, maybe tell us something sweet about the woman that was murdered. Or the other people that were shot.

I do not need to know that this gunman was had straight A's. At this point, as it does every single time, the media is going balls to the wall with this shooting, and more are going to result from it. Every single time this happens, but nobody cares - we just want that sweet, sweet info, apparently.

[jewish-privilege]

Today should have been my funeral.

I was preparing to give my sermon Shabbat morning, Saturday, which was also the last day of Passover, the festival of our freedom, when I heard a loud bang in the lobby of my synagogue.

I thought a table had fallen down or maybe even that, God forbid, my dear friend Lori Gilbert Kaye had tripped and fallen. Only a few moments earlier I had greeted Lori there; she had come to services to say Yizkor, the mourning prayer, for her late mother.

I went to the lobby to check on her. What I saw in those seconds will haunt me for the rest of my days.

I saw Lori bleeding on the ground. And I saw the terrorist who murdered her.

This terrorist was a teenager. He was standing there with a big rifle in his hands. And he was now aiming it at me. For one reason: I am a Jew.

He started shooting. My right index finger got blown off. Another bullet hit my left index finger, which started gushing blood.

After the massacre in Pittsburgh, we had a community training. Now that training kicked in. Somehow my brain directed my body to the synagogue ballroom, where the children, including two of my grandchildren, were playing. I ran toward them screaming “Get out! Get out!” I grabbed as many as I could with my bloody hands and pushed them out of the building.

One of our congregants that day, Almog Peretz, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, ran after me to help get the children to safety and took a bullet in the leg. His eight-year-old niece, Noya Dahan, took some shrapnel to hers. Then an amazing miracle occurred: The terrorist’s gun jammed. Two other heroic congregants — an Army veteran named Oscar Stewart and an off-duty border patrol agent named Jonathan Morales — rushed toward him and he fled.

The ambulances had not yet arrived. We all gathered outside. I don’t remember all that I said to my community, but I do remember quoting a passage from the Passover Seder liturgy: “In every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand.” And I remember shouting the words “Am Yisrael Chai! The people of Israel live!” I have said that line hundreds of times in my life. But I have never felt the truth of it more than I did then.

I am a religious man. I believe everything happens for a reason. I do not know why God spared my life. I do not know why I had to witness scenes of a pogrom in San Diego County like the ones my grandparents experienced in Poland. I don’t know why a part of my body was taken away from me. I don’t know why I had to see my good friend, a woman who embodied the Jewish value of hesed (kindness), hunted in her house of worship. I don’t know why I had to watch Lori’s beloved husband, a doctor, faint as he tried to resuscitate her. And then their only daughter, Hannah, sob in agony as she encountered both her parents collapsed on the floor.

I do not know God’s plan. All I can do is try to find meaning in what has happened. And to use this borrowed time to make my life matter more.

I used to sing a song to my children, a song that my father sang to me when I was a child. “Hashem is here,” I would sing, using a Hebrew name for God, pointing with my right index finger to the sky. “Hashem is there,” I would sing, pointing to my right and left. “Hashem is truly everywhere.” That finger I would use to point out God’s omnipresence was taken from me.

I pray that my missing finger serves as a constant reminder to me. A reminder that every single human being is created in the image of God; a reminder that I am part of a people that has survived the worst destruction and will always endure; a reminder that my ancestors gave their lives so that I can live in freedom in America; and a reminder, most of all, to never, ever, not ever be afraid to be Jewish.

From here on in I am going to be more brazen. I am going to be even more proud about walking down the street wearing my tzitzit and kippah, acknowledging God’s presence. And I’m going to use my voice until I am hoarse to urge my fellow Jews to do Jewish. To light candles before Shabbat. To put up mezuzas on their doorposts. To do acts of kindness. And to show up in synagogue — especially this coming Shabbat.

I am a proud emissary of Chabad-Lubavitch, a movement of Hasidic Judaism. Our leader, the great Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, famously taught that a little light expels a lot of darkness. That is why Chabad rabbis travel all over the world to set up Jewish communities: I have colleagues in Kathmandu, in Ghana, as well as in Paris and Sydney. We believe that helping any human being tap into their divine spark is a step toward fixing this broken world and bringing closer the redemption of humanity. It is why 33 years ago my wife and I came to this corner of California to build a house of light.

Because we are obviously Jewish, identifiable by our black hats and beards, it has also meant that some of us have been targets before. Eleven years ago, my colleagues Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who ran the Chabad of Mumbai, India, were murdered with four of their guests. They were targeted by the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba because they were Jewish. And over the years people I know have been harassed and assaulted by thugs in the neighborhood where I grew up, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in incidents that typically go unreported by the press.

In his vile manifesto, the terrorist who shot up my synagogue called my people, the Jewish people, a “squalid and parasitic race.” No. We are a people divinely commanded to bring God’s light into the world.

So it is with this country. America is unique in world history. Never before was a country founded on the ideals that all people are created in God’s image and that all people deserve freedom and liberty. We fought a war to make that promise real.

And I believe we can make it real again. That is what I pledge to do with my borrowed time.

[mitchipedia]

A judge ruled victims of a 2019 synagogue mass shooting here in San Diego can sue the gun maker

Chris Jennewein at the Times of San Diego:

Victims and survivors of the 2019 shootings at Chabad of Poway can sue Smith & Wesson, maker of the AR-15 rifle used in the hate crime, a San Diego state judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel on Wednesday rejected Smith & Wesson’s argument that the suit was barred by a federal law that generally shields gun manufacturers and sellers from being sued over shootings.

San Diego Guns, the store that sold the gun, is also a defendant in the case….

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleges the manufacturer violated state law by designing the rifle to be easily modified into a rapid-firing assault weapon to appeal to “impulsive young men.”

[theartofimaginaryfriends]

I’m taking a bit of a turn away from the new PJO/HOO focus of this blog to speak out about something important to me.

If you don’t already know, I’m a Jew. If you’re following me and you have a problem with that, unfollow me and move along. While we’re at it, I’m also Indian and a lesbian, so if you’re against that, again unfollow and move along.

If you aren’t already aware, DeSean Jackson recently posted a series of anti-Semitic posts on his Instagram falsely quoting Hitler. He later apologized for it, but to the community it felt empty.

Amid the awakening of activism, everyone except my Jewish friends and now myself have been silent on the issues regarding Jewish oppression.

If you consider yourself an activist and an ally, but you do not support Jews and specifically POC Jews, you aren’t a true ally.

If someone says Black Lives Matter, and then starts being anti-Semitic, they’re saying that black lives matter unless that life is Jewish.

INCLUDE JEWS IN YOUR ACTIVISM.

Antisemitism inextricably links with racism, and to be truly anti-racist we must openly and loudly reject all forms of hate.

I urge you to educate yourself if you’re unaware. I urge you to stop the spread of misinformation around Jewish people. I urge you to help silence the voices trying to silence us.

I’ve seen one non-Jewish friend of mine posting about anti-semitism and why it’s a form of racism. ONE.

We need more non-Jews helping amplify our voices as much as people have been with black voices. Not just for us, but for our black Jewish brothers and sisters. Their lives matter as much as everyone else.

Here’s some sources to help you get started:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/10/28/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-victims/index.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/chabad-of-poway-synagogue-shooting-these-are-the-victims/135219/%3Famp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1109981

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-17426313

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5392084

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/world/europe/mireille-knoll-murder-holocaust.amp.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_antisemitism

https://m.jpost.com/american-politics/black-lives-matter-the-jews-and-palestinian-nationalism-634946

[outsidetheknow]

A Tour of Poway, Calif. by Unknown Author

A Tour of Poway, Calif. by Unknown Author

By Unknown Author

Residents in this San Diego suburb say they like the country setting and good schools, as well as the access to urban jobs and sandy beaches.

Published: January 22, 2020 at 03:00AM

from NYT Real Estate https://ift.tt/2RC1Wj3 via IFTTT

[girlactionfigure]

34-year-old Almog Peretz from Sderot, #Israel. He was at the Chabad #Poway #SanDiego Synagogue when the shooting occurred. Even though Almog took a bullet to the leg, he still managed to grab number of children by the hands and run with them to the exits. What a #hero! Thank you ♥️🙏♥️🙏♥️🙏 Share his name. Send him love.

Afshine Emrani

[the-sayuri-rin]

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, longtime leader of the Chabad of Poway synagogue, admitted to his role in the plot, involving tax, real estate, insurance and grant frauds.

[yudayajin]

CHABAD SHOOTING VICTIM NAMED AS LORI GILBERT KAYE, 'ESHET CHAYIL'

Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, was murdered Saturday when 19-year-old John Earnest burst into her Poway synagogue and opened fire. According to reports, Gilbert Kaye was killed trying to protect the congregation's rabbi.

In a piece celebrating Gilbert Kaye's life, which was first published on Facebook, close friend Audrey Jacobs described her as "a jewel of our community, a true eshet chayil, a woman of valor." Jacobs was the first to report that Gilbert Kaye jumped in front of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, taking the bullet that took her life, but saving his.

"You were always running to do a mitzvah(good deed) and generously gave tzedaka(charity) to everyone," Jacobs described. She said that saving the rabbi was "your final good deed."

Gilbert Kaye leaves behind "a devastated husband and a 22-year-old daughter," Jacobs wrote.

An inspiration to many in the community, on her 60th birthday, Gilbert posted on Facebook that she was “Fearless at 60! As I enter a new decade, I am full of 'gratitude' & thankfulness for the many blessings in my life."

"As I said on my 40th & 50th birthdays: Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," she wrote.

Source: Jerusalem Post

[jewish-privilege]

A survey released just days before the anniversary of the shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue that killed 11 people reveals that many Jewish Americans avoid wearing things that may reveal their religious identity.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC), a Jewish advocacy organization, released the results of its survey Wednesday. It was conducted with 1,283 respondents over almost a month.

It found that nearly a third of those polled have "avoided publicly wearing, carrying or displaying things that might help people identify them as Jews."

And a quarter of respondents said they avoid places, events or situations out of concern for their safety or comfort.

The statistics come nearly a year after a man opened fire in a synagogue in the historic Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill during Saturday morning worship. The suspect is facing federal hate-crime charges.

And in April of this year -- on the last day of Passover -- a gunman killed one woman and wounded three others at Congregation Chabad in Poway, California. The injured included an 8-year-old girl and her uncle, who was visiting from Israel.

Those horrific incidents were among many other recent instances of anti-Semitism.

Last year had the third-highest totals for assault, harassment and vandalism against Jews since the Anti-Defamation League started tracking such incidents in 1979, according to the organization. There were a total of 1,879 attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country, according to a report from the ADL.

The AJC survey suggests Jewish Americans are feeling the impact of these attacks. Nearly nine out of 10 say anti-Semitism is a current problem in the US, and 72% say they do not approve of the Trump administration's handling of the threat, according to the survey.

"American Jews could not be clearer about the reality of anti-Semitism in the U.S.," said AJC CEO David Harris. "This hatred is real, comes from multiple sources, and is growing. It needs to be taken seriously and dealt with in a sustained, multi-pronged response."

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

[antisemitism-us]

The Anti-Defamation League’s annual report on antisemitic incidents in the US has found that the number of Jews physically assaulted in America more than doubled in 2018 over the previous year's figures. These findings come in the wake of the antisemitic shooting by a white supremacist at a Chabad synagogue in Poway, California last week, as well as the worst ever attack against Jews in the US at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October. 

Although physical assaults are noticeably up, the total number of antisemitic incidents in the country actually decreased, although 2018 still has the third-highest number of such incidents on record since ADL started tracking such data in the 1970s.