Hate Strikes a Synagogue

The assailant, identified by law enforcement officials as Robert D. Bowers, fired for several minutes and was leaving the synagogue when officers, dressed in tactical gear and armed with rifles, met him at the door. According to the police, Bowers exchanged gunfire with officers before retreating back inside and barricading himself inside a third-floor room. He eventually surrendered and told the police that he “wanted all Jews to die.”

Bowers, 46, was injured by gunfire, although the authorities said it was unclear whether those wounds were self-inflicted or whether the police had shot him. He was treated at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is expected to appear in court today.

Federal officials charged Bowers with 29 criminal counts. They included obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs—a hate crime—and using a firearm to commit murder. He also faces state charges, including 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault, and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation. 

For many American Jews, the shooting was a horrific wake-up call about the growth of anti-Semitism in the U.S. 

“This kind of evil makes me think of the Holocaust and how people can be so cruel, that there is so much evil in the world, still,” says Moshe Taube, 91, a retired cantor from Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh and a survivor of the Holocaust.

As shocking as it was, experts in anti-Semitism say the attack was part of a growing wave of hostility over the past two years. There was a 57 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2017, compared with the previous year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that tracks hate crimes. Those incidents included bomb threats, assaults, vandalism, and anti-Semitic posters and literature found on college campuses. It’s the largest single-year increase since the A.D.L. began tracking such crimes in 1979.

Swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti have been found up on synagogues and Jewish homes around the country. Jews online are subjected to vicious slurs and threats. Many synagogues and Jewish day schools have been increasing security measures.

The hate in the U.S. came into full view last year as white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, with lines of men carrying torches and chanting, among other things, “Jews will not replace us.”

The synagogue shooting comes eight months after the Parkland school shooting in which 17 people were killed. And it follows mass shootings at two other houses of worship: Last November, a gunman killed 26 worshipers at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and in 2015, a white supremacist killed nine congregants in an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The assault on the synagogue unfolded on a quiet, drizzly morning, and came amid a bitter midterm election season. It also took place in the wake of the arrest Friday morning of a man who the authorities said sent more than a dozen pipe bombs to critics of President Trump, including several high-profile Democrats.

Calling it the “most horrific crime scene” he had seen in 22 years with the F.B.I., Robert Jones, special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, said the synagogue was in the midst of a “peaceful service” when congregants were gunned down and “brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith.”

Within hours of the attack, hundreds gathered at three separate interfaith vigils on a cold, rainy evening to mourn the dead and pray for the wounded.

“We simply cannot accept this violence as a normal part of American life,” said Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, speaking at a news conference Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. “These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Pennsylvanians and are not who we are as Americans.”

The anguish of Saturday’s massacre heightened a sense of national unease over increasingly hostile political rhetoric. Critics of President Trump have argued that he is partly to blame for recent acts of violence because he has been stirring the pot of nationalism, on Twitter and at his rallies, charges that Trump has denied.

About Saturday’s attack, President Trump told reporters: “It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country and frankly all over the world, and something has to be done.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that criminal charges by the Justice Department “could lead to the death penalty.”

“Hatred and violence on the basis of religion can have no place in our society,” Sessions said. “Every American has the right to attend their house of worship in safety.”

The authorities said that Bowers, the shooter, had no previous criminal history. But he did have 21 guns registered in his name and a history of anti-Semitism: Before it was deleted Saturday morning, a social media account believed to belong to him was filled with anti-Jewish slurs and references to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

“I don’t think anybody really knows this guy, other than he was a hateful anti-Semite who had posted anti-Semitic views,” said Congressman Mike Doyle, who represents Pennsylvania’s 14th District, where the synagogue is. “We’re all kind of numb, kind of in shock. It’s not really something that happens much here.”

As with many other recent mass shootings, this one led to renewed calls from Democrats to tighten America’s gun control laws, something many Republicans oppose, often arguing that guns are necessary to protect law abiding citizens from criminals. President Trump said of the synagogue attack that “the results are very devastating,” adding that if the temple “had some kind of protection” then “it could have been a much different situation.”

To some Jewish leaders, the shooting seems like an ominous sign.

“I’m afraid to say that we may be at the beginning of what has happened to Europe, the consistent anti-Semitic attacks,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of Simon Wiesenthal Center, who prayed at President Trump’s inauguration. 

“If it is not nipped in the bud,” he continued, “I am afraid the worst is yet to come.”