Nazis are back!
John
PITTSBURGH — Barry Werber usually attends services Friday night and Sunday morning, but this week was the anniversary of his mother’s death. Jewish tradition is that you say prayer the whole weekend, Werber said.
Werber arrived early Saturday morning at the Tree of Life synagogue, and he and the few others who were already in the downstairs sanctuary were reading their prayer books when he heard a crash. Werber walked toward the stairs.
“I pushed the door open, and I saw a body on the steps coming down to our room,” Werber, 76, told USA TODAY on Monday night. “I have to assume that it was Cecil.”
Cecil Rosenthal and 10 others at the Tree of Life were gunned down on the Sabbath as the shooter yelled, “All Jews must die,” It was the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in U.S. history, the Anti-Defamation League said, and Werber says that Anti-Semitism is alive in the United States.
Many arrived Saturday for a baby-naming ceremony at Tree of Life. Werber saw wine goblets and a bottle of whiskey for the ritual, but he was downstairs with his rabbi, Jonathan Perlman, and a few other members of his congregation. New Light shares a space with Tree of Life, one that Werber said they made their own after moving from a long-time temple.
Werber thought the crash was just the tray of glasses from the ceremony. When he saw the body and realized the crash was gunshots, the rabbi pushed his congregants from the sanctuary into a small, dark storeroom.
Werber said he thinks Perlman was able to exit through a back stairway, but he didn’t know where it was, especially in the dark. He and the other congregants, Carol Black and Melvin “Mel” Wax, remained in the room as Werber called 911.
When the gunshots paused upstairs, Werber said Wax moved toward the door. Werber said he tried to warn him not to open it, but he didn’t want to yell.
Rosamond Press 
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