By Emily Drooby
Victims of a horrific attack at a Poway, California synagogue, honored with a vigil.
Lori Kaye was one of those honored. The 60-year-old lost her life while shielding Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein from the gunfire.
The Rabbi was close with Kaye and her family, “I see Lori laying on the floor unconscious. And her dear husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, who’s like a brother to me, is trying to resuscitate her and he faints, and he’s laying there on the floor next to hisher wife. And then the daughter Hannah comes out screaming, ‘daddy and mommy what’s going on?’ It’s just the most heart-wrenching sight.”
Rabbi Goldstein was born and raised in Brooklyn. He now lives and works in California, but maintains deeps roots in the New York borough.
[Related: Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio Says We Must Protect Our Houses Of Worship]
The violent attack happened on the last day of Passover, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.
About 100 worshipers were at Congregation Chabad in Poway when police say 19-year-old John Earnest opened fire on the synagogue. The suspect killed Kaye and injured three others, including Rabbi Goldstein, Almog Peretz and his niece Noya Dahan.
8-year-old Dahan described the horrifying incident, “My uncle, he was holding my hand and he was like grabbing me and stuff. and the person who was shooting, he was aiming at him. So it hit him and went like that, it hit me too.”
All three injured have been released from the hospital.
The suspect, John Earnest, has been booked on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.
The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is responding to the attack saying, “I, along with my brother bishops, am greatly saddened and deeply concerned over the news that another house of worship has been subjected to violence. Our country should be better than this. Our prayers today are for the victims of this shooting, and for the Jewish community of Poway, California.”
The White House also condemned the attack. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, “It’s a horrific and heinous moment. It’s something that should never happen in our country.”
This latest attack comes exactly six months after a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. That attack claimed the lives of 11 people. It’s believed to be the deadliest on the Jewish community in US history.