These are the 11 victims of synagogue shooting
Eleven people were killed on Saturday when a gunman opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue. Here are those who died.
“She was just a magnificently caring, generous and thoughtful human being,” Leinhardt said.
Despite Fienberg’s title, Leinhardt said their working relationship was much more collegial, like a partnership, and that she considered Fienberg her best friend.
When news of the shooting broke Saturday, Leinhardt was in the United Kingdom. She immediately tried calling and emailing Fienberg, knowing she would have likely been at the morning service.
“I just can’t say how terribly sad I am that this person isn’t in the world anymore,” Leinhardt said.
But when Gottfried fell in love in the late 1970s, it was with a practicing Catholic. Peg Durachko was a fellow dental student at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1980, the year he graduated, they married.
Gottfried and Durachko would go on to build a successful dental practice together, opening in 1984.
The couple had just celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary, and had planned to wind down the practice and retire soon.
Diamond, 63, has known Mallinger for years. He said he and Mallinger’s son went through kindergarten and high school together.
“I feel a part of me died in that building,” he said.
“Jerry and Mari just did everything for this synagogue. They were essential, they were core, to this community,” Boswell-Levy said. “They were kind of like the welcoming committee.”
Jerry, in particular, was always helping to set up services and lead them. He led Torah studies and organized meetings, Boswell-Levy said.
“He had been looking to retire for some years now,” Boswell-Levy said.
The brothers had intellectual disabilities, according to two former synagogue presidents. When the synagogue held special services for adults with disabilities, Cecil and David would serve as the honorary chairs, said Howard Elson, who was president of Tree of Life about 12 years ago.
Stein was a member of the New Light Congregation, which held services in the same building as Tree of Life. He was heavily involved with the synagogue, having been president and on the board of directors.
Fellow members of the congregation, which rented space in the Tree of Life Synagogue, says Wax was a kind man and a pillar of the congregation.
Myron Snider spoke late Saturday about his friend who would stay late to tell jokes with him. He said “Mel,” a retired accountant, was unfailingly generous.
“He called my wife to get my phone number in the hospital so he could talk to me,” Snider said. “Just a sweet, sweet guy.”
Diamond, 63, said he was close friends with Younger. They loved to exchange jokes, mostly jokes about Jews making fun of themselves. They shared a love of sports and politics. They talked about the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they aired their different views on politics.