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In Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial, Jewish rituals feature as prominently as the carnage of the day
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — Testifying at the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, Carol Black described how, right before he opened fire, she had taken her yarmulke and tallis out of her velvet tallis bag.
But first, she had to explain what a yarmulke, tallis and tallis bag were.
“In my briefcase is a blue velvet bag that has a zipper on it,” she said. “I have a Ziploc bag of yarmulkes I would wear and a tallis I would wear.” A yarmulke was a “head covering,” she explained, and a tallis was a “prayer shawl.” The items, she said, “just signified being in the presence of God and being respectful.”
Black, 71, was the second witness to testify on Wednesday, the second day of the capital murder trial of the alleged gunman, Robert Bowers. She was one of a few witnesses who interspersed heart-rending testimony about the trial with, effectively, a crash course on Jewish ritual.
Black recalled how she sat in the second seat in from the aisle, because the aisle seat was where her brother Richard Gottfried sat, and they shared gabbai duties. Then Black explained the role of a “gabbai” — calling congregants to the Torah and helping them read through a passage. She described Pesukei d’Zimra, the morning service’s opening prayers, and spelled out the Hebrew name of the morning service, Shacharit, for the court reporter.
“I had just started to open the bag and I heard a loud bang,” she said. “To me it sounded like somebody had dropped a table on the metal floor.”
She added, “The first two sounds, I didn’t recognize them as gunfire. You don’t go to a synagogue and expect to hear gunfire.”
The focus of the trial is the gunfire — the shooting on Oct. 27, 2018 that killed 11 Jews praying at three congregations: Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash. But for the prosecution, explaining the synagogue — and the practices that take place in it — is also proving to be crucial. The painful collision on that Shabbat morning of the sacred and the profane is key to the prosecution’s case that the defendant merits the death penalty.
Of the 63 federal charges Bowers is facing, 22 are capital crimes: two for each of the 11 fatalities that morning, including Black’s brother, Richard Gottfried. One is “obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death” and the other is murder, enhanced with a hate crime charge. So prosecutors, seeking to show that the shooting was motivated by antisemitism, are probing witnesses about their Judaism and how they express it.
“As they did every Saturday, men and women of the Jewish faith made their way to the synagogue, to observe Shabbat,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song said in her opening statement on Tuesday. “To pray to God in the sanctity and refuge of their shared Jewish faith.”
Conversely, defense lawyer Judy Clarke is out to prove that her client targeted the congregants not because of their religion per se but because of a delusion that they were facilitating an immigration invasion to replace whites. Both she and prosecutors have said in court that he committed the attack.
Clarke occasionally objected when the testimony veered into how American Jews worship, or into explaining what animates Jewish practice. None of her objections to explaining Judaism were sustained — including one where she had tried to preempt the director of one of the congregations’ religious schools from explaining its educational precepts.
Describing the curriculum, Wendy Kobee, the director of the religious school of Dor Hadash, a Reconstructionist congregation, said, “Religious prayers, religious practices, cultural values.”
“Among the cultural values taught at the school was the concept of welcoming the stranger?” prosecutor Mary Hahn asked.
“Yes, that would have been incorporated into the curriculum in an age-appropriate way,” Kobee said.
Both the defense and prosecution acknowledge that the defendant, a white supremacist, targeted the building because Dor Hadash had partnered with HIAS, the Jewish refugee aid group, to celebrate what the group called National Refugee Shabbat.
The trial is shaping up as a seminar on American Jewish tradition. Witnesses have provided the judge, jury and spectators with an impromptu glossary of Jewish terms, and an introduction to parts of modern Jewish thought. Dan Leger, a member of Dor Hadash who was injured in the attack, outlined the teachings of the Reconstructionist movement’s founder, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.
Kaplan’s “approach is one of looking at the Bible, the Torah specifically as something that guides our life in ways that give value in social interaction,” Leger said. “One of the ways it is most highly demonstrated is welcoming those into the community who need assistance, who need support whether or not they are Jewish, welcoming immigrants into the country.”
Prosecutors also asked witnesses about Jewish practice in order to explain what happened on the day of the shooting. Song asked Leger to explain tallit katan, the small prayer shawl colloquially known as tzitzit that observant men traditionally wear under their clothing, and why he did not have a cell phone handy when the gunman opened fire. It was Shabbat, when some Jews abstain from using electronic devices, he explained.)
Another prosecutor asked Barry Werber, who testified later, why he preferred to attend services at New Light on Friday night and for Sunday breakfasts and not on Saturdays. He liked to sleep in on Saturdays, he said, but he went to services on the morning of the shooting because he felt obliged to honor his mother on her yahrzeit. He explained that a yahrzeit was “the anniversary of someone’s death.”
Like Tree of Life’s rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, had on Tuesday, Leger testified that he recited the Shema when he believed he was dying, after the gunman shot him in the abdomen. He translated the Torah verse and central Jewish prayer for the jury. Leger, a retired registered nurse, and another Dor Hadash congregant, Jerry Rabinowitz, a physician, had run into the shooting to help the injured. Rabinowitz was killed.
“I thought about the wonder of my life, the beauty of it all, the happiness I had experienced, the joy of having two beautiful sons and a wonderful wife and the wife previous to that wife, all the wonderful friends I have in the world,” Leger said. “I prayed for forgiveness for those who I have wronged in my life. I was ready to go.”
The defendant, wearing a dark blue sweater and a light blue collared shirt, his arms folded, stared at Leger.
The stories on the witness stand offered windows into American Jewish families and history. Gottfried started attending New Light after his mother died in 1992, Black testified about her brother, but she said she remained uninterested in frequent synagogue attendance until she injured a hip running about a decade ago. Gottfried, who was younger, encouraged her to come to services, and she celebrated her bat mitzvah as an adult.
“In Uniontown [Pennsylvania] where I grew up, in our Conservative congregation, which incidentally was called Tree of Life, girls did not get bat mitzvahed,” she said.
Black and Werber both discussed the social aspect of Shabbat services, describing the propensity of Melvin Wax, a New Light congregant, to tell jokes. Werber recalled that just before the shooting, Wax was telling jokes to Cecil Rosenthal.
Yet along with descriptions of how ritual and prayer bound the synagogue communities together, the testimonies all came back to the horrific details of the shooting itself.
After sitting with Wax, Werber said, Rosenthal went back upstairs, where the gunman shot him multiple times. Down in the New Light sanctuary, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman led Werber, Wax and Black into a storeroom behind the bimah. Richard Gottfried was in an adjacent kitchen with another New Light congregant, Dan Stein, preparing breakfast for the next morning. He called 911.
The gunman came down the stairs and killed Gottfried and Stein. There was a pause, so Wax peeked out of the storeroom to see what was happening. The gunman shot him twice, and he fell at Black’s feet. The gunman hovered a while in the area and then retreated.
Eventually, emergency responders found the group hidden in the store room. Wax’s body still lay there.
“I had to step over him to get past him,” Black testified, her voice cracking. “Quietly to myself I said goodbye to him and followed the officers.”
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All 25 Jewish Lawmakers in US House Sign Statement on ‘Grotesque’ Antisemitic Bondi Beach Shooting
Rabbi Levi Wolff lights a menorah at Bondi Pavilion to honor the victims of a shooting during a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Every Jewish member of the US House of Representatives on Monday signed a bipartisan statement condemning the prior day’s antisemitic mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, decrying the “grotesque” act of mass murder.
“On a night meant for celebration, Jewish families in Australia, gathering in joy and peace on the first night of Hanukkah, were grotesquely targeted with hate and murderous intent. Sadly, this attack does not come as a surprise to the Jewish community of Sydney who have been raising a clarion call for local and national authorities to take concrete steps against a rising tide of antisemitism,” read the statement co-signed by the 25 lawmakers.
“We stand in solidarity with the Australian Jewish community and together extend our condolences to the family and friends of the people murdered and are praying for the complete recovery of the dozens wounded, and the entire Jewish community feeling besieged,” the statement continued.
The signatories of the letter were members of both main political parties: Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Becca Balint (D-VT), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Randy Fine (R-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Laura Friedman (D-CA), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Daniel Goldman (D-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), David Kustoff (R-TN), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Mike Levin (D-CA), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Max Miller (R-OH), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Eugene Vindman (D-VA), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
The attack, which is suspected to have been carried out by a Muslim father-and-son duo from Pakistan, targeted Jewish families which gathered to mark the first night of Hanukkah. The murder spree left 15 people dead, including a 10-year-old child, and more than 40 others wounded. Australian authorities described the incident as a hate-driven assault aimed squarely at the Jewish community, as Jewish institutions across the US and the world were placed on heightened alert.
Monday’s statement, a rare show of bipartisan unity, was led by senior lawmakers including Sherman, along with Democrats and Republicans who stressed that defending Jewish life is not a partisan issue. The statement called on political leaders worldwide to take concrete action to protect Jewish communities and to reject efforts to excuse or normalize antisemitic rhetoric under any guise.
“Antisemitism is a cancer that eats at the core of society, whether in Australia, the United States, or anywhere it is allowed to take root and grow. We join leaders around the globe in condemning this evil act and in calling for justice, peace, and unwavering support for those affected. We also call on all leaders to do better standing up to antisemitism, bigotry, and hate. We must also do better in our work for a world where everyone can celebrate their faith and traditions free from discrimination and fear,” the statement read.
“Jews around the world will continue to gather this week to celebrate Hanukkah and its story of religious freedom and defiant optimism,” the statement continued. “As we light the menorah each night and remember the miracle of the festival of lights, let us proclaim that light is stronger than darkness, right is stronger than might, and justice is stronger than tyranny. Wishing all Jewish communities and the world around us strength and peace.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as an act of antisemitic terrorism and reiterated that assaults on Jews abroad are inseparable from the broader campaign of hatred against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Netanyahu also chided Australian leadership, pointing to a letter he sent the government which warned that their recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state could encourage more violence.
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended his government’s decision to recognize “Palestine,” saying, “overwhelmingly, most of the world recognizes a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East.”
Critics have argued that a two-state solution should be reached through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians rather than preemptive unilateral declarations by other capitals.
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Dutch Police Arrest 22 After Anti-Israel Protests, Vandalism at Amsterdam Venue During IDF Cantor Performance
Anti-Israel protesters clash with police outside Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, breaking through barricades and setting off smoke bombs during a demonstration against a performance by the IDF’s chief cantor. Photo: Screenshot
Dutch police arrested 22 people on Sunday after anti-Israel protests outside an Amsterdam concert hall erupted into violent clashes during a performance by the Israel Defense Forces’ official cantor.
Around 200 demonstrators gathered outside Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw to protest a performance by Shai Abramson, the IDF’s chief cantor, who has previously performed at several Israeli military ceremonies.
Even though Abramson was originally scheduled to lead the Concertgebouw’s annual public Hanukkah concert, the venue canceled his appearance last month following backlash over his ties to the Israeli military.
After the announcement sparked international outrage, the Concertgebouw offered Abramson the chance to perform at two private concerts later that evening while skipping the main Sunday afternoon concert.
Widely circulated on social media, footage showed anti-Israel protesters chanting antisemitic slogans, breaking through barricades, and carrying signs with inverted red triangles — a symbol used in Hamas propaganda to mark targets.
“October 7, 2023: The day indigenous people rose up against their occupier,” one of the signs read, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Paar demonstranten gooiden een hek om. Paar agenten van de arrestatie-eenheid hebben ze met hulp van de ME uit de groep gehaald. Dat ging er hardhandig aan toe pic.twitter.com/dxtxPg1jsQ
— Jesper Roele (@JesperRoele) December 14, 2025
As riot police worked to contain the crowd and maintain public order, protesters set off smoke bombs, leaving one officer with minor injuries, Dutch News reported.
Local law enforcement arrested 22 people for offenses including violating assembly rules, possessing fireworks, and resisting arrest.
Het was een orgie van Jodenhaat, vandaag op het Museumplein en vlak voor de ingang van het #Concertgebouw, waar Holocaustoverlevenden werden uitgescholden voor nazi’s. Met instemming van een tokkie in toga.
Dit is racisme, dit zijn de nieuwe nazi’s, dit is het pure Kwaad. pic.twitter.com/Ho8DC9dQ4y— Bart Schut (@bpschut) December 14, 2025
On Monday, the anti-Israel group Pal Action NL claimed responsibility for vandalism at the concert hall, sharing photos on its Instagram account showing red paint splattered across the walls.
“Last night, after Het Concertgebouw allowed IOF war criminal and official cantor of the Zionist settler colony, Shai Abramson, to perform, some activists decided to pay a little visit,” the group wrote in its post.
“Het Concertgebouw now has Palestinian blood on their hands, and it will take a LONG time to wash away …” the statement read. “A warning to all other venues and institutions in the country considering platforming Zionists, don’t. Or we will be visiting.”
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Antisemitism Threatens US National Security, Analysts Warn
From left to right: Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Scott Doran, Hudson Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship Walter Russell Mead, and Hudson trustees chair Sarah Stern. Photo: Screenshot.
Geopolitical competition, the rise of artificial intelligence, and declining faith in the capitalist economic model and liberal democracy are contributing to the resurgence of antisemitism taking place across the Western world, some of the leading foreign policy experts in the US said on Friday during a conference held by the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.
Titled, “Antisemitism as a National Security Threat,” the eight-hour event examined antisemitism as a challenge to the execution of a sound American foreign policy and a tactical advantage to “revisionist powers” such as China and Russia which aim to overturn the international order and supplant the US as the world’s leading superpower. Moreover, they stressed that the vanguard of the “new” antisemitism – Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Nick Fuentes – are not new characters on the world stage but rather the latest iteration of a social type which has always emerged in periods of disruptive change to convert public uncertainty about the future into domestic upheaval.
One area that antisemites have identified as a stronghold is the rising field of artificial intelligence, Jude Rosenblatt, founder of an AI consulting firm, told attendees while appearing via webcam.
“The AI, unfortunately is quite antisemitic itself. We’ve done a lot of research about this. I can explain it in greater detail if you want, but it turns out that AI is very antisemitic and then when it undergoes safety training, it actually becomes more antisemitic. And it is very concerning that underneath the hood, AI is deeply antisemitic,” Rosenblatt explained. “But if it remains deeply antisemitic underneath the hood, then it’s going to, as it becomes more deeply incorporated into everything, people are going to increasingly lose agency to something which is antisemitic and is going to undermine all of our interests.”
The Algemeiner has reported extensively in recent weeks on how neo-Nazis, jihadi terrorists, and others have weaponized AI both to target the Jewish people and, more broadly, expand their propaganda, recruitment, and operations.
The conference also touched on the rise of the so-called “new right.” From the advent of the Cold War until the election of Donald Trump, the American right or “conservative movement” was associated with a “strong” and “active” American foreign policy consensus rooted in a pragmatic assessment of the national interest even as it often embraced a missionary project of spreading liberal democracy and capitalism around the world.
Recently, however, right-wing social media pundits such as Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes have argued for America’s retreating from the world stage by citing, implicitly and explicitly, antisemitic conspiracies which claim that Jews incite wars and social upheaval for profit and the pursuit of power. In doing so, they have uttered torrid encomiums to the leaders and governments of China, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.
The lies and historical revisionism the new right promotes is poisoning public debate and creating a climate in which American leaders are incentivized to make poor strategic decisions for the sake of achieving short term political goals, according to experts.
“It started off with anti-Ukraine in the populist world,” Hudson Institute senior fellow and director of the Keystone Defense Initiative, Rebecca Heinrichs, said, speaking during a panel titled “The Grand Chessboard.”
“It’s antisemitism for the purpose of undermining Americans’ confidence in ourselves and in our post World War II role in the world. That is very dangerous because we can’t come to consensus on anything else we need from a grand strategy perspective if American scapegoat our problems to the Jews and if they believe that Israel is no longer an ally but it never was, and in fact that we were on the wrong side of World War II, which is now the narrative being pushed,” she continued.
The conference ended with a keynote address delivered by renowned scholar and foreign policy analyst Walter Russell Mead. An alumnus of Yale University, Mead’s most recent work includes his critically acclaimed examination of the US-Israel relationship titled, The Arc of the Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.
Mead discussed antisemitism across the ages as one consequence of utopian social engineering and its perennial quest to construct societies unalloyed by outsiders and nonbelievers.
“When you want to have a comprehensive political order that embodies all good things and lays out rules for how everyone should behave and think and so on, you sooner or later run up against those stubborn Jews who will not bend to the need of Baal, who will not sacrifice to the emperor or whatever the element of the coercive element of your utopia is,” Mead said. “Today in the Islamist Middle East, we see the same thing, a utopia. If everyone would just accept Islam and live in the light of these eternal truths, everything would be fine. There would be justice, there would be prosperity, there would be freedom. But there are Jews.”
He continued, “The European union’s vision of a world of peace in international order keeps getting disturbed by that traumatizing presence of a Jewish state that follows the logic of its own survival rather than the idealistic hopes and dreams that we see in Brussels.”
Mead concluded by arguing that the American tradition offers not only a guide for building a society which, while being imperfect, is inclusive to all but also an antidote to antisemitism.
“Other people reject the American idea of a free society in favor of some kind of a blood and soil nationalism. Again, you’re just not going to get there because it’s kind of obvious that we’re sort of diverse. We’ve got a bunch of people from whose blood and whose soil is it going to be there?” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.