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PITTSBURGH (WTAE-TV)—Names of all 11 people killed in the Squirrel Hill synagogue shooting were released Sunday, as authorities announced updates on the investigation at a news conference.

The mass shooting at Tree of Life Congregation on Wilkins Avenue also left six people injured, including four police officers.

Those killed ranged in age from 54 to 97, including a married couple in their 80s and two brothers. Mayor Bill Peduto called it the "darkest day of Pittsburgh's history."

Here is the list of victims, as provided by the Allegheny County medical examiner.

  1. Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland
  2. Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township
  3. Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill
  4. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood
  5. Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill, and his brother, David Rosenthal, 54
  6. Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86
  7. Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill
  8. Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill
  9. Irving Younger, 69, of Mount Washington

Please join us. Pittsburgh. #StrongerThanHate https://t.co/27jrD8lhYR

— bill peduto (@billpeduto) October 28, 2018

WHO WERE THE VICTIMS?

  • UPMC said Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz was one of the kindest physicians and human beings in our community."

Law Claus, a former Allegheny County deputy district attorney, described him as "more than just a physician for me and my family; for over three decades he was truly a trusted confidant and healer who could always be counted upon to provide sage advice whenever he was consulted on medical matters, usually providing that advice with a touch of genuine humor. He had a truly uplifting demeanor, and as a practicing physician he was among the very best."

"The UPMC family, in particular UPMC Shadyside, cannot even begin to express the sadness and grief we feel over the loss of Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz. Jerry was above all one of the kindest physicians and human beings in our community." More ⬇️. pic.twitter.com/nX2yiyyDR2

— UPMC (@UPMCnews) October 28, 2018

  • Daniel Stein was a visible member of the city's Jewish community as a leader in the New Light Congregation. The co-president of the area's Hadassah chapter, Nancy Shuman, says Judaism was very important to Stein, whose wife, Sharyn, is the chapter's membership vice president.

Shuman says, "Both of them were very passionate about the community and Israel."

Stein's nephew Steven Halle told the Tribune-Review that his uncle "was always willing to help anybody." Halle says Stein "was somebody that everybody liked."

  • Joyce Fienberg and her late husband, Stephen, were intellectual powerhouses, but those who knew them say they were the kind of people who used that intellect to help others.

Fienberg spent most of her career at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center. She retired in 2008 from her job as a researcher looking at learning in the classroom and in museums. She worked on several projects, including studying the practices of highly effective teachers.

Dr. Gaea Leinhardt, who was Fienberg's research partner for decades, says, "Joyce was a magnificent, generous, caring, and profoundly thoughtful human being."

  • Cecil and David Rosenthal: 'Sweet, gentle, caring men'

Cecil and David Rosenthal went through life together with help from a disability-services organization. And an important part of the brothers' lives was the Tree of Life synagogue, where they never missed a Saturday's services, people who knew them say.

"If they were here, they would tell you that is where they were supposed to be," Chris Schopf, a vice president of the organization ACHIEVA, said in a statement.

"They really found a home at the synagogue, and people reciprocated," he said.

"Together, they looked out for each other," she said. "Most of all, they were kind, good people with a strong faith and respect for everyone around."

The two left an impression on state Rep. David Frankel, who sometimes attends services at Tree of Life and whose chief of staff is the Rosenthals' sister.

"They were very sweet, gentle, caring men," Frankel said. "... I know that this community will really mourn their loss because they were such special people."

  • Bernice and Sylvan Simon

"Anything that they could do, and they did it as a team," she said.

The Simons were fixtures in in the townhome community on the outskirts of Pittsburgh where they had lived for decades. She'd served on the board, and he was a familiar face from his walks around the neighborhood, with the couple's dog in years past.

Sylvan, 86, was a retired accountant with a good sense of humor—the kind of person his former rabbi felt comfortable joking with after Sylvan broke his arm a couple of weeks ago. (The rabbi, Alvin Berkun, quipped that Sylvan had to get better so he could once again lift the Torah, the Jewish holy scripture.)

Bernice, 84, a former nurse, loved classical music and devoted time to charitable work, according to Stepaniak and neighbor Inez Miller.

And both Simons cared deeply about Tree of Life synagogue.

"(They) were very devoted, an active, steady presence," said Berkun, the rabbi emeritus at the temple, where the couple was among those massacred Saturday. The Simons had married there in a candlelight ceremony nearly 62 years earlier, according to the Tribune-Review.

Tragedy has struck their family before: One of the couple's sons died in a 2010 motorcycle accident in California. And now the Simons' death is reverberating through their family and community.

"Bernice and Sylvan were very good, good-hearted, upstanding, honest, gracious, generous people. They were very dignified and compassionate," Stepaniak said, her voice breaking. "Best neighbors that you could ask for."

  • Melvin Wax was remembered as "a sweet, sweet guy" by fellow members of New Light Congregation, which rented space in Tree of Life Synagogue. The retired accountant was said to be unfailingly generous and a pillar of the congregation, filling just about every role except cantor.

"He was such a kind, kind person," said Myron Snider, chairman of the congregation's cemetery committee. "When my daughters were younger, they would go to him, and he would help them with their federal income tax every year. Never charged them.

"He and I used to, at the end of services, try to tell a joke or two to each other. Most of the time they were clean jokes. Most of the time. I won't say all the time. But most of the time."

  • Dr. Richard Gottfried was "a good and holy man" who "wore his devout faith like a badge of honor," said a friend, Richard DeFilippo.

"His compassion for his fellow man was well known, not only as a volunteer at Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center but as a compassionate dentist at Squirrel Hill Health Care Center, where he and his wife Margaret served the immigrant and underserved population of the Pittsburgh area," DeFilippo said. "He served our Heavenly Father (El Shaddai. El Elyon) in many ways, not the least of these was by serving his fellow man by providing access to care to those who oftentimes fall through the cracks of traditional health care services."

DeFilippo said that Gottfried's "awesome life" was cut short in the shooting, and that he will be missed "more than words can say."

  • Rose Mallinger was a native of Squirrel Hill. She served as secretary in her school's office. Mallinger regularly attended the synagogue and always offered friendly greetings.
  • Irving Younger was a native of Pittsburgh's Mount Washington neighborhood.

THE PATIENTS

UPMC on Sunday said it was still treating four patients: a 40-year-old male police officer in critical condition, a 61-year-old woman in stable condition, a 70-year-old man in critical condition and a 55-year-old man in stable condition.

"Squirrel Hill is the most diverse neighborhood in all of Western Pennsylvania. People choose to live there because of the diversity of the community," Mayor Bill Peduto said. "The Jewish community is the backbone. It is part of the fabric of Pittsburgh. And we will be there—in all communities—to support our friends in the Jewish community.

"We have been knocked down before, and have always been able to stand back up because we worked together."

Pittsburgh City-County Building. Mourning for the victims & the families/friends. Mourning for our Jewish community. Mourning for our city. Pittsburgh. #StrongerThanHatepic.twitter.com/jZluW6A9za

— bill peduto (@billpeduto) October 28, 2018

THE SUSPECT

Robert Bowers, 46, of Baldwin, is charged with federal murder and hate crime counts, along with state charges. Authorities said he killed the eight men and three women during worship services Saturday before a SWAT team shot and took him into custody.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Jones commended police officers for their bravery in entering the synagogue and subduing Bowers, saying that there was "a strong possibility of additional violence" had the gunman been able to leave the building.

Bowers is scheduled for his first court appearance Monday, U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said.

"The distinction between a hate and domestic terrorism is, hate crime is where an individual is animated by a hatred or certain animus toward a person of a certain ethnicity or religious faith, and if it becomes domestic terrorism where there is an ideology that that person is then also trying to propagate through violence, so we continue to see where that line is, but for now, at this place in our investigation, we're treating it as a hate crime and charge it as such," Brady said.


©2018, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WTAE-TV.

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