Rabbi Recounts Fear & Heroism In Synagogue Attack

June 2, 2023 4:54 am

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A rabbi who survived the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history says he immediately recognized the sound of gunfire coming from elsewhere inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that day and that he tried to get members of his congregation to safety. Rabbi Jonathan Perlman’s testimony came on the third day of the trial of Robert Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin who could face the death penalty if convicted of certain charges. Bower’s lawyers acknowledge that he carried out the Oct. 27, 2018, attack, in which he killed 11 people and injured seven others before police shot and wounded him. They hope to spare him the death penalty.