The Tree of Life synagogue is a Conservative Jewish congregation, according to its website. It's in Squirrel Hill, a historic Jewish neighborhood. The synagogue has a Shabbat service at 9:45 a.m. Saturdays, the website said. Michael Eisenberg, the immediate past president of the Tree of Life congregation, said three congregations -- Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash -- would have been holding simultaneous services in the building on a typical Saturday. There would usually would be about 40 people attending the Tree of Life service in the "main part of the building," Eisenberg said. In the basement below, New Light's service would also have about 30 to 40 people. And the Dor Hadash congregation in the rabbi's study room would have about 15 people, he said. "On a day like today, the door is open," Eisenberg told a reporter for CNN affiliate KDKA. "It's a religious service. You could walk in and out. Only on the high holidays is there a police presence at the entrance."
When he was the congregation's president, security was a "major concern," Eisenberg said. The congregation had worked with the Department of Homeland Security to evaluate its exit routes, he said, and consulted a securities expert at the Jewish Federation about what to do in an active shooter situation. "We were working with the other synagogues on what to do if something horrific like this happened," he said. Tree of Life's former rabbi, Chuck Diamond, told KDKA, "Jews come late to services, so for a lot of people that's probably a good thing today." "This is what you dread hearing," he said, adding he was concerned for those who might have arrived at the service on time, most of whom would have been older.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/27/us/pitts ... index.html
Ten people were killed in the shooting inside Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday morning, Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor’s Chief of Staff Curt Conrad told CNN.
Robert Bowers, the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, has an active license to carry a firearm, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. Bowers has made at least six known firearm purchases since 1996, the source said.
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/pittsb ... index.html
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