Funeral services continued on Wednesday for three of the 11 victims killed in Saturday’s mass shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Joyce Fienberg, 75, Irving Younger, 69, and Melvin Wax, 87, were laid to rest on Wednesday.
“All 11 were there to worship God,” said Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers. “They’re martyrs in that sense. It’s an appropriate use of the phrase. In the Jewish community, we haven’t seen martyrs like that, not in America.”
Squirrel Hill native Joel Mackler attended the funeral for Wax and wrote the following on Facebook, which he gave JNS permission to quote: “I best remember Mr. Wax standing in front of the congregation, wearing that classic scarf-style tallit, leading services. Here was an old Jewish man, in his 80s, standing up before the congregation, leading them, leading us.”
On Tuesday, the first four of the victims were buried: David Rosenthal, 54, Cecil Rosenthal, 59, Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, and Daniel Stein, 71.
On Thursday, Sylvan Simon, 88, Bernice Simon, 84, and Richard Gottfried, 65, will be laid to rest.
The final funeral will be for 97-year-old Rose Mallinger on Friday.
The shooting suspect, Robert Bowers, was charged on Wednesday in a 44-count indictment. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
