When Stephen Weiss began serving as the ritual director at the Tree of Life synagogue in 1989, he said the synagogue had so many families that they would have to run two services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The main sanctuary, which seats 1,200 people, wouldn't accommodate everyone in a single service, Weiss testified in federal court in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
But on October 27, 2018, there were only 12 people in the 225 seats inside the Pervin Chapel, where the congregation worshiped in later years as it shrank.
On that day, an armed man walked into the Tree of Life synagogue and shot and killed 11 Jewish worshipers and injured six people, including four police officers. Robert Bowers has been charged with 63 federal counts, including 11 counts of a hate crime that resulted in death. Bowers has attempted to plead guilty to the charges in exchange for a sentence of life in prison but prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The original Tree of Life Synagogue was built in the 1950s and additions were made in the 1960s. That meant the synagogue itself was labyrinthine, as old entrances were transformed into new conference rooms, and hallways often led to unexpected places. The prosecutors created a 3D-model replica of the building, with removable parts, which they have been using to help the jury keep track of all the different crime scenes and escape routes inside.
Weiss testified that, aside from himself, only the children who attended religious school at the synagogue really understood the many different passageways because they would play inside them.
Those children — about 25 were enrolled in 2018, according to previous testimony — would've been at the synagogue on October 27, 2018, except for the fact that the classes took off one Saturday every month, which just so happened to be the day of the shooting.
When the shooter entered, Weiss was inside helping to lead services, in part because the congregation needed 10 adult worshippers to carry out certain parts of the service. When the loud noises first started, two other worshipers — Cecil Rosenthal and Irving Younger, who served as ushers in the back — had already stepped out of the chapel to see what was happening, Weiss said, leaving only 10 people inside. So Weiss stayed until the Rabbi's prayer had finished.
When the prayer ended, Weiss stepped out and saw shell casings and then quickly darted back into the chapel. The rabbi at that point told everyone to seek cover. But Weiss said he had taken an active shooter training earlier that year and remembered being taught he wasn't supposed to hide where he could still be seen. So instead he ran.
As he made his escape, he stopped to go down a little-known set of steps to warn members of the New Light congregation downstairs. He bumped into Rabbi Jonathan Perlman and saw Melvin Wax, 87 and hard of hearing, trying to open the door to the closet he was hiding in.
"I basically said I hope you stay out of sight, there is a shooting," Weiss testified. Then, seconds later, he ran back upstairs and eventually outside to safety.
