Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein pushes the darkness away.
The terror attack a month ago at his synagogue, in Poway, a small town northeast of San Diego was extensively covered by the media. On the day Goldstein was injured, he became a national personality, recalling the details of the horrific attack.
The Friendship Circle organization organized a walk on June 2, 2019 in memory of Lori Kaye, who was murdered in the attack. Kaye had helped establish the Friendship Circle's San Diego branch in 2005. Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, Goldstein, synagogue members, and people from all walks of life took part. At the same time, an Israel Festival celebrating Israel's independence was held at San Diego's Liberty Station Park.
I drove down from Los Angeles to honor the dead and those who experienced the horror and to send the message: Am Yisrael chai – the nation of Israel lives.
I also had the honor to interview Goldstein about the darkest moment for Poway's Jews, and really, for all of the town's residents.
Since the terror attack, I have been following the injured rabbi's activities. Listening carefully to what he has been saying, I've concluded: The rabbi is a messenger of goodness and hope, sent by God to speak for the Jewish people.
Waiting in the park before the walk, I watched Goldstein mingling. Despite the unbelievably busy month he has had since the shooting, he remains approachable, patient and friendly. He knows and acknowledges each person who approaches him, carrying himself nobly.
I wanted my story to be slightly different from all the others we have read and heard. I wanted to connect to the depth of the rabbi's Jewish heart.
The rabbi invited me to meet him at his office, where the terror attack took place. The building, on Chabad Street, is most impressive and distinguished. What is more noticeable is the tight security: The doors do not open unless someone from the inside approves your entry. Life as a Jew has its concerns.
Meeting me in the synagogue's lobby, the rabbi said, "Right here it turned dark for a long moment and then the miraculous bright light came on."
The initially unsung heroes of that day, by Divine Providence, were army veteran Oscar Stewart and off-duty border patrol agent Jonathan Morales. The rabbi had warned the latter: "Arm yourself when you are here as you do not know what may one day happen."
Sitting in his office, the rabbi appears tired. His wounded hands are still wrapped in blue bandages. He has no time to think about the pain. He has been going nonstop, visiting U.S. President Donald Trump in White House, giving interviews, speaking in public and holding his community tightly together.
The rabbi retells what took place, with Divine intervention, in his synagogue that Passover day:
"All of a sudden someone threw a chair at the shooter who was in the synagogue's large foyer and startled him; till today we do not know who did it. The first two rounds of bullets were coming toward Oscar and he had a chance to take the shooter – a 19-year-old, John Earnest – out. Instead, Oscar gave such a shout that the people in the church next door heard it and called 911 [emergency services]. The shooter, who had not gone further than the synagogue's foyer, with Divine Providence did not know how to change the empty magazine for a full one. He had enough ammunition and the full intention to kill us all. So he started to leave," the rabbi recalls.
"What drove the shooter to perpetrate a terror attack?" I asked the rabbi.
"It is a new chutzpah in our country – one that no one knew before. The shooter, rather a privileged kid, studied nursing, a good student on the dean's list, basically from a good home with a good upbringing, by far not from a poor disenfranchised home and not known to be mentally ill, turned out to be a pervert. Kids today are not taught the value of faith. Our Jewish children do not learn Judaism, our history; they are ignorant and we are losing them, while parents do not invest in Jewish education and we do not make provisions that Jewish education is not so expensive. It is unaffordable for most.
"Lori Kaye was the shooter's first target. She took the first bullet. She was standing in the foyer when I was coming from washing my hands. I was the shooter's second target. The shooter never went into the sanctuary. If Lori was not there he would have entered the sanctuary and I hate to think what would have happened then. If Lori was not there, I would have been his first target.
"Zach Beresofsky, a 70-year-old Jew from Odessa, who experienced antisemitism in Russia, came to live in Poway in early 1991. Zach was inside the sanctuary. He followed Jonathan and Zach, who both ran toward the shooter who was fleeing the scene. Zach's car was parked behind's the shooter's car. Zach threw a rock at the shooter's car so he turns it around and Divine Providence acted again: The shooter drove off while Zach also called 911.
"More Divine Providence: The shooter pulled in front of a restaurant. Its owner heard on the radio what was happening in the synagogue and his partner happened to be the synagogue preschool director's boyfriend. They informed the police of the shooter's location.
"Shneur, my son-in-law, was reading from the Torah in the sanctuary as the first two bullets came flying through and touched his head. The bullet only ripped the thread of his kippah, but like a helmet, the kippah protected him. When you are busy reading the Torah, Divine Providence protects you," the rabbi recalls.
"When you face darkness, facing a murderer with a rifle aiming at you, your instinct is to save the children. All I could think of was to get the children in the synagogue to safety. After I took care of the children, not knowing that the shooter had already left the building, I noticed the faces of my congregants engulfed in fear. I did not know I was bleeding, but I knew I had to inspire my people. At one stage, I grabbed and wrapped my bleeding hands with a tallit – a fringed garment traditionally worn by religious Jews during prayer. I stood in front of my people and gave a speech to calm them down. I reminded them of the phrase in the Haggadah: "In every generation, they stand up against us to destroy us. But the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems us from their hands.' That they are not going to defy us. That nothing will take us down!"
Goldstein is a father of six and a grandfather of six. He came to settle in Poway a week after his wedding. "It was a nothing real estate here. Over the last 35 years we built the synagogue and the community," the rabbi tells me with gracious pride in the community he built and leads.
The terror his congregation experienced has changed Goldstein's life. From here on, he will be busy with public speaking, working to change hearts and minds, bring light to dark places and brighten places with already existing light.
This quote from Psalm 121 is most apropos: "The Lord will guard you from all harm; He will guard your life. The Lord will guard your going and coming now and forever."
