Tree of Life Synagogue Victims Remembered as Guardians of Their Faith

Every week David and Cecil Rosenthal stood at the back of the Tree of Life synagogue. The brothers greeted anyone who walked in with a “Good Shabbos” before offering them a prayer book opened to the correct page.

“They’ve been fixtures of there for as long as anyone can remember,” Jeffrey Solomon, chief executive of Cowen, a financial services company in New York, and a lifelong member of the Tree of Life congregation, said of David, 54, and Cecil, 59. “They were what we call ‘shomerim,’ people who guard the religion even for the rest of us who don’t go all the time,” said Solomon, who is related to the brothers by marriage.

The Rosenthals were among 11 people killed Saturday when a gunman stormed into the synagogue and opened fire. The dead included three women and eight men ranging in age from 54 to 97.

Among those who perished were an accountant, a dentist, and a husband and wife, Bernice and Sylvan Simon of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, who were 84 and 86. Daniel Stein, 71, had recently become a grandfather.

The Rosenthal brothers had developmental disabilities but lived independently. They often spent their days at the nearby Jewish Community Center, where they spoke warmly to anyone they met.

“I’ve said this many time, having nothing to do with this tragedy: You can feel what is good in the world when you talk to them, because they only talk to you about good things,” Solomon said. “To say that everyone in the Pittsburgh Jewish community knows them is not even a remote exaggeration. They were both active participants in so much of life.”

Solomon said he grew up in the community with the brothers, who were together constantly and often spoke joyfully about their extended family.

“Today we talk about inclusion, but they were just part of the community, and I didn’t think anything about it,” Solomon said. “It was my introduction to the fact that there are people like that and they are just like the rest of us.”

“I just can’t even imagine why anyone would want to hurt them,” Solomon added. “It doesn’t make any sense to me — they didn’t deserve this.”

Another victim, Richard Gottfried, 65, was remembered as a devoted congregant and a dentist who would serve patients who did not have insurance or were underinsured, performing root canals, installing crowns on teeth, and doing other preventive and restorative work.

“He was very devoted to community and to service,” said Susan Kalson, 59, the chief executive of the Squirrel Hill Health Center. “He loved working with our patients, underserved patients, including a lot of refugees and immigrants.”

Gottfried, described as a quiet, kind and unassuming man, was a dentist in the Pittsburgh area for decades after starting a private practice with his wife, also a dentist, in 1984. Seven years ago, he was looking for a way to give back to the community, and started volunteering about once a week at the Squirrel Hill center, where he found a way to “do for others,” Kalson said.

She said Gottfried was deeply devoted to Judaism. He graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 1974, according to his biography on his dental practice’s website. Gottfried and his wife, who was not Jewish, both volunteered at the center and were very close. They had no children, Kalson said, adding, “They were just one of those couples that is just so interwoven.”

A 2013 article in a local community magazine described Gottfried’s love for wine, developed after a 1981 trip to Australia, according to the magazine. Gottfried ran wine tastings at a local community center.

Kalson said her daughter, who is active in the Jewish community there, notified her about the shooting, which occurred close to where Kalson lives. Once they heard that a gunman was inside the Tree of Life, Kalson started calling and texting to learn whether people she knew were safe. A text from a friend later in the day told her that nobody had heard from Gottfried.

“We will get through this, but this is really devastating,” Kalson said.