“Terror will not win.”
Those were the words of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, a day after a deadly shooting at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., outside San Diego, in which he was wounded.
Goldstein described the horrifying attack Sunday on NBC’s “Today,” saying he heard a loud bang on Saturday that sounded like table overturning.
“I turned around and I was face to face with this murderer terrorist who was holding the rifle and looking straight at me,” Goldstein said. “As soon as he saw me, he started to shoot toward me and that’s when I put my hands up.”
Goldstein was hit in the hand, and said a finger was “blown away” by the gunshot from an assault rifle. Wounded, the rabbi said he rushed a group of children outside to safety. At a press conference Sunday, he said “miraculously, the gun jammed.”
The suspect, a 19-year-old man who was apprehended shortly afterward, was charged Sunday with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Authorities are treating the shooting as a hate crime.
“I cannot erase the moment, and it is going to be embedded there forever,” Goldstein said. “I’m just so heartbroken and saddened by the senseless killing.”
Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was killed in the attack, and authorities said she used her body to shield Goldsten as he evacuated the children. Two other men were wounded.
Goldstein continued his sermon Saturday — the last day of Passover — as first responders were arriving to the scene. “I got up there and just spoke from my heart,” he told the New York Times. “Just giving everyone the courage to know, it was just 70 years ago during the Holocaust we were gunned down like this, and I just want to let my fellow Americans know that we’re not going to let this happen.”
Sunday, Goldstein stressed on “Today” the importance of the freedom on religion.
“You know, the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of religion for all faiths, and you know we are so grateful to live here in this country that protects our rights to live openly and proudly as Jews,” he said. “One thing is for sure, I guarantee you, we will not be intimidated or deterred by this terror.”
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