The rabbi whose synagogue was targeted in Saturday’s deadly attack outside San Diego consoled his congregation even as the rampage unfolded, according tꦫo news reports.
Congregants that Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein was undeterred after suspected killer John T. Earnest shot him in the hand.
At least one worshipper was killed and three others injured in the attack i🐬n Chabad of Poway synagogue.
Congregant Minoo Anvari told CNN that Goldstein “did not leave his congregation until he was finished speaking to them, calming their fears and pledging resilience.”
After being taken to a hospital, the 57-year-old ꦜrabbi underwent surgery on both his index fingers. He’ll likely lose hi♎s right one, a trauma surgeon was quoted as saying.
The rabbi hails from Brooklyn and studied at Rabbinical College of America in🐷 Morristown, NJ, according to his Facebook p𝄹age.
His father Rabbi Yosef Goldstein moved to the neighborhood in 1954. In posted to Chabad.org, he recounted moving into the same building as Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson–the spiritual leader to tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews across the globe–in 1954. “I had a lot of good memories where we kept meeting each other,” said Rabbi Yosef Goldstein.
The younger Goldstein moved to Poway shortly after grad🎉uating from rabbini💦cal school, according to a 1991 article in the Los Angeles Times, growing the congregation to include 150 family members and a senior center by that year.
“People got attracted to me because of my tolerance and my ignorance, my willingness to learn,” he was quoted as saying.
“In Brooklyn, everybody is orthodox, and it’s predominantly Jewish,” he said. “It’s easy to be observant because everybody else does it.”
Rabbi Aaron Rꦉaskin of Chabad of Brooklyn Heights volunteered with Goldstein in California when Raskin was a teen. Raskin described Goldstein as “a very warm personality, kind individual, sensitive toward the needs of others, always smiling.
“It’s very, very sad and I have tremendous sympathy to his family and the community for what h๊appened,” Raskin told The Post. “He is definitely a person who is really dedicated to the community and loved by all 🐭his parishioners and someone who is totally dedicated to the work of the rabbi’s mission, which is to spread the light of God and kindness.”