Saturday’s horrific synagogue shooting in San Diego could have been even worse in terms of casualties — had the shooter arrived moments later when the house of worship’s lobby was full of kids, its rabbi told The Post on Sunday.
The Chabad of Poway Synagogue was about to start its Yizkor service, a memorial for the dead, when a hate-filled gunman burst in and opened fire, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said.
Traditionally, congregants whose parents are still alive do not take part in the memorial service, so groups of young children would have been ushered from the sanctuary into the lobby to wait out the service. Before they got there, shooter John T. Earnest allegedly killed one worshiper and injured three others. Then his gun jammed, and he was chased off.
Heroic victim Lori Gilbert-Kaye reportedly died shielding Rabbi Goldstein, who lost a finger in the attack.
The violence came as Jews completed their week-long observation of Passover. Goldstein’s friend and fellow Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort knew that his friend celebrated the close of the holiday with a pizza — and made sure this year would be no different, despite the horror.
“So I ran over to the Ralphs to buy the pizzas, and we brought them over to the hospital,” Eilfort told The Post.
Goldstein’s son, Shalom, took to Facebook to celebrate his father’s perseverance.
“You showed me today what it means to be a Jew that never gives up no matter what,” the son wrote. “I will never forget your words when you were shot. ‘We are strong. We are united. They can’t break us.’ ”
Eilfort, meanwhile, said his son, Yossi Eilfort, a rabbi and former MMA fighter, runs an organization called Magen Am — Hebrew for “Shield of Our Nation” — that trains rabbis and congregants to prevent or stop active-shooter situations.
“We’ve got to take the preparation business seriously. The last thing we want is for our congregations to feel like they’re in danger any way,” Eilfort said. “That’s why a sanctuary is called a sanctuary.”