jews in the d

Pittsburgh aftermath

Barry Werber, a proud Air Force veteran,
who says he never experienced anything as
frightening as the synagogue shooting

SCAN THIS PAGE
TO SEE A VIDEO OF
BARRY WERBER.

Amidst
the Shots

Local women describe their
uncle’s nightmare at Tree of Life.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

D

uring the attack on
congregants inside
Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life
synagogue, Barry Werber hid in fear
in a dark store room, listened to
gunshots — and watched his friends
Melvin Wax and Cecil Rosenthal
die.
Werber’s first realization of the
shootings came after he heard loud
crashing noises from the hallway.
“He thought the Kiddush table
set up for the bris had
been knocked over,
and he went to the
doorway to see if he
could help,” said his
niece, Retta London
of Farmington Hills.
Retta London
“That was when he

saw Cecil, one of the two brothers
who had been greeters, as he lay
dying on the stairs.” Cecil’s brother
David was also killed in the attack.
The shooter was facing away
from the door of the New Light
Congregation chapel in the
basement of the building where
Werber stood. He was able to
quickly go back inside the room and
call 911 as the synagogue’s rabbi,
Jonathan Perlman, pushed him,
along with Wax and Carol Gottfried
Black into the storage room. The
gunman did not see them and went
into the building’s kitchen where he
shot and killed Daniel Stein and Dr.
Richard Gottfried, Black’s brother.
In a USA Today video, Werber
said that during a pause in the

gunfire, Wax pushed open the door
to the darkened closet where they
hid. “I tried to stop him,” he said. “I
hear some shots and he falls back
into the room. There’s a pause and
the door opened again. I’m pressed
up against the wall. The gentleman
walks in with a long gun. He doesn’t
see us, thank God. He stepped over
Mel’s body, stepped back and walked
out.”
At that point, London said, “Uncle
Barry felt Mel’s neck, but there was
no pulse.”

‘WAVES OF HORROR’
She first learned of the attack when
the MSNBC show she was watching
was interrupted for a newsbreak.
“When I heard Tree of Life in

Pittsburgh, my heart stopped,” she
said. “Uncle Barry is always there.”
A phone call to Werber’s son and
daughter-in-law confirmed he had
been inside the building during the
shooting, but he had gotten out.
“Hearing he was safe and in a
SWAT team van was a major relief
and made us believe at first that
others were able to escape,” said
London, who grew up in Pittsburgh,
where she met her husband, Mark,
when both were both college
students there. “The waves of horror
continued throughout the afternoon
as we were hearing updates on the
news.”
London said she knew or knew of
several victims of the shooting.
“I recognized the Rosenthal
brothers right away when I saw their
pictures because they looked so
much like their cousins who lived
across the street from where I grew
up,” she said. “I remember as very
young children they came over to
play with their cousins. My sister
was friends with them. My cousin
Ron swam with them as teenagers.”
An active synagogue
member, Werber
regularly attended
services. “I have
long-admired this
about him,” said
London’s daughter
Erika Bocknek Erika Bocknek of
Farmington Hills, who
has celebrated the b’nai mitzvah of
her family members in the Tree of
Life building. “He is very consistent

continued on page 28

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November 8 • 2018

27