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Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who faced a shooting Saturday at his San Diego synagogue, spoke with The Daily Caller News Foundation as he left the White House about the tragedy of that day and how America must face the evils of anti-Semitism and hatred.
Goldstein faced the deadly evil in the form of a 19-year-old suspect driven by hate to try to murder the congregation of the synagogue. The rabbi lost some of his fingers to the gunfire, but none of his resolve to champion peace, family values and reverence for God throughout the nation. (RELATED: Combat Vet Who Stopped The Synagogue Shooter : ‘I Scared The Hell Out Of Him’)
After offering a blessing at the White House on the National Day of Prayer and Holocaust Remembrance Day and exhorting Americans to stand for hope in the face of evil, Goldstein spoke with TheDCNF before flying back to California about the comfort President Donald Trump offered him and the need to re-instill moral values in American families.
“What happened to me wasn’t just an attack on me personally or on my synagogue, but it was an attack on all Americans,” Goldstein told TheDCNF. “Our President, Mr. Donald Trump, made it his personal attack as well.”
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Oscar Stewart, the hero combat veteran who confronted the shooter and saved the lives of his rabbi and others, also recounted to TheDCNF the extreme levels of light and darkness he witnessed that day, from the courage he said God gave him to chase the shooter away to the depth of one doctor’s grief in the midst of trying to save Lori Kaye, whom the shooter killed.
“At this point he lifts up her face, looks at her neck, and puts his hand on her neck to get a pulse and he just lets out, like, a groan and faints,” Stewart said. “I find out later he didn’t know that was his wife he was doing CPR on.”
Both men delivered an unequivocal call to faith and righteousness from the White House Rose Garden, despite the horror they faced.
Supporters of those affected by the Poway Chabad synagogue shooting have donated to a GoFundMe account to raise money for the victims.
