Opinions in Jewish community differ on seeking death penalty for Pittsburgh synagogue shooter

Robert Bowers murdered Donna Coufal’s friend.

But she doesn’t want him to be executed for it.

“I hope that, whatever happens in (Bowers’) trial, people find peace,” said Coufal, 69, a member of Congregation Dor Hadash who lives in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill. “And I hope no other jury would have to face these decisions, about whether or not a person should be killed.”

A federal jury found Bowers guilty of killing 11 people in an attack on the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, in the most violent act of antisemitism in U.S. history. The victims, who were shot and killed during Shabbat services, belonged to the Dor Hadash, Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha and New Light congregations.

Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, one of those killed, had been close with Coufal.

Coufal joined four Dor Hadash congregants and a small group of activists outside the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh on Tuesday afternoon to protest the death penalty. Inside the courthouse, Bowers’ trial was completing its 15th day.

Seven of the nine families who lost a loved one in the synagogue shooting have publicly expressed support for executing Bowers.

On Monday, Bowers’ trial entered its second phase, where government prosecutors aim to prove he is eligible for the death penalty. If the jury finds him eligible for capital punishment, a final phase will determine his sentence.

Dor Hadash members practice Reconstructionist Judaism, the religion’s most liberal strain. But Coufal, who has been attending Dor Hadash services for 25 years, said it’s not religion leading her to oppose the execution of Bowers for his crimes.

“As Reconstructionists, we’re not given beliefs, we struggle to find our beliefs,” said Coufal, standing on a bustling street corner during rush-hour traffic on Grant Street. “I don’t believe in the death penalty … and Jerry Rabinowitz was a friend of mine. He was adamantly opposed to the death penalty.”

Abraham Bonowitz, a co-founder of the group L’Chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, stood near Coufal and about a dozen others, many of them holding signs reading “Remember the victims, but not with more killing,” “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Execution is not the solution.”

“We’re here to say executions are unnecessary to hold people accountable,” said Bonowitz, 56, of Columbus, Ohio, wearing a purple yarmulke and a prayer shawl outside the courthouse. “Judaism itself was attacked … if they’re going to be seeking the death penalty, they should consider Jewish law.”

Those trying to analyze Jewish beliefs on the death penalty are divided, those who interpret Jewish texts say.

Bonowitz thinks the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, is clear.

“Jewish law is based on current, rabbinic interpretation: ‘Justice is mine, sayeth the Lord, and I will avenge.’ And that’s what we think should happen,” he said. “We believe people can be remembered in a loving way without executions.”

Rabbi Danny Schiff disagrees.

The community leader, a foundation scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, believes Jewish religious texts suggest that Jews need to remain open to considering the death penalty.

“The death penalty should be a possibility for those particular moments when society is presented with an example of ultimate evil,” he said. “It should be exceedingly rare, if society is met with heinous acts.”

The Torah says to use the death penalty as a last resort, Schiff said in a Zoom call with reporters earlier Tuesday. But the Talmud, the ancient text governing Jewish civil and ceremonial law, warns Jews to restrict how often they use it.

“There is not one of those books (in the Torah) that doesn’t call for the death penalty,” he said. In the Talmud, on the other hand, “there are so many prerequisites that the death penalty be carried out in a way that bespeaks Jewish justice.”

One of those prerequisites is to not execute the mentally ill, Bonowitz said during Tuesday’s protest. Bowers’ defense team claims their client suffers from schizophrenia, a serious mental health condition.

Schiff talks about Israel to illustrate the oft-cited rabbinic reading of Jewish law that an execution should occur only once every 70 years.

On May 31, 1962, outside Tel Aviv, Israeli officials hanged Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who helped Hitler orchestrate the Holocaust during World War II. The Jewish State hasn’t employed the death penalty since.

Modern-day Jews differ on views of the death penalty — but even Schiff admits categorizing those beliefs automatically overgeneralizes them.

Some say more conservative Jews, such as Orthodox or Conservative Jews, typically support using the death penalty, while more liberal ones, such as Reform or Reconstructionist Jews, usually oppose it.

Two of the three congregations Bowers attacked — Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha and New Light — are Conservative, while Dor Hadash is Reconstructionist.

Some Jewish religious groups have codified their stance on the death penalty.

The Union for Reform Judaism, which bills itself as “the largest Jewish movement in North America,” has taken a stance opposing use of the death penalty.

But Schiff said those kinds of edicts are political — and not based on Jewish law.

“When it comes to the differentiation between different strains of Judaism, any statement would be a gross generalization,” Schiff said. “There are Jews on both sides of this question, in every stream of Jewish life.”

Families of Bowers’ victims in the synagogue shooting also are divided on the death penalty.

Diane and Michele Rosenthal met with reporters in April to correct what they called a “prevalent misconception” that many of the 11 victims’ families don’t want Bowers to be executed. Their brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal, were among those killed.

“This massacre was not just a mass murder of innocent citizens during the service in a house of worship. It was an antisemitic hate crime,” Diane Rosenthal said. “The death penalty must apply to vindicate justice and to offer some measure of deterrence from horrific hate crimes happening again and again.”

On July 2, 2021, seven of the nine families who lost a loved one sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the Justice Department to seek death against Bowers.

The letter said anything other than death “would be a grave injustice as well as a disservice to the lives, legacies and memories of our deceased family members and to us, the immediate victim-family members that live this nightmare each and every day.”

It was signed by the families of Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Daniel Stein, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Joyce Fienberg and Melvin Wax.

The families of Rabinowitz and Irving Younger didn’t sign it.

“We don’t want to be here,” Diane Rosenthal added. “But we owe it to our brothers, Cecil and David. The suggestion that all the family members of the deceased victims do not wish to proceed with a death penalty case is false.”