Dispatch from Pittsburgh: Rabbi eulogizes massacre victim with psalms

Muffled sobs echo in the darkened JCC auditorium as hundreds prepare to mourn beloved family member, friend, and neighbor Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz.

As the family enters the hushed hall, the community rises to its feet. While awaiting the family, a staff member at Rabinowitz’s medical clinic says there was a funereal atmosphere at the office yesterday as dozens of patients expressed their shock and condolences. He will be missed, she says, by many.

Wearing a tallit and yarmulke, Rabbi Doris Dayan from Rabinovitz’s Dor Chadash Reconstructionist community begins the service.

“Praise is the reality that helps us accept what is,” says Dayan, leading those assembled in the traditional prayer, “Baruch Dayan Ha’emet.”

Quoting from Ecclesiastes, Dayan muses on the meaning of the time for mourning and led the mourners in the recitation of psalms spelling out Rabinowitz’s name.

— Amanda Borschel-Dan