The names of the 11 victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre were released by officials on Sunday. The oldest was a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor. The youngest was 54. The victims included a pair of brothers and a husband and wife.
"The loss is incalculable," said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light congregation, one of three congregations that used the synagogue targeted on Saturday.
Victims Cecil and David Rosenthal went through life together with help from a disability services organization. People who knew them said that the Tree of Life Synagogue was an important part of the brothers' lives, and that they never missed a Saturday service.
"If they were here, they would tell you that is where they were supposed to be," Chris Schopf, a vice president of the organization ACHIEVA, said in a statement.
ACHIEVA provides help with daily living, employment and other needs, and the organization had worked for years with Cecil, 59, and David, 54, who were among the 11 killed in Saturday's deadly shooting. They lived semi-independently.
According to his obituary, Cecil was known as "the honorary mayor of Squirrel Hill" and David worked at Goodwill Industries.
"They really found a home at the synagogue, and people reciprocated," Emeritus Rabbi Alvin Berkun said.
Cecil carried a photo in his wallet of David, whom Schopf remembers as a man with "such a gentle spirit."
Bernice and Sylvan Simon were always ready to help other people, longtime friend and neighbor Jo Stepaniak said. "They always did it with a smile and always did it with graciousness."
Sylvan, 86, was a retired accountant with a good sense of humor – the kind of person his former rabbi felt comfortable joking with after Sylvan broke his arm a couple of weeks ago. (The rabbi emeritus, Alvin Berkun, quipped that Sylvan had to get better so he could once again lift the Torah, the Jewish holy scripture.)
Bernice, 84, a former nurse, loved classical music and devoted time to charitable work, according to Stepaniak and neighbor Inez Miller.
Melvin Wax was always the first to arrive at New Light Congregation, and the last to leave.
Wax, who was in his late 80s, was among the dead. Fellow members of the congregation, which rented space in the lower level of the Tree of Life Synagogue, said Wax was a kind man and a pillar of the congregation, filling just about every role except cantor.
"He was a gem. He was a gentleman," recalled fellow congregant Barry Werber on Sunday. "There was always a smile on his face."
New Light moved to the Tree of Life building about a year ago, when the congregation of about 100 mostly older members could no longer afford its own space, said administrative assistant Marilyn Honigsberg. She said Wax, who lost his wife Sandra in 2016, was always there when services began at 9:45 a.m.
"I know a few of the people who are always there that early, and he is one of them," she said.
Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz and his partner in his medical practice were seemingly destined to spend their professional lives together.
He and Dr. Kenneth Ciesielka had been friends for more than 30 years, since they lived on the same floor at the University of Pennsylvania. Ciesielka was a few years behind Rabinowitz, but whether by fate or design, the two always ended up together. They went to the same college, the same medical school and even had the same residency at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center a few years apart.
"He is one of the finest people I've ever met. We've been in practice together for 30 years and friends longer than that," Ciesielka said. "His patients are going to miss him terribly. His family is going to miss him terribly, and I am going to miss him. He was just one of the kindest, finest people."
Rabinowitz, a family practitioner at UPMC Shadyside, was remembered by UPMC as one of its "kindest physicians." The hospital said in a statement that "the UPMC family, in particular UPMC Shadyside, cannot even begin to express the sadness and grief we feel over the loss."
Joyce Fienberg, 75, who was among the victims in Saturday's shooting, spent most of her career at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center, retiring in 2008 from her job as a researcher looking at learning in the classroom and in museums. She worked on several projects including studying the practices of highly effective teachers.
Dr. Gaea Leinhardt, who was Fienberg's research partner for decades, said she is devastated by the death of her colleague and friend.
"Joyce was a magnificent, generous, caring and profoundly thoughtful human being," she said.
Daniel Stein was a visible member of Pittsburgh's Jewish community, where he was a leader in the New Light Congregation. His wife, Sharyn, is the membership vice president of the area's Hadassah chapter.
"Their Judaism is very important to them, and to him," said chapter co-president Nancy Shuman. "Both of them were very passionate about the community and Israel."
Stein, 71, was president of the Men's Club at Tree of Life. He also was among a corps of the New Light members who, along with Wax and Richard Gottfried, 65, made up "the religious heart" of the congregation, said Cohen, the congregation co-president.
Former Tree of Life Rabbi Chuck Diamond said he worried about Rose Mallinger as soon as he heard about the deadly shooting at the synagogue.
The 97-year-old had almost unfailingly attended services for decades, he told The Washington Post, and was among the first to walk in.
"I feel a part of me died in that building," Diamond said.
Her daughter, Andrea Wedner, 61, was among the wounded, a family member said. She remains hospitalized.
Richard Gottfried was preparing for a new chapter in his life.
Gottfried ran a dental office with his wife and practice partner Margaret "Peg" Durachko Gottfried. He and his wife met at the University of Pittsburgh as dental students, according to The Washington Post, and opened their practice together in 1984.
Gottfried, who often did charity work seeing patients who could not otherwise afford dental care, was preparing to retire in the next few months.
He, along with Wax and Stein, "led the service, they maintained the Torah, they did what needed to be done with the rabbi to make services happen," Cohen said.
"He died doing what he liked to do most," said Don Salvin, Gottfried's brother-in-law, told The Washington Post.
A neighbor in Pittsburgh's Mount Washington neighborhood on Sunday remembered victim Irving Younger as "a really nice guy."
Tina Prizner, who told the Tribune-Review she's lived next door to Younger for several years, said he was a "wonderful" father and grandfather.
The one-time real estate company owner "talked about his daughter and his grandson, always, and he never had an unkind word to say about anybody,' Prizner told the Tribune-Review.
On Sunday, a survivor of the massacre described how he and other terrorized worshippers concealed themselves in a supply closet as the gunman stepped over the body of a man he had just shot and killed, entered their darkened hiding spot and looked around.
"I can't say anything, and I'm barely breathing," recalled Barry Werber, 76, told The Associated Press. "He didn't see us, thank God."
