Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
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In October of twenty eighteen, a tragedy struck a synagogue
(00:29):
in Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Paul Kinggor's
daughters were nearly in the line of fire. Here he
is to recount that story.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Pray for us, I will call you later. That was
the text message that we received from our sixteen year
old daughter at ten sixteen am on Saturday morning, October
twenty seven, twenty eighteen, as my wife and I drove
toward Pittsburgh Strip District in downtown Pittsburgh. My wife called
my daughter immediately, Are you okay? Were you in an accident?
(01:05):
In a hush voice, My daughter explained that she, our
second daughter, and three friends, along with an adult friend
of ours named Susie, were hiding in their van across
the street from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh's
Squirrel Hill section. They were there for a Saturday morning
retreat at a house across the street. They had arrived
(01:27):
at nine to fifty five am. They had initially stopped
the van directly across from the synagogue on Shady Avenue,
which would have been straight in the line of fire
between the police and the shooter.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
It's going to be a five to eight nine eight
Wilkens Avenue, Tree of Life Synagogue, thirty four eighty coffee.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
They were planning to hop out and walk to the house. Mercifully,
the driver, Susie decided almost on a whim, a gut feel.
She later conceded to find a parking spot so she
could walk the girls inside. Just as she moved to
a spot a little further away, police cars began flying
in Okay, initial reports of an active shooter one down
(02:12):
in the Tree of Life Synagogue. As a girl struggled
to assess the chaos, the police parked sideways in order
to use their vehicles as shields for the shootout. The
street was instantly closed off. Susie told the girls not
to get out. They all sat on the floor of
the van, ducked and listened and prayed and worried. We
(02:36):
received that text message about twenty minutes later Shortly after
we talked to her daughter, Susie and the girls made
a careful decision to drive a little further away. Susie
did a U turn and went down the street just
enough to pull into a driveway that allowed them to
put a few houses and buildings of separation between them
the synagogue and the gunfire. After nearly an hour of
(02:58):
chaos and confusion, the girls decided to abandon the van
and make a run for it. As we are paid
down by gunfire. He's firing out of the front of
the building with an automatic weapon.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Me.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I can't get any clothes here, we're under fire. They
dashed across backyards and over fences to meet a relative
of Susie who lived down the street. They could hear
gunfire in the background. They met Susie's relative in his
getaway car. They escaped, They got free. It was a
(03:37):
scary day. It was also evil, an act of evil
against our beloved Jewish brothers and sisters at a peaceful
Saturday worship service. And while my loved ones were okay,
the same cannot be said of everyone in that synagogue,
eleven of which were murdered. I've since returned to that
spot about a half a dozen times since last October
(03:57):
twenty seventh. In fact, I'll be there again this Saturday
with the girls. It's never the same. Each time I go,
I pause the look of the synagogue and say a prayer.
I've since talked to other parents who had dropped off
their girls at the retreat center that Saturday morning. One
of them, a dad, marvels of the conversation that he
and his wife had had that fateful morning. His wife
(04:19):
typically dropped off his daughter and then sat in the
car and the drop off lane at the Tree of
Life Synagogue, where she waited and worked on her laptop
for a couple of hours. On this morning, though, the dad,
again another strange gut feel, Olvey, decided that he wanted
to drive his daughter to the retreat center. He wasn't
sure why, but he just tried to convince his wife
(04:40):
to stay at home. He prevailed and talked her into it.
She stayed at home for some strange reason. They made
that decision. Had they not, his wife might have been
one of the first ones shot that morning.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The suspect in the shooting is in custody. We have
multiple casualties inside the synagogue. We have three officers who
have been shot, and at this time we have no
more information because we are still clearing the building and
trying to figure out if the situation is safe, if
there are any more threats inside the building. So that's
all we have at this point.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
They were very lucky, so were we. My wife and I,
of course, are so grateful that our loved ones didn't
get caught in the crossfire. My kids had only one scrape,
one of the girls from hopping over a fence. And
yet I imagine that many of the families of the
eleven dead ask why God hadn't spared their loved ones.
I agree, that's one of those timeless questions that we
(05:34):
all ask. It's a question the believers of all stripes,
and the Jewish people in particular, have asked ince liarly
the time of job. It's a mystery why some leave
this world in a violent way, seemingly prematurely, while others
seem to stay longer in this valley of tears, And
if and when certain people are protected and others are
or aren't. I have no answer there, though I know
(05:57):
that God is the author of life, and God wasn't
the one pulling the trigger in that synagogue. The evil
that transpired there was not an act of benevolence by
a loving God. I also feel confident in saying this,
the true Tree of Life is not an earthly one,
but an eternal one. This world, unlike the heavenly paradise
we seek, is full of sin and rot. The trees
(06:21):
in this world they decay and they die. Eternal life
and perfect bliss are not reachable in this world. They
come in the next. Now that might be small consolation,
I understand to the grieving and hurting loved ones of
the Tree of Life Synagogue, But honestly, I think it's
truly the best that we can say.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And we've been listening to Paul Kinggor who teaches at
nearby Grove City College, and by the way, that's where
our own Robbie Davis went to college. And what a
story he told. Indeed, why do some leave this world
prematurely that the hands of a madman and a mass
murderer like this while others don't. And I don't think
(07:05):
Paul could have put it better, and I don't think
there's a better way to put it. It's a mystery.
And in the end, well we can't put ourselves in
God's in God's mind, and it's a mystery. Paul Kangre's story,
his family's story of a tragedy in Pennsylvania that still
lives with them today, and we'll live on with them forever.
(07:26):
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