Doctor Performed CPR On California Synagogue Attack Hero Not Knowing It Was His Wife

There has been yet another incident of violence against a religious community. On Saturday,  27 April 2019, a gunman opened fire in a synagogue in Poway near San Diego, California, killing one and injuring three. The victim, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was attending a service celebrating Passover, one of the holiest Jewish celebrations at the Chabad of Poway Synagogue, when authorities say gunman John T. Earnest, 19, burst in and opened fire with "an AR-type weapon", reports NY Post.

Lori jumped in front of the gunman and the rabbi and received fatal wounds. According to CNN, Kaye's husband, a physician and rushed to the scene to perform CPR after he heard about the shooting. He started emergency CPR on one woman — unaware she was his wife. When he realized who the victim was, he fainted, says Dr. Roneet Lev.

Lev said Kaye, a mom of a 22-year-old daughter, had also gone to the synagogue also to say Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead, for her own mother, who had recently passed away. “The irony is people will be saying it for her now,” said Lev. He added, "God picked her to die to send a message because she’s such an incredible person. He took her for a higher purpose to send this message to fight anti-Semitism." He told CNN that she didn't die a senseless death. "She died advertising the problem we have with anti-Semitism and to bring good to this world. ... If God put an angel on this planet, it would have been Lori."

The other three people who were wounded in the incident, included Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, 57, who suffered what looked like defensive wounds to both his index fingers. Describing the incident, he told CNN, "I realize there's an active shooter right here right now. What must I do now? I turn around where all the children were gathered in the banquet hall and I gather them and I usher them outside. Amongst those children was my 4-and-half-year old granddaughter and my 3-year-old grandson, who was sleeping in his carriage. Bullets are flying all over and I'm shouting and screaming for everyone to get out."

The other was Noya Dahan, 8, who is wounded in one leg and in the face. The girl and her family had moved from Israel eight years ago to live in a safer community. The third was Almog Peretz, 34, Noya's uncle, who was injured by shrapnel while trying to protect his niece. Peretz was visiting from Israel for Passover and was attending Saturday service with his family when the shooting happened, Lev said.

A vigil took place in Val Verde Park, Poway on Sunday night and more than a thousand people attended it. The protesters held Yahrtzeit candles, which are lit in memorial of the dead in Judaism, and others held small birthday candles and long tapers. According to USA Today, the funeral service for Lori Kaye was held on Monday, 29 April, as the synagogue community continues to mourn after the hate-fueled attack.