Public rituals of grief took place across the city for the 11 people killed when a gunman stormed the Tree of Life synagogue during services.<\/b>
\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 The public rituals of grief in Pittsburgh kept accumulating on Wednesday with more funerals, more burials and more communal gatherings for the 11 killed in the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue.
At Beth Shalom Synagogue, people gathered early Wednesday to mourn Joyce Fienberg, 75, a well-loved researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. A little over an hour later, visitation had begun for Irving Younger, 69, at Rodef Shalom Temple, the second service there in two days.
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t the tallest guy, but he had the biggest heart,\u201d said Marsha Mintz, 74, a longtime friend who was waiting in the visitation line. She was a guest at the wedding of Mr. Younger and his late wife, Sherry, and remembered how he had doted on her. \u201cShe was ill for a very long time and he took care of her with such devotion,\u201d Ms. Mintz said, choking back tears.
Emily Harris, 69, was in Mr. Younger\u2019s graduating class in high school when they were growing up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. \u201cHe was a good guy, a solid guy: what we call a mensch,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was a friend you could always count on.\u201d
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted the man accused of carrying out the attack on 44 counts, including hate crimes, prosecutors said. Robert Bowers, 46, who will appear in federal court on Thursday, faces the possibility of the death penalty.
Most of the mourners tried to keep the focus on the people being remembered, but sometimes the horrific circumstances behind it all crept into mind.
\u201cYou see all that\u2019s going on in the world,\u201d Ms. Harris said, \u201cand every time I\u2019m out in a crowd, I get visions of something like this happening.\u201d
[ Read more about the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.]
At the same time, friends and family gathered in a funeral home chapel not a mile away, for the service for Melvin Wax, 87, who was killed on Saturday as he came out of a dark storage room into the chapel where the New Light congregation met on the Sabbath.
\u201cIt is a week of mourning for the whole community; there are funerals that are scheduled every day,\u201d said Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, who leads the New Light congregation and was preparing to lead services for Mr. Wax. \u201cIt\u2019s very all-consuming, everybody is talking about whose funeral they have gone to and when the next funeral is going to be and where will it be held.\u201d
The deaths have been on front pages globally; it is not just the family and friends who mourn them, said Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life, at the funeral for the Rosenthal brothers, Cecil and David, which took place the day before. But, \u201cthe entire world is sharing this grief.\u201d
That has presented the families with another burden in an already taxing week: how to balance the intimate rituals of grief with the worldwide attention. Many of the funerals are private and closed to people outside of friends and family. The shivas, the seven-day periods in which mourners and community members come together to comfort the bereaved, began on Tuesday with the first burials; by the end of the week, there will be several proceeding around the city. Families have tried to keep most of these closed, as well.
Given the outpouring of support, they are big enough as it is.
\u201cThe house could just not hold capacity,\u201d said Steven Halle, a nephew of one of the victims, Daniel Stein. \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming support. We expect the same for the next two nights.\u201d
The shiva for Mr. Stein began Tuesday evening, hundreds of people packed into the home where he lived for years with his wife, Sharyn. A line snaked out the door; the porch stayed about 50 people deep for hours. When the rabbi began the evening services to lead the Mourner\u2019s Kaddish \u2014 the traditional prayer for the dead \u2014 it was impossible to see where the voice was coming from, the room was so crowded.
Ms. Stein, Mr. Halle said, \u201csat in one chair at 6 o\u2019clock and didn\u2019t get up until 11, when people had gone home.\u201d
\u201cI spoke to them this morning and there is clearly relief,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey are sleeping better. It does help them, no doubt.\u201d
Plainclothes officers from the city police department and the F. B. I. were scattered throughout the gathering, there to both ensure safety and, at the family\u2019s request, keep the news media out. Hundreds of visitors came carrying food, offered for both the mourners and visitors.
\u201cIf you don\u2019t eat at a Jewish event, something is wrong,\u201d Mr. Halle said. \u201cI can\u2019t even tell you how much food was arriving, and people still wanted to provide more.\u201d When others asked if they could provide meals to Ms. Stein, they were urged to call next week: There was already food lined up for days and days.<\/p>\n

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