Israeli consul: As many as four Jews killed
Jewish community members are among the seven confirmed fatalities in the mass shooting that took place at a July 4 parade in Highland Park.
As many as four Jewish community members were among the seven fatalities in the mass shooting that took place at a July 4 parade in a suburb of Chicago, Israel’s top diplomat to the US Midwest said on Tuesday.
It comes as a Chabad rabbi said the shooter entered his synagogue – located just two blocks away from the site of the shooting – during Passover this year.
“We have an armed security guard sitting in front … I approached him and sternly asked him to leave as I noticed he was not a member of our community,” Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz was quoted as saying.
Consul-general in Chicago Yinam Cohen told The Times of Israel his office has confirmed that two of the casualties were Jews and that there were “indications” that two more of the victims may also have been Jewish.
Highland Park, where the Monday shooting took place, has a large Jewish community, making up a third of the roughly 30,000 people in the affluent town.
Six victims had been publicly identified as of Wednesday morning. Jacki Sundheim, 63, was the events and b’nei mitzvah coordinator at a nearby Reform synagogue, North Shore Congregation Israel (NSCI).
“Jacki was a lifelong congregant of NSCI and a cherished member of NSCI’s staff team for decades,” the synagogue said in an email to congregants. “Jacki’s work, kindness and warmth touched us all.”
Irina McCarthy (nee Levberg), 35, was killed alongside her husband Kevin McCarthy, 37, leaving their two-year-old son Aiden orphaned.
The AJN understands the other Jewish victims were Katherine Goldstein, 64, and Stephen Straus, 88. Nicolas Toledo, 78, was also killed.
Cohen told Channel 12 that “despite rumours [to the contrary] … all indications are that there are no Israelis among the dead”.
Asked whether the attack was aimed at the Jewish community, Cohen said that did not appear to be the case. “There are currently no indications that this was an antisemitic incident, even though the profile of the attacker might be thought to match such an incident.”
The suspect has been identified as Robert (Bobby) E Crimo III, a 22-year-old who regularly posted content glorifying violence on his social media channels. In addition to killing seven people, Crimo is suspected of injuring at least 31 others, some of them critically, when he opened fire at the parade from a business’s rooftop, sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fleeing in terror.
The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, a local Jewish music group, were playing on a float as bystanders begin to scatter, screaming.
“The incident took place at a July 4 parade, [so] there is nothing to connect this to a Jewish incident,” Cohen told Channel 12, adding that he is in touch with local authorities and Jewish community leaders as their investigation continues.
Speaking later to The Times of Israel, Cohen said the Israeli consulate is also looking into whether it would be able to connect professional trauma counsellors in Israel with local authorities and community members.
“We, unfortunately, have a lot of experience with this, and it’s something we want to offer to the local authorities, as the community endured very difficult trauma yesterday and will continue grappling with it in the days and weeks ahead.”
The consulate has already connected community leaders in Chicago’s South Side with Natal, an Israeli organisation that treats victims of terror-related trauma, and the group’s professionals. The training locals received from Natal allowed them to reach some 45,000 trauma victims in Chicago.
The North Shore of Chicago’s large Jewish community has also made it a common destination for Israelis.
With TIMES OF ISRAEL