NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Yosef Lipschutz, 68, was shot at least six times July 28 as he sat outside the Young Israel of Greater Miami synagogue waiting to join the evening prayers.
He survived the anti-Semitic attack, but has undergone several surgeries since. Synagogue President Damon Salzman said Lipschutz faces “what may be a prolonged recovery.”
No one has been arrested for the attempted killing, which took place eight months after the murder of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by ultra-rightist Robert Bowers.
“People are scared: ‘Can I come to shul with my child?’” Amy Salzman, who runs the synagogue’s youth program, told the Jewish News.
Young Israel is located in a neighborhood with a high concentration of Orthodox Jews. The murderous assault quickly became international news, prompting others to speak out.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida said in a statement, “An attack on a synagogue is an attack on every mosque, church, temple, and place of peace and worship in this country.” The group offered its prayers to “Lipschutz and all our Jewish brothers and sisters.”
Anthony Dutrow, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Miami City Commissioner, visited the synagogue, Aug. 1. He delivered a letter addressed to Salzman stating his campaign “offers our solidarity with you in the wake of the reactionary shooting of Yosef Lipschutz.”
“Jew-hatred and its murderous consequences are a product of the crisis of the capitalist system. The scapegoating of Jews is a deadly threat to all working people,” Dutrow wrote.
“I am using my campaign to urge working people and the entire labor movement to speak out against this attack,” he added.
The receptionist at the synagogue told Dutrow that all the synagogues in North Miami Beach would be celebrating the Sabbath together at Young Israel Aug. 3 in an act of solidarity.