Miami, FL – Calls For Action And Crackdown On Anti-Jewish Rhetoric As Police Continue Investigating N Miami Beach Synagogue Shooting

    13

    Warren Lipschutz Miami, FL – Details continue to emerge on Sunday’s shooting in front of a South Florida synagogue that sent a 69 year old man to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to his leg.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    As previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2YhUIXS) Warren Lipschutz was outside the Young Israel of Greater Miami on NE 171st Street when a car pulled up in front of the synagogue, its driver getting out briefly and shooting his victim multiple times before pulling away.

    Police chaplain Mark Rosenberg, a North Miami Beach resident, said that Lipschutz routinely came early to the synagogue, unlocking the door for other congregants and waiting on an outside bench to assist the rabbi on his arrival.

    Lipschutz was heading towards the bench when the shooter opened fire, diving behind it for protection, an act that Rosenberg said may have saved his life.

    Sources said that surveillance cameras near the synagogue show the shooter’s car circling the synagogue three times – once before the shooting, as Lipschutz was walking along the side of the building, again when the actual shooting occurred and then a third and final time after the shooting when rescue personnel had already arrived on scene.

    Audio taken from a nearby security camera captured the sound of twelve gunshots within the span of less than three seconds and sources said that police recovered more than half a dozen empty casings from the crime scene.

    An advisory released by the Miami-Dade Police Department described the suspect as an African American man between the ages of 20 to 25 with a slim build and short-cropped hair.

    The suspect was reported to be driving a 2006 to 2013 Chevrolet Impala with tinted windows at the time of the shooting. Detective Lee Cowart of the Miami Dade Police Department said that police had yet to determine if the shooting was being classified as a hate crime but sources said that it is currently being investigated as if the hate crime determination had been made.

    Community members have been discussing plans to have locals undergo security training but further steps need to be taken said North Miami Beach resident Alan Sakowitz.

    “In 2019 you cannot police a community just by manpower,” Sakowitz told VIN News. “You have to have intelligence – a lot of cameras with facial recognition and license plate readers hooked into a database of wanted people so police are alerted before a crime happens and not after.”

    Sakowitz noted that he recently made a kiddush to celebrate the birth of his granddaughter, arranging for an armed individual to be present.

    “I didn’t want to have a large number of people and no one to respond if something happened,” said Sakowitz. “There is nowhere in the world today where you can have a large number of people gathering and not have a need for security.”

    Addressing congregants at Monday night’s service at the Young Israel of Greater Miami, synagogue president Damon Salzman noted that the shooting was the third to have taken place at a United States synagogue in less than year.

    Relating that none of his co-workers had heard of the shooting, Salzman urged fellow congregants to spread word of the incident to everyone they knew as well as elected officials at all levels in order to prevent future acts of violence and potential tragedies.

    “Where is the outcry?” asked Salzman. “Where is the moral outrage? This is our home. Someone came into our home and shot us. The police presence right now is very nice. We appreciate it tremendously. But it’s a reaction. What is going to happen when things die down in a week or two weeks or a month or three months?”

    National Council of Young Israel president Farley Weiss, a Boca Raton resident, drove to North Miami Beach in a show of support for the community.

    Addressing the congregation, Weiss shared that the Young Israel of Bal Harbour had received a suspicious package just hours earlier bearing anti-Semitic sentiments and threats and spoke strongly about combatting inflammatory rhetoric aimed at Jews on all fronts, especially social media.

    “The hate is spreading, the hate crimes against Jews more than any other people,” said Weiss. “But somehow the world is against hate except for when it comes to Jews.”


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    13 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    BuckyinWisconsin
    BuckyinWisconsin
    4 years ago

    Black shooter? Could be dark skinned Arab.

    adar29
    adar29
    4 years ago

    Why did north Miami young Israel’s president said the perp was a bully. He could have used many adjectives. That one leads people to think he knew who the man is.

    4 years ago

    So it was a black? Not a white trump supporter? I guess it doesn’t fit the narrative of yoni and his ilk trump haters

    4 years ago

    This is the gratitude that Yidden receive, for us having helped the Blacks, during their struggle for civil rights!

    4 years ago

    I have a simple question- why do we not ever express outrage following violent acts against us??
    seems to me that we have we forgotten ‘never again’….already

    YLeah
    YLeah
    4 years ago

    we are now in the 3 weeks of BAIYN HAMEZORIM. these days. happened in the past God forbid many many tragedy’s it reminds us if the BAIS HAMIKDASH was not rebuild in our days. then we gotta do TESHUVAH. Mr. Lipshutz is a sample of a dear kind pious. he was only the Target. So we shall wake up…Hashem should send him a REFUAH Shlema, a speedy fully recovery.. We have to regroup and have 24 hours Patrol Cars driving around with Radio call. and especially on SHABBATH a non jew Driver.. Maybe the State or the City have some Funds for Patrol….אין לנו על מי להשען אלא על אבינו שבשמים

    kibachabatochnu
    kibachabatochnu
    4 years ago

    Does anyone know his hebrew name so we could daven for him? I was recently at a shul which is now debating if money should be used for security or for chulent on shabbos. I vote for chulent because in the zechus of serving chulent on shabbos, less security would be necessary. Why is that? because the reason we eat chulent on shabbos is to show that the halacha is like beis hillel who holds that we may benefit from fire on shabbos as long as it was lit before shabbos. unlike beis shamai who holds that we may not. So by eating chulent on shabbos we are SECURING the opinion of beis hillel and that alone can secure us. If Young Israel does serve chulent every shabbos then this solution flies out the window.