By Mallory Simon and Sara Sidner
Pittsburgh - Some things are very clear to Joe Charny (click here) -- remembering the dead is the right thing to do. Other things are not so clear -- why a gunman spared him but killed 11 mostly elderly worshippers at prayer on a fall morning in Pittsburgh a year ago.
The gunman intent on killing Jews pointed his weapon at Charny inside the Tree of Life sanctuary, but then turned and chose to fire at others, he says. His friends, seated at the back of the sanctuary, were killed. Charny was able to escape.
And so he takes it upon himself to remember.
Every weekday he goes to a synagogue and sits in the same place as he did at the Tree of Life on the day of the massacre and for decades before. The fourth row, first seat on the right. He stands as part of the minyan, 10 adult males required to be present for a communal prayer service.
This day, he also leads the service. He stands at the front of the room, looking out at his fellow worshippers. It's just days shy of a year since people like them were slaughtered for being Jewish. Along with saying the Mourner's Kaddish, the names of those who died on this day in the Hebrew calendar are read as is Jewish tradition. But in this temple, and many across Pittsburgh, they do more. Every single day since the shooting -- the deadliest attack against Jews in American history -- the names of the 11 dead are recited....
The gunman was sick with hatred, who knows why he acted the way he did.
