’You’re not killing him’: Jewish mother tells how she shielded son during Belleville synagogue shooting

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As people began to make their way inside the sanctuary for Rabbi Oded Peles’s service, a few minutes later than anticipated, Weitzman said they heard “three enormous banging noises” that at first sounded like someone using a battering ram to gain access, but what she now believes was the first of the shotgun blasts.

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Weitzman shielded her son, Aronson went to assist an elderly woman and everyone else lay down on the floor or found shelter somewhere else as a gunfight ensued for the next few minutes.

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Someone inside called 911 and stayed on with dispatchers throughout the ordeal, but it did little to quell immediate fears inside the temple.

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“I think what was most terrifying for everyone, beyond the fact that the gunfire was hitting the window, was that there was a shootout and we didn’t know if there was a shootout towards us and it was two or three shooters shooting at us and they were going to come in or if it was the police defending us,” she said. “We just didn’t know.”

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Weitzman believes at least one bullet came through into the sanctuary because one of the candles on the Yahrzeit wall, a memorial installation honouring deceased congregants, was extinguished.

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Photos from the scene shared by congregants Eva and Doug Lobel show well over a dozen bullet holes in the windows along one side of the sanctuary wall. Peles later told The Canadian Jewish News that 50-year-old stained glass behind the pulpit where he would have been leading prayer was hit with 23 bullets.

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“Thank God we were a few minutes late and we took extra time lighting the Yontif candles,” he told the outlet. “We got extra candles and maybe by lighting the candles, extra four candles, saved our lives.”

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Peles, the CJN reported, is from Israel and was visiting the synagogue for the second straight year. Asked if the incident would deter him from returning, Peles said it wouldn’t.

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“It’s like almost asking, ‘Are you not going to come to the Holy Land because we have rockets?’”

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After the cacophony of gunfire ended, synagogue president Norm Weddum bravely ventured to a window and saw a significant police presence, Weitzman said. It was another 25 minutes before they had contact with police, who kept them in the security of the sanctuary while sweeping the building and neighbourhood, during which time “they gathered around the table and held hands and prayed.”

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They were soon bused to the local police station for interviews before being sent home.

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Days later, with the adrenaline well out of her system, Weitzman said she believes that Ward came there to “massacre all of us” and would not have survived but for the “grace of God and the police.”

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The investigation is being led, at this stage, by the SIU, which is mandated to look into the circumstances of a police shooting. Spokesperson Kristy Denette wouldn’t speculate on whether it was a targeted attack against Jewish people during a Monday press conference, but said “common sense would say that probably was the case.”

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“Let me be very clear, hate and violence have no place in our community. Every person deserves to feel safe when attending a place of worship, gathering with loved ones, or participating in community life,” added Belleville police deputy chief Sheri Meeks.

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For Weitzman, however, there’s no doubt in her mind that “this was a premeditated, full-on terrorist attack.”

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“Stop telling us Jews that we’re overreacting. Stop telling us it’s not antisemitism, ‘It’s not all about you. Oh, where there’s smoke, there must be fire. If people hate you, there’s a reason,’” she said.