The death sentence given last week to Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 Jews at prayer in Pittsburgh in 2018, has forced many Jews to clarify their stance on the death penalty.
Bowers’ sentence makes him the most prominent person to be condemned to death for antisemitic crimes since Adolf Eichmann, convicted and executed by Israel in 1962 for his role in perpetrating the Holocaust.
Four Washington-area rabbis contacted by WJW had mixed opinions about the death penalty for the Tree of Life shooter. But each acknowledged that such a severe punishment for the deaths of 11 worshippers may be viewed as appropriate by survivors and victim’s families.
“Rabbinic tradition approaches the death penalty with extreme trepidation,” Rabbi Adam Raskin of Conservative Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac said in an email. “Since there is nothing more sacred than human life, the prospect of ending a life, even of a heinous criminal, is a matter of utmost seriousness.”
However, Raskin wrote: “It may be that the perpetrator of the Tree of Life massacre has forfeited his right to continue to live. Undoubtedly some of the relatives of the victims and survivors of this attack will feel a sense of closure, relief and that justice was done.
“Tragically, no human court or sentence can undo the events of Oct. 27, 2018,” Raskin continued. “We can only hope that this harsh decree will signal that antisemitism, hate crimes and gun violence will not be tolerated in this country and that Jewish blood will never be regarded as cheap. I pray that the day may come soon when society will never have to consider taking life in order to protect life: when hatred and violence will be eradicated once and for all.”
Rabbi Jack Moline, rabbi emeritus of Conservative Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria and past president of the Interfaith Alliance of D.C., emailed that he is “viscerally” gratified that the perpetrator received the ultimate sanction. “Philosophically, I would be much happier if the death penalty were outlawed entirely.”
However, he added: “I have learned not to second-guess or speak for survivors, whether of massive crimes or individual ones. So, I will say only that I am profoundly sad at the crime for the outrage it has provoked in me and others.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe of Reform Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church emailed a response that talmudic text opposes the death penalty. “I consider the death penalty to be contrary to Jewish teaching because of the talmudic text, which I feel supersedes the many places in the Torah in which transgressions are said to be punishable by death. I also do not support the death penalty for moral and policy reasons and that does not change according to who the offender is. However, I do understand and appreciate that many Jews and family members of the killer’s victims, might feel this punishment is appropriate.”
Rabbi Sarah Krinsky of Conservative Adas Israel Congregation in the District said in an email that “Jewish tradition certainly has instances in which taking a life is permitted — various situations of war and self-defense, for example — but the idea of administering a death penalty as punishment was legislated away in the time of the Talmud. I cannot begin to imagine the grief that the families and loved ones of those who were murdered are feeling, and I do not judge them for feelings or reactions they may have. For me, though, I feel as though decisions around life and death are too mysterious, too sacred and too profound to be left in human hands. What the gunman did was wrong beyond words and beyond measure because of the universes he destroyed with each life he took. More destruction will not bring that back. It will simply destroy further.”
Since 1988, when the federal death penalty was reintroduced after 16 years during which it was ruled unconstitutional, only 16 federal executions have taken place, all by lethal injection. The vast majority of them — 13 — took place during a short period in the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency. Dylann Roof, the man who murdered nine worshippers in a Black church in Charleston, S.C., is on federal death row now.
The man who opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., in 2019, killing one person, was sentenced in federal court in 2021 to life plus 30 years in prison. ■
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer. Ron Kampeas of JTA contributed to this article.