Chabad rabbi recalls confronting gunman: ‘I cannot erase his face from my mind’

The rabbi of the Poway, California Chabad confronted the gunman who entered his synagogue building and lost at least one of his index fingers in the process.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein was washing his hands before the Yizkor memorial service when he heard a loud noise.

“I turned around and I was face-to face with this murderer-terrorist, who was holding this rifle and looking straight at me,” he told host Willie Giest on NBC’s “Sunday Today.”

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Goldstein spoke to the Today Show by phone from his hospital bed hours after surgery to remove his right index finger.

He is hoping to keep his left index finger. Both fingers were shot by gunman John Earnest’s assault rifle at close range when the rabbi instinctively put up his hands as the gunman began shooting.

The rabbi said that the gunman then killed Lori Gilbert-Kaye “right on the spot.”

After being shot he ran to the social hall where congregants had gathered as had several children including his granddaughter, and he began waving them out of the building to safety.

“I just ran, not even knowing my fingers were blown off,” he said.

Goldstein said he continued his last-day-of-Passover sermon outside of the synagogue building, where he and his members waited for the authorities to arrive.

“I got out there and just spoke from my heart, just giving everyone the courage to know, it was just about 70 years ago during the Holocaust that we were gunned down like this,” he said. “And I just want to let our fellow Americans know we aren’t going to let this happen here. Not here in San Diego, not here in Poway, not in the United States of America.”

“We will not be intimidated and deterred by this terrorism. Terror will not win,” Goldstein said.  He called on the government to secure all places of worship from such acts of terror.

He said he has known Gilbert-Kaye for 33 years, when he founded the Chabad synagogue in Poway as a 22-year-old new rabbi. “She is a steadfast member, supporter, philanthropist — just a kind soul,” he said, noting that she helped him secure the loan to construct the building.

“I pray for healing in this time of pain and grief and I ask that we all do something to add more light to combat this evil darkness that’s out there,” the rabbi said. “That can happen through acts of compassion and loving kindness.”

Meanwhile, the rabbi says” “I cannot erase that face from my mind. I cannot erase that moment.”

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