The delegation from the Department of Justice — two federal attorneys and a social worker — had come to discuss the trial of the man charged with murdering 11 Jews in our synagogue on Oct. 27. They wanted to educate us about our rights, as victims of a crime, to be apprised of the progress of the defendant's arraignment, trial and sentencing.
Instead, they got a discussion of Jewish concepts of justice.
"Our Bible has many laws about why people should be put to death, it's true," my husband said. "But our sages and rabbis decided that after biblical times these deaths mean death at the hands of heaven, not a human court." Three of our congregants were killed and eight other Jews from two other synagogues were murdered that day also.
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