A note from our publisher
I know all these victims. They just have different names and they live somewhere else.
I know the brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal. I see them at our J-ADD and at Shabbat services at Temple Emanu-El in Closter.
I know Jerry Rabinowitz, the 56-year-old doctor in the bow tie, the man who everyone, including his patients, loved. He is everywhere in our community. He just has a different name.
I know the old man who greeted everyone at Shabbat services. I grew up in Jersey City and there his name was Harry Berkoff. His greatest thrill was to shake your hand and welcome you to Congregation B’nai Jacob. Before you’d leave, he’d remind you that “it’s nice to be nice.”
And I mourn for all the other victims. I mourn for 97-year-old Rose Mallinger, who won the age lottery but now will never live to 100.
Yes, I know all these people. And now my day is filled with members of our community talking to me, looking for answers, asking “how the hell did we get here?”
— Jamie Janoff
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