Torah Commandment Of "Welcoming Thy Stranger" Solidifies Case Against Tree of Life Shooter
When Robert Bowers Went Into The Tree of Life Synagogue, The Weekly Torah Portion Was Teaching The Lesson of 'Welcoming Thy Stranger', Today The Prosecution Uses The Commandment To Complete Their Case
PITTSBURGH - As closing arguments finished today, the prosecution was looking very confident. After hearing from prosecutors Mary Hahn and Eric Olshan and defense attorney Elisa A. Long, the jury was sent to the deliberation room. There, they will meet for as long as they need to decide on a verdict for defendant Robert Bowers.
Mary Hahn was the first to speak, eloquently summarizing the events and arguments they are making in court. The charges are not limited to who did it but also analyze why he did it. At the heart of this phase of the trial is the question of why he did it. Hahn went for an hour and a half laying out the evidence that supports the government's claim that it was not Bowers’ hatred of immigration but his hatred of Jewish people.
As she went through each victim, she showed the jury pictures of each victim next to a picture of them laying dead in the synagogue. Hahn pointed out the sacred religious items found near each victim, including prayer shawls, books, and kippahs. She brought up the mountain of posts Bowers had on the social media website GAB, where he frequently called Jews by their racial slur—kikes—and spread antisemitic tropes continuously.
When discussing the decisions Bowers made, she noted how, at numerous points in the attack, he could have stopped. At one point in particular, when police arrived and he was pushed back into the building, he continued to ‘hunt’ Jewish worshippers.
Elisa A. Long, one of the defense attorneys, got up and gave the jury their closing argument. She laid out how Bowers is being charged with three types of crimes:
Obstruction of free exercise of religious belief
Hate Crime resulting in death
Use and discharge of a firearm to commit murder
Instead of contesting Bowers' culpability for the crimes, she relinquished that stance and asserted her focus on presenting evidence that Bowers does not satisfy all the criteria for his conviction on the aforementioned charges.
According to the strategy I mentioned in a previous article, they want the jury to see that he was not there to stop Jews from praying. Referencing the language of crime number one—obstruction of free exercise of religious belief—the government needs to prove that he went there to stop Jews from worshipping. They argue that it was his belief, although misguided, that these people at the synagogue were supporting HIAS, an organization that aids in bringing refugees into the country.
By going to the synagogue and murdering the congregants, Bowers thought he was putting a stop to the people he blamed for the murder of white women and children, not because he wanted to stop them from praying. Long pointed to these comments made by Bowers online and while he was arrested to prove her point:
"I have to take action, they are killing our kids"
"These people are committing genocide on my people"
"HIAS”
"Invaders are committing genocide on our people"
If the jury were to find this to be true, he wouldn’t satisfy the criteria to be convicted of this crime.
I thought, even though it’s ridiculous that they’re making an argument, I could see an avenue where a juror could be swayed. These lawyers are good at their jobs.
Then Eric Olshan went up and put on a clinic, dissecting and blowing up the defendant’s case. He immediately went into attack mode, pointing at Robert Bowers and saying, “THAT MAN on October 27th, 2018, went to the Tree of Life synagogue and focused on killing any Jew, not just Dor Hadash congregants, but any Jew to kill!”
Olshan continued, showing complete disgust and disbelief in the defense’s attempt to paint Bowers’ motive a certain way. He told the jury they could not look at select comments and posts but had to look at the macro view of what Bowers believed. Pointing out that the tropes and antisemitic statements he made weren’t new; they weren’t concocted because of their connection with immigration, but some even originated in the middle ages, like the myth that Jews kill children.
“Did he go to a refugee center? Did he go to the border to stop the invaders? Did he go to Maryland, HIAS’ headquarters? No. He drove 30 minutes to the Tree of Life. He went to Squirrel Hill, the center of the Jewish universe in the Pittsburgh area, not on Tuesday, but on a Saturday when services just started.”
Olshan brought a unique counterargument that not a lot of people saw coming—maybe that’s why he was recently appointed U.S. district attorney of Western Pennsylvania—that no matter what way you look at it, Bowers obstructed their ability to exercise religious freedom. In the Torah, Jews are given 613 commandments. Not all of them can be done in the times before Messiah, but there is a special one that can be: Welcoming Thy Stranger.
Through testimony, the jury has heard many references to this commandment. First, when Rabbi Myers testified that during the week's Torah portion of October 27th, 2018, Abraham welcomed angels traveling in the desert into his tent. He provided food and drink for them, making sure they were well taken care of. This is where the commandment is derived from in the Torah.
The next mention of this lesson was made when HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield took the stand and discussed the foundational beliefs of the organization. HIAS prides itself on its slogan, “Welcome the Stranger, Protect the Stranger.” The ‘Welcome Campaign’, which had alerted Bowers to Tree of Life’s existence, was all about welcoming the stranger to America.
Olshan argued that even if the jury believes he wasn’t there to stop Jews from worshipping, he was stopping them from fulfilling a vital commandment given to them in the Torah, “Welcoming Thy Stranger.”
After the prosecution’s rebuttal, it doesn’t seem like there is any way for Bowers to escape the inevitable. He will be charged guilty, which will push the trial to its next phase, the eligibility phase, where they will decide whether he is eligible to be tried for the death penalty.
The jurors were sent home for the day and will be back at 9 a.m. on Friday to continue deliberating.