Israel Sends Support After Deadly Texas Church Shooting
Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli leaders sent messages of support to the United States in the wake of a Texas church shooting that left at least 26 people dead.
“Horrified by the savagery in Texas,” Israeli Prime Minister said in a statement that his office also tweeted. “Our hearts are with the victims, their families and the American people.”
President Reuven Rivlin, on an official visit to Spain, also tweeted his concern. “Terrible news coming out of #Texas. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families,” he wrote.
A gunman opened fire Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a small town east of San Antonio. The congregation had just begun its service at 11 a.m. when the gunfire began.
The gunman has been identified to several media outlets by unnamed sources as Devin Kelley, 26, from near San Antonio, according to reports. Kelley reportedly served in the Air Force, but was court martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and child, and received a dishonorable discharge in 2014 for “bad conduct.”
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
