Rose Mallinger, 97-Year-Old PIttsburgh Victim, Remembered As ‘Pillar’

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By JTA November 3, 2018

(JTA) — Rose Mallinger, the oldest victim of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, was remembered as a loving and sharp-witted woman who was a fixture in the Jewish community.

Hundreds of people attended Mallinger’s funeral on Friday at the Rodef Shalom synagogue. Mallinger, 97, had been a member for more than 60 years at Tree of Life Congregation, where she was killed along with 10 other victims in Saturday’s massacre. She was the final victim to be laid to rest.

Among the many hundreds who attended the last of the funerals was Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

“She retained her sharp wit, humor and intelligence until the very last day,” her family said in a statement. “She did everything she wanted to do in her life.”

Mallinger’s daughter, Andrea Wedner, 61, was wounded but not killed in the shooting.

“I’ve known Rose a long time and it was always going to be that she was so vibrant and bright and sharp-witted that she would live past 100,” said Michelle Organist, who also knew Mallinger’s daughter. “You knew something was going to take her eventually, but it wasn’t going to be gun violence.”

Mallinger “was a pillar of the Jewish community,” said her family.

“The synagogue was the center of her very active life,” the family’s statement read. “She was there every weekend, and the people of the congregation brought her great joy, as she brought to them.”

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