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JewishHistoryעברית

Poway synagogue shooting

Date
27 April 2019Hebrew date: 22nd of Nisan, 5779
Location
Chabad of Poway synagogue, PowayUnited States
Then part of
United States
Perpetrators
  • John T. Earnest (Individual)
Killed (estimate)
1[1]Lori Gilbert-Kaye was killed. The Justice Department states that three other congregants were injured, including an eight-year-old child, and that Earnest attempted to kill others in the synagogue. BBC reports that Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein was shot in the hand.
Locality

0.001% of the Jewish population of Chabad of Poway synagogue, Poway[4]

Country

0.000016% of the Jewish population of United States (c. 2020)[24]

Worldwide

0.0000065% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 2020)[5]

Category
Terror attack
Confidence
High

Summary

On the morning of 27 April 2019 John T. Earnest entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue during worship, armed with a Smith and Wesson M&P 15 rifle, and opened fire. He killed Lori Gilbert-Kaye and injured three other congregants, then fled after congregants rushed him. He called 911 and said he had "just shot up a synagogue." Investigators found an antisemitic manifesto posted shortly before the attack. Earnest pleaded guilty to a 113-count federal hate-crime indictment and, in December 2021, was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.

Sources

  1. California Man Pleads Guilty to 113-Count Federal Hate Crime Indictment for 2019 Poway Synagogue Shooting and Mosque Arson. U.S. Department of Justice (2021)
  2. John T. Earnest Sentenced to Life Plus 30 years in Prison for Federal Hate Crimes Related to 2019 Poway Synagogue Shooting and Attempted Mosque Arson. U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of California (2021)
  3. San Diego synagogue attack suspect 'evil', says his family. BBC News (2019)
  4. Ira M. Sheskin and Arnold Dashefsky, United States Jewish Population, 2019. American Jewish Year Book (2019)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 15,380,600[5]c. 2020DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 2020 in the 2024 Year Book chapter.
  • United States: 6,300,000[24]c. 2020DellaPergola's core estimate for the United States is 6,300,000 (held constant from the early 2020s through 1 January 2024 in the AJYB 2024 chapter). This is a core definition, narrower than some Pew expanded totals.
  • Chabad of Poway synagogue, Poway: 100,000[4]Jews in the San Diego metropolitan area, which includes Poway. No separate figure for the city of Poway was found. The 2019 American Jewish Year Book gives 100,000, from a 2003 study updated in 2014, five years before the shooting.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
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  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
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  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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