Michal Gray-Schaffer

“Why is there so much hate in your heart?”

That is the question Cantor Michal Gray-Schaffer said she would ask the man charged with gunning down 11 people and wounding six others during a Saturday ceremony in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

“I would just ask him: Why is there so much hate in your heart? We are all created in God's image. Why is there is so much hate in your heart for those who are different from you? We're all people,” Gray-Schaffer, spiritual leader of Congregation B'nai Abraham in Butler, said Sunday.

Those questions were part of her reaction to the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. Gray-Schaffer lives near the Tree of Life, where she served as cantor from 2005 to 2007, and was nearby getting a cup of coffee when the shooting took place.

“It was locked down. We spent an hour and a half in the basement until the gunman surrendered and the police and law enforcement determined he acted alone and there were no other shooters in the area,” Gray-Schaffer said of her experience Saturday.

The incident has shaken the synagogue, but brought the community together, she said.

“We have all been weeping. We are all lamenting. One thing it did do was it brought together the community,” she said.

A candlelight vigil held Saturday night near the Jewish Community Center in Pittsburgh was organized by high school students.

“(Saturday's) vigil was organized by Taylor Allderdice High School students, which was just amazing with them utilizing social media to get out the message,” Gray-Schaffer said.

She was among an army of people who volunteered to donate blood.

“I tried to give blood (Saturday night) in Pittsburgh, but they sent us home,” she said.

Many of the people who waited with her were students from colleges and universities in the city.

“We sat in a cold lobby for five hours waiting to give blood. It was filled with people. I'm telling my congregants the words Mrs. Rogers said to Fred Rogers: 'When there's tragedy look for helpers. There will always be helpers. I saw these helpers yesterday. They just stayed even though it was going to take hours and hours. You see the good in people. A horrific tragedy like this brings out the good people also,” Gray-Schaffer said.

A Sunday evening vigil in Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland drew an overflow crowd numbering in the thousands. Hundreds of people stood in the rain outside the venue while the vigil was broadcast through speakers.

Later this week an observance will be held in Butler County. An interfaith vigil/service will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at Congregation B'nai Abraham, 519 N. Main St. in Butler.

President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is planning to come to Pittsburgh in the wake of the shooting, according to CNBC.

“I do know some of the people who were killed. I know the person who is hanging on for dear life,” Gray-Schaffer said.

Dan Leger, she said, was among six people wounded in the shooting and had undergone three surgical procedures by Sunday morning. Leger, a chaplain at UPMC, organized training at for the Chevre kadisha ceremony at Congregation B'nai Abraham.

“The people killed were regulars, They came every week. Two were brothers,” she said.

People wishing to donate to the shooting victims can visit the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh website jewishpgh.org.