Reactions are pouring in after the conviction of Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter who was found guilty of killing 11 people in 2018.Here's what some have said so far:"I am grateful to God for getting us to this day," Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation, who survived the attack, said. And I am thankful for the law enforcement who ran into danger to rescue me, and the U.S. Attorney who stood up in court to defend my right to pray. Today I'm focused on being with my congregation and praying, singing and clapping in praise of God as we do each Shabbat. In the face of the horror of our community has experienced, I can think of no better response than practicing my Jewish faith and leading worship.""Today's verdict was a step toward justice in Pittsburgh, but the horror and pain of October 27, 2018, will never go away," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on Twitter. "My heart remains with the families of the 11 victims who were massacred as they worshipped at Tree of Life that day. May their memories be a blessing."While the verdict will not bring back your loved ones who were so violently killed, my hope is that today provides some level of comfort and helps to ease the pain, even if ever so slightly. May their memories always be for a blessing," said Carole Zawatsky, CEO of Tree of Life. "Let us, this day, reaffirm our resolve to bring light into our world and keep the memory of each of the victims in our hearts as we do the work of Tikkun HaOlam, repairing our broken world.""I am thankful for everyone who got us to this day. Every day for the past four and a half years, I’ve tried to look for the helpers: the public safety department and law enforcement officers, the attorneys, our fellow Pittsburgers who have continued to offer their care and support day in and day out," Tree of Life President Alan Hausman said, echoing Fred Rogers. "The way our community and people of all faiths came together after October 27, 2018, has helped me and continues to inspire me and give me strength as we move forward.""Our community has been waiting a long time for this day," Michael Bernstein, chair of the Tree of Life Interim Governance said. "We are grateful to the Justice Department and the jury for their work to get us to a verdict. Today is a reminder that we live in a nation where vulnerable communities can be confident that those who engage in hate-fueled violence will be held accountable. It also marks the start of a new chapter for our community as we continue to heal and move forward as work to build a world in which hate no longer impacts any community. As the legal process continues, our energies will lie in building a better future for all as a part of the collaborative movement across communities and generations to uproot antisemitism and identity-based hate in all its forms.""Justice has been served," the American Jewish Committee said in a statement. "We realize it does little to ease the pain for the families and friends of the 11 people murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh simply for being Jewish and practicing their faith. However, we hope this verdict allows them to continue the slow process of healing if not closure. The memories of those taken will always be a blessing. Countering the antisemitic hate that invaded their sacred and joyous space must be the job for all of society, not just the Jewish community.""In the 7th chapter of the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, Moses delivers the powerful message: ‘the Lord has set His heart on you because the Lord loved you.’ Those words were spoken to the beloved Jewish people," said Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik. "At this delicate time for the Pittsburgh Jewish Community and beyond, we all need to embrace not only God’s words but especially at this time set our hearts on our Jewish sisters and brothers as God does.""Gisele and I are remembering the victims whose lives were taken during the horrific Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh over four years ago," said U.S. Sen. John Fetterman. "Today, a jury found the shooter guilty of all charges. This is a step towards justice for such a hateful, disgusting, and antisemitic attack. We all must continue to stand in solidarity with Pennsylvania’s Jewish community against the evil of antisemitism.""Today's conviction is a step towards justice for the 11 Jewish worshippers killed by a white supremacist gunman in 2018," U.S. Rep Summer Lee said. "May the memories of those taken from us be forever a blessing. And May the strength and resilience shown by the survivors, the victims’ family members, and the entire Jewish community throughout this heartbreaking trial forever be an inspiration to us all. They inspire me to work even harder to confront the root causes of hatred, racism, and bigotry so that no community has to live in fear of such senseless violence ever again.""Five years ago, our city was shaken when 11 lives were taken in an act of antisemitic hate," said Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey. "Today, we remember the lives of Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Melvin Wax, Daniel Stein, Irving Younger, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Joyce Feinberg, Richard Gottfried, Cecil Rosenthal, and David Rosenthal. May their memories be a blessing. Pittsburgh, please join me in praying for the family and friends of those we lost and those who survived this horrific tragedy. I hope that today helps our Jewish brothers and sisters, and our entire city, begin their journey towards healing. As we continue to eliminate hate from our beloved city, remember: Pittsburgh is stronger than hate."

A man was arrested in New Jersey for allegedly attempting to firebomb a synagogue.

According to the Department of Justice, Nicholas Malindretos, 26, is charged with attempted use of fire to damage and destroy a building used in interstate commerce.

“The defendant is alleged to have gone to a synagogue in the middle of the night and maliciously attempted to damage and destroy it using a firebomb," said U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger.

Prosecutors allege Malindretos was captured on surveillance camera at the Temple Ner Tamid Jewish Congregation in Bloomfield, New Jersey, on Jan. 29. He allegedly ignited a wick on a bottle and then threw it at the front glass door of the temple before leaving the area.

Despite wearing a ski mask, authorities said Malindretos was identified by a license plate reading device that picked up his vehicle leaving the area. Officers said they found several items consistent with the firebombing.

Malindretos faces a minimum of five years in prison if convicted.

This is the second high-profile incident targeting the Jewish community in the past few months. Federal authorities say 18-year-old Omar Alkattoul used social media to send a manifesto with threats to the Jewish community. He was arrested in November.

Throughout the last two years, there has been a rise in antisemitism in the country. Jewish leaders say the acts of hate are also a reflection of our democracy.

Rabbi Jay Streat, the president and CEO of Jewish Colorado, has seen it evolve firsthand.

“Not only have the historic tropes of antisemitism, bigotry racism, homophobia been allowed but the association of those behaviors have now been connected with the most horrendous violence," Rabbi Streat said.

A new report released by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) says nearly one out of every four Jews in the U.S. has been the subject to anti-Semitism over the past year.

“Here in Denver, a week or so ago, we had grotesque, disgusting antisemitic, racist, bigoted expressions spray-painted on a local high school," Rabbi Streat said.

Rabbi Joseph Black, with Temple Emanuel in Denver, Jews are being targeted across the country.

“I just heard last weekend from a friend of mine who is a rabbi is Austin, Texas. There were neo-Nazi rallies, there was a fire outside of a synagogue. At Georgetown University, a Jewish fraternity was broken into and a Tora scroll, our most sacred object, was desecrated and torn to bits," said Rabbi Black.

“What we are enduring now, I think, is a stain on democracy but it is also a call to act in our community, to rise up to values and to call out those voices and those behaviors," Rabbi Streat said.

The report also found 39% of American Jews changed their behavior in the last 12 months out of fear of antisemitism. Many have avoided things like posting online content and are removing identifiable pieces.

“I wear a Kepa every single day and I am abundantly aware of the Black man experience that he cannot step out of his skin. And so when I go into a store and I want to take my Kepa off or put a hat on to hide my identity, I think about that a lot," Rabbi Streat said.

Rabbi Streat says it’s why he always chooses to keep his identifiable items on. He knows others that also face injustices don’t have that privilege.

“When we start hiding who we are, we are allowing the racists and the haters to win," Rabbi Black said. “It is vitally important that we create allies and find things that bind us together but in the process of doing so, we have to look at who we are. And the history of white privilege, that I, as a Caucasian American Jew, have benefited from. I think it is important that I am there for the people of color in my community, and in other communities. The LGBTQ, the immigrants, the Asians, the African Americans, every different group who is targeted by hatred, we need to work together.”

The AJC is characterizing this rise in antisemitism as a severe problem in the nation.

“We need Jews and African Americans, and the full panoply of ideologies and ideas and lifestyles and behaviors and expressions of self to stand shoulder to shoulder to say this is actually America," said Rabbi Streat. “We need to be invited into the Black community, the Muslin community, the Sikh community, as do we need to continue to invite those individuals into our community. Not to agree but to raise up a level of empathy.”

SOUTHLAKE, Tex. — The superintendent of a Texas school district apologized after a school administrator told teachers they would need to provide "opposing" views to the Holocaust if they had any books referring to the horrific event.

Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, made the statement during a training session.

NBC News published a recording of the training session, where a person could be heard saying, "How do you oppose the Holocaust?”

Peddy implied a book showing an "opposing" view of the Holocaust would keep the district in compliance with a new Texas law.

The law states, "teachers who choose to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective."

Following news reports about the training session, the school district's superintendent offered an apology.

"As the Superintendent, I express my sincere apology regarding the online article and news story. During the conversations with teachers, comments made were in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," a statement on the school district's Twitter account reads.

WASHINGTON —

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized Monday for affronting people with recent comments comparing the required wearing of safety masks in the House to the horrors of the Holocaust.

"I'm truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust," the Georgia Republican told reporters outside the Capitol, saying she had visited Washington's U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum earlier in the day. "There's no comparison and there never ever will be."

Greene's comments were a rare expression of regret by the conservative agitator, a freshman whose career has included the embrace of violent and offensive conspiracy theories and angry confrontations with progressive colleagues.

Her apology came more than three weeks after appearing on a conservative podcast and comparing COVID-19 safety requirements adopted by Democrats controlling the House to "a time and history where people were told to wear a gold star." She said they were "put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. This is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about."

Her comments were condemned by Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who called the comparison "appalling."

GOP leaders have often been reluctant to castigate Greene, a close ally of former President Donald Trump. After social media posts were unearthed in which Greene suggested support for executing some Democratic leaders, McCarthy and most Republicans stood by her when the House took the unusual step of stripping her of her committee assignments in February.

But as House members returned to the Capitol on Monday after a three-week break, Greene was contrite.

"Anti-Semitism is true hate," she said. "And I saw that today at the Holocaust Museum."

In 2018, two years before her election to Congress, she speculated on Facebook that California wildfires may have been caused by "lasers or blue beams of light" controlled by a left-wing cabal tied to a powerful Jewish family.

On Monday, she told reporters that when she was 19, she visited the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. "It isn't like I learned about it today," she said of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews and huge numbers of other people were killed. "I went today because I thought it was important," she said, and wanted to talk about it as she apologized.

House leaders have recently said vaccinated people no longer must wear masks in the chamber.

Related video above: U.S. looks to preserve Gaza truce, push peace talks

A Jewish man killed during an eruption of Mideast violence has given new life to an Arab woman in bitter times.

Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died May 17 after being pelted with rocks amid clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel's mixed city of Lod.

The ethnic violence was triggered by protests and clashes in Jerusalem that also ignited an 11-day Gaza War.

In Lod and other mixed cities inside Israel, groups of Arabs and Jews fought each other in the streets, torched cars and businesses, and savagely beat up anyone from the other side who crossed their path.

But after days and nights of war and ugliness, there was a rare moment of hope, when Randa Aweis, a 58-year-old mother of six, got one of Yehoshua's kidneys after a 10-year wait.

He was registered as an organ donor; the Jewish man and the Arab woman were medically a match.

"I could not believe it," she said in an interview Monday at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. "I'm telling you, I couldn't believe it."

"They saved me," she said. "People say he was a good man, that he didn't do any harm, so why was he murdered? ... That's forbidden. There must be peace between Jews and Arabs, real peace."

Israelis long accustomed to periodic unrest in Gaza and the occupied West Bank were shocked by the violence, which hit closer to home than at any point since the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising. At times, it seemed like the start of a civil war.

Israel's Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population, said the violence was rooted in longstanding grievances. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, but face widespread discrimination. They also have close familial ties to the Palestinians and largely identify with their cause, leading many Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion.

"I share in the sorrow of the family of the late Yigal Yehoshua who was murdered in a lynch carried out by Arab rioters in Lod," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said when the death was announced last week.

"We will settle accounts with whoever participated in this murder; nobody will escape punishment," he added.

Police have arrested several suspects in connection with the violence.

Aweis never met Yehoshua but she spoke to his widow on a tearful video call. She hopes to visit his family in person once she has recovered from the transplant.

"Yigal saved me, and as much as I say thank you to the family, to everyone, it's not enough."