June 13, 2025 | 17 Sivan 5785
Candlelighting 8:33 p.m. | Havdalah 9:42 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 24 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
LOCAL Jewish unity is his mission
Doron Almog visits Pittsburgh LOCAL
The exit interview: Rabbi Sharyn Henry
Man who made antisemitic threats against local official detained pending trial
NOTEWORTHY
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Strengthening community bonds
Rabbi Sharyn Henry Photo by Toby Tabachnick By Toby Tabachnick| Editor
Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S. Courthouse, downtown Pittsburgh
Photo by Jim.henderson, via Wikimedia Commons
A Hindu-Jewish event in Monroeville
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LOCAL Forever friends
Octogenarian Allderdice alumni reunite
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LOCAL A Zionist Shabbat
Young adults celebrate identity
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E
dward Arthur Owens Jr. must remain in prison while awaiting trial on federal charges of “transmitting in interstate or foreign commerce” a message “containing a threat to injure the person of another,” pursuant to a judge’s June 5 order. Owens, 29, of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen P. Kelly, who agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Spindler that public safety could not be guaranteed if Owens was granted monitored release into the custody of his mother, Wendy Burtner-Owens . The detention hearing was held after the defendant waived his right to a probable cause pretrial hearing. At the hearing, FBI Special Agent Abigail Patcher testified that on May 20, 2025, Owens sent a threatening message by Facebook to a Pittsburgh public official, whose identity is being withheld out of concern for their safety. “We’re coming for you [emoji of person raising right hand] [German flag emoji] be afraid. Go back to Israel or better yet, exterminate yourself and save us the trouble. 109 countries for a reason. We will not stop until your kind is nonexistent,” Owens wrote using the alias Casey Jones. The number 109 is based on an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews have been expelled from 109 countries. Patcher detailed for the court a list of
antisemitic and conspiratorial statements made by Owens and cataloged several alleged lies he told FBI agents while they investigated the threats. Among the litany of antisemitic statements the FBI found on the defendant’s phone included that Jews control the media and run the world, that Adolf Hitler did nothing wrong and that the United States should have supported Germany during World War II. Owens expressed frustration with United States support of Israel in its war against Hamas, saying that he didn’t have health insurance but the U.S. was sending $5 billion to Israel. The defendant, Patcher said, searched the internet for New York City synagogues as well as the phrase, “dancing Jews,” a reference to the conspiracy theory that five Israeli men were seen dancing in the streets of New York in the wake of Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and were arrested and later released without being charged. The defendant’s vitriol wasn’t only directed at the Jewish community, though. He also wrote with anger about Blacks, Christians and Muslims. “F--- Palestine,” “F--- Lebanon,” “F--Yemen,” he wrote. Perhaps most chilling were the revelations that Owens searched and read several of the same distorted Talmud verses as the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, who killed 11 Jews in the Please see Antisemitism, page 12 slavun/Adobe Stock
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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haryn Henry was eager to show off the room where she would be speaking to the Chronicle during her final interview as a rabbi of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Formerly the senior rabbi’s office, the large, comfortable space was filled with books, seats to lounge, good lighting and a beverage station. Henry had taken the initiative in transforming the room from one that served a single individual into one that is welcoming and accessible to anyone in the congregation who wants to use it. That’s clearly been a theme of Henry’s rabbinate: Making space for others. Henry, who has been a rabbi at Rodef Shalom since 2004, will be retiring at the end of the month, marking the end of a career that has focused on improving the lives of her congregants. She served as a rabbi with Senior Rabbis Marc N. Staitman, then Aaron Bisno, but she began her tenure at the Reform congregation in 1999 as the religious school principal, then the youth and education director. Before joining Rodef Shalom, she was a rabbi and educator at Temple Ohav Shalom in Allison Park. And before she came to the Pittsburgh area, she was the assistant rabbi at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Overland Park, Kansas, and the first full-time female rabbi in Kansas City. If life had gone slightly differently, Henry may not have ended up in the rabbinate. When she was 23, and living in Columbus, Please see Henry, page 12
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