Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish Doctor Asked Synagogue Gunman: How Are You Feeling?

The doctor who runs the hospital that treated the alleged perpetrator of the Sabbath-morning massacre in a Pittsburgh synagogue is also a member of that synagogue — and he introduced himself to the shooter.

Dr. Jeff Cohen lives in Tree of Life synagogue’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and is the president of Allegheny General Hospital, which treated Robert Bowers.

Cohen told CNN about wanting to see if he could understand what motivated Bowers, and walking up to his hospital bed to introduce himself by name and ask the question every doctor asks every patient: How are you feeling?

Bowers was a bit groggy, and said he was feeling okay, and Cohen learned from the encounter that Bowers was not particularly bright, and felt that he had to rise up and defend “his people,” who were being slaughtered.

“The gentleman didn’t appear to be a member of the Mensa society,” Cohen said. “He listens to the noise, he hears the noise … He’s completely confused, and the words mean things. The words are leading to people doing things like this.”

Contact Helen Chernikoff at [email protected] or on Twitter @thesimplechild

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.