� Jews in Joplin and throughout the region are struggling to come to terms with Sunday�s shooting at a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement complex in suburban Kansas City, resulting in three deaths.
The suspect has been identified as Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, of Aurora.
�It�s unfortunate that there are sick people like this out there,� said Jim Fleischaker, a member of the board of directors of the United Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Joplin.
Fleischaker said what caused the shooter to act on his hate isn�t known at this point.
�When people develop this degree of hatred, there�s no reasoning with them,� Fleischaker said. �Until they actually commit violence, they have a First Amendment right to communicate their hate.�
Fleischaker said he was unaware of Cross� previous activities locally.
�We all value free speech,� he said. �We need to recognize that sometimes harm results from those things.�
Paul Teverow, president of the United Hebrew Congregation board, said he had visited the Jewish center in Overland Park, Kan., at least a half-dozen times and is familiar with many people there.
�Something like this is really shocking,� Teverow said. �Speaking for the Joplin Jewish community, our hearts go out to all the victims.�
Teverow also said he was unaware of Cross� past activities in Southwest Missouri.
Both Fleischaker and Teverow said Joplin has a tradition of religious tolerance, as shown by the response of the local churches and synagogue to the burning of the Islamic Society of Joplin mosque in 2012.
�I think we�ve seen it�s a very tolerant community,� Fleischaker said. �There�s just a certain amount of people who have this unfortunate hatred.�
Mara Cohen Ioannides, a literature professor at Missouri State University in Springfield, is finishing her doctorate in Jewish studies. She is faculty adviser to Hillel, a Jewish student group.
She said Cross is well-known in Springfield, with his hate literature archived at Drury University there.
�I think he�s notorious� in Springfield, Cohen Ioannides said. �He has been a known element in Springfield.�
She said an interfaith vigil was planned for next week. She said that at an interfaith Passover seder on Sunday, she paused to pray for the victims. She said a number of the students in her group are from Kansas City and that the shootings hit them hard.
Karen Aroesty, director of the Anti-Defamation League for Missouri and Southern Illinois, said the ADL was aware of Cross.
�The attacks on the Jewish community centers of Overland Park are a cowardly, unspeakable and heinous act of violence,� Aroesty said in an ADL news release on Sunday.
She said by phone Monday that she�s puzzled by what triggered Cross to move from hate speech to alleged violence.
�He was really driven,� Aroesty said. She said that unfortunately, the incident doesn�t surprise her.
�It�s happened to the Jewish community before, and it will happen in the future,� she said.
Tracey Osborne is president of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce. She formerly was an executive with the Carthage and Joplin chambers. She said everyone in Overland Park was touched in some way by the shooting. She said Mindy Losen, mother of 14-year-old shooting victim Reat Griffin Underwood and daughter of victim William Corporon, is a chamber member. They aren�t Jewish.
�We�re shocked at the violence that�s come to our community,� she said. �At the end of the day, this heinous act isn�t going to change our community. We�re really blessed by the outpouring of support that has come from all over the world.
Corporon was part of Midwest Emergency Physicians of Overland Park, which contracts out doctors to emergency rooms throughout the region. He was assigned to Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kan., for periods from 2003 to 2006 and from 2008 to the present, said hospital spokesman Michael Hayslip. He said Corporon hadn�t been at the hospital since 2013.
�Our thoughts and prayers are with his family,� Hayslip said. �He was remembered as an extremely well-respected physician and a very family-oriented gentleman.�
The Rev. Jill Michel, pastor of South Joplin Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has been active in interfaith events in Joplin.
�My reaction is simply one of terrible sadness,� Michel said. �We human beings have a hard time remembering we are all part of the same family.�
Passover started at sundown Monday.
�I can�t believe the timing of the attack was coincidental,� Teverow said.
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