‘We’re feeling this moment in our bones’: Death of Jewish protester has shaken his Southern California synagogue

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

(CNN) — Shock and grief have reverberated through the congregation of Temple Etz Chaim since one of its longtime members, Paul Kessler, fell and fatally struck his head during dueling Israel-Hamas war protests in Thousand Oaks, California, over the weekend, synagogue leaders said during a Wednesday night vigil.

The 69-year-old Jewish man, who supported Israel during the Sunday demonstrations, fell backward and suffered the fatal injury during an altercation with a pro-Palestinian protester and died at a hospital hours later, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said.

Though Kessler’s death has been ruled a homicide, investigators have yet to determine whether the incident was a hate crime or other criminal offense, in part because conflicting witness statements have made it difficult to determine the exact cause of Kessler’s fall, Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said.

Even so, the incident has provoked safety concerns for many in Thousand Oaks’ Jewish community, the synagogue’s senior rabbi, Ari Averbach, said during Wednesday’s vigil.

“We mourn that one of our own is killed in our community and we wonder if we are safe. This feeling is inherent in us as Jews,” the rabbi said.

But Averbach insisted that people should take comfort in the flood of support the synagogue has received in the wake of Kessler’s death.

Muslim and Christian community leaders have “reached out in love, condemning the violence of neighbor against neighbor” while messages of solidarity have been sent by “nearly every government official on every level and across the aisle,” the rabbi said.

As of Thursday evening, investigators still were looking for evidence of what happened during the interaction prior to Kessler’s fall, including whether the man fell because he was struck by another demonstrator. The sheriff’s office echoed its previous calls for anyone with footage or witness accounts to contact detectives.

So far, investigators have footage of what happened before and after the incident that led to Kessler’s death, but no video showing the incident itself,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday. Video of the incident “would be extremely helpful in this case and would undoubtedly show or could even refute criminal culpability,” the sheriff’s office said.

A suspect, identified only as a 50-year-old man from neighboring Moorpark, was interviewed by deputies at the scene, and his home was later searched, Fryhoff said. No arrest has been made.

Kessler and his wife have been members of Temple Etz Chaim since the 1990s, Averbach told CNN, noting that the father of two “wasn’t a troublemaker.”

“The family is really in shock and confused,” the rabbi told CNN. “Just a few days ago he was a normal retiree living in a quiet neighborhood and so for him to get caught up in all of this, it’s not what the family was expecting.”

Kessler had gone with a neighbor to the Sunday protest – part of the wave of demonstrations in cities across the US, either in support of Israel or to protest its retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks, which killed more than 1,400 people. Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 10,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawing from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

During Wednesday’s vigil, Rabbi Michele Paskow said she will remember that Kessler “stood up to defend Israel” and “wasn’t afraid.”

“We affirm life. We don’t want to hate,” she said. “And we don’t want to be hated.”

Averbach noted that the tragedy has struck the synagogue as they also mourn significant anniversaries for the Jewish community, including the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht – a series of violent Nazi attacks against Jews in Germany in 1938.

“We’re feeling this moment deep in our bones,” Averbach said. “We are carrying a lot with us in this moment. So this week’s news was shocking and appalling.”

Thousand Oaks Police Chief Jeremy Paris said the amount of antisemitism he has seen in the community in recent weeks has been “mind-blowing.”

“I’m so sorry what you’re going through,” Paris said to the congregation during the vigil.

“I’ve been telling many people that if you asked me six weeks ago about what’s happening in our community could happen, I would not believe you. My eyes have been opened,” the police chief said.

Since the war ignited in the Middle East last month, Jewish, Muslim and Palestinian communities have reported rising fears of hate-motivated attacks. The Anti-Defamation League reported a nearly 400% increase in antisemitic incidents in the days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

The sheriff’s office will continue to have increased patrols and presence at local places of worship, but it has no “intelligence of any specific threats,” the office said Thursday.

Investigation complicated by conflicting witness accounts

Local investigators are still working to determine what occurred during the confrontation between Kessler and the pro-Palestinian protestor, including what caused Kessler’s fatal fall.

But witnesses – who were both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian – interviewed at the scene provided contradicting statements about the altercation and “who the aggressor was,” Fryhoff said Tuesday.

About 75 to 100 people attended the simultaneous protests, which were held at a large Thousand Oaks intersection by two groups identified as “Freedom for Palestine” and “We are Pro-Israel,” the sheriff said.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene just before 3:30 p.m. after receiving several calls about a possible assault related to the protests, the sheriff said.

When they arrived, Kessler was lying on the ground and appeared to be bleeding from the head and mouth. Kessler was conscious and responsive at the scene and as he was transported to the hospital.

The suspect was identified at the scene, where he was cooperative and told deputies he had called 911 after Kessler fell during their altercation, the sheriff said.

At the hospital, Kessler was listed in critical condition and his status continued to deteriorate until he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 a.m., according to Dr. Christopher Young, Ventura County’s chief medical examiner.

An autopsy determined Kessler’s cause of death was blunt force head trauma and his manner of death was homicide, Young said Tuesday.

Kessler suffered injuries consistent with a fall, including skull fractures, brain swelling and bruising, and non-lethal injuries to his face, Young added

The sheriff’s office stressed Thursday that the homicide determination “does not translate to a prosecutable murder or manslaughter (gross, voluntary, or involuntary) case.”

“Rather, it establishes that Mr. Kessler’s death was not from natural causes, suicide, or unknown. His death being ruled a homicide simply means his death was caused at the hands of another,” the office said in a Thursday release.

After investigators get enough evidence to establish probable cause and possibly arrest a suspect, the district attorney’s office will decide whether to file charges, the sheriff’s office said.

CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Jillian Sykes, Cindy Von Quednow and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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