A 75-year-old woman who was originally from Toronto is among the victims being mourned by the local Jewish community after the horrifying mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday.

On Sunday, officials released the identities of all 11 people killed by a gunman who burst into the Tree of Life synagogue, yelled out anti-Semitic slurs and opened fire on the crowd of worshippers, including Joyce Fienberg, who moved to the United States from Toronto with her late husband in the 1960s.

According to a Facebook post by Rabbi Yael Splansky, Fienberg “grew up at Holy Blossom Temple,” a synagogue on Bathurst St., south of Eglinton Ave. W. “She was married here. Her Confirmation photo is on our wall of honour,” Splansky wrote.

“This morning’s service was full. The sounds of Jews at prayer buoyed me. The faces of these good people strengthened my faith in the future. Even the drilling in the background was music to my ears, because synagogue construction is the perfect response to yesterday’s news.”

Splansky told the Star some of Fienberg’s relatives were present at the Holy Blossom Temple’s 9 a.m. service on Sunday.

“(They) came to services this morning and just held onto each other,” she said. Fienberg’s extended family later gathered Sunday evening for dinner and to share stories and reminisce about her life, Splansky said.

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Fienberg’s brother in Toronto, Robert Libman, only confirmed late Saturday evening his sister was among the victims and was headed to Pittsburgh Sunday with his wife and family. He declined media interviews through Rabbi Daniel Korobkin at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation in Thornhill, where he is a member.

“We are all heartbroken. We sat down together on Saturday. It was very difficult,” Korobkin told the Star, adding that Libman will be sitting shiva — seven days of mourning in Jewish ritual — for Fienberg right after her burial in Pittsburgh.

Korobkin said he knew Fienberg through her brother as she visited him in Toronto regularly and would join him for services at the synagogue.

“She was such a fine and kind person, a gentle soul like her brother,” said Korobkin. “Every Jew around the world is feeling the pain of the tragedy. The fact that it’s connected with one of our members makes the tragedy that much closer to home.”

Deanna Levy, a spokeswoman for the Holy Blossom temple, said Fienberg has family members in the congregation.

“May her memory be for a blessing,” said Levy. “Right now we are just offering comfort to families....We are just trying to stay strong.”

Fienberg was a widow; her husband Stephen E. Fienberg received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from the University of Toronto before doing his master’s and doctorate at Harvard, according to an obituary on Carnegie Mellon University’s website, where he was a professor. He taught statistics and social science at Carnegie in Pittsburgh before he died in 2016 at the age of 74.

Fienberg had an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Toronto, where she was a student research assistant in social psychology and then worked with children with emotional issues in a residential treatment centre.

She joined the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Centre in 1983 as a research specialist and worked there until her 2008 retirement. According to her colleagues, she had a strong interest in how small groups function as a social support for formal and informal learning, and was a cherished friend for many who knew her as an “engaging, elegant and warm person.”

In her husband’s 2016 obituary, it said that Fienberg has two sons, Anthony and Howard, as well as six grandchildren. Her husband’s funeral service was held at Tree of Life, the same place Fienberg would lose her life two years later.

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“We hope the violence will come to an end and all communities will come together in peace and overcome all the hatred in our society,” noted Korobkin.

Pittsburgh Police have identified the suspect of the shooting as 46-year-old Robert Bowers. He is now facing multiple charges, including 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation.

A community vigil will be held at Mel Lastman Square at 7 p.m. Monday to remember Fienberg and others killed in the shooting.

With files from Rhianna Jackson-Kelso, the Canadian Press and The New York Times