Last Saturday, April 27, the Poway synagogue in San Diego was attacked. The suburb hit by this attack was Poway, a quiet shaded community where neighbors lived in peace and went to church services at the synagogue on Sundays.

A gunman stormed into the synagogue yelling anti-semitic slurs and opened fire during a an exceptionally full church service on the last day of Passover. A 60-year-old woman Lori Gilbert Kaye was shot and killed, The Rabbi was shot in his hand and two other people were left with shrapnel wounds. The congregation’s Rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, tried talking down the shooter after he opened fire, but the shooter still fired again.

Lori Gilbert Kaye died heroically after jumping in front of the Rabbi to protect him from gunshots. The gunman left the building after his gun malfunctioned, and surrendered to the police shortly after. The shooter was later identified as John Earnest, a 19-year-old man from San Diego. Earnest was charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Earnest was also responsible for setting a fire at a mosque in Escondido, not far away from the shooting.

This shooting has put religious leaders on edge and has sparked conversations about securing churches, mosques, synagogues and other sacred places. Experts say this shooting appeared to fit at the intersection of two troubling trends: Growing anti-Semitism in the U.S. and a rise in violence fueled by and partially carried out by extremists, like Earnest.

“In 2017, anti-Semitic incidents jumped 57% over the previous year. Hate crimes against the Jews grew by 37% in the same period, according to a separate FBI analysis,” said Los Angeles Times writer Jaweed Kaleem.