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Family That Survived Synagogue Attack Speaks Out; Father Talks of Synagogue Attack; New Organization to Drive Change on Women's Issues. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 29, 2019 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:06] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Heart-wrenching details are emerging about the deadly attack at the California synagogue. Gunfire rang out as the rabbi at the congregation was saying a traditional prayer for the dead and for Lori Gilbert Kaye's mother. Moments later, Kaye was killed by that gunman.

CNN's Sara Sidner spoke with one family who survived the rampage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NOYA DAHAN, INJURED BY SHRAPNEL DURING POWAY, CALIFORNIA, SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING: We go to pray, and then we're supposed to like -- we're supposed to feel safe.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Eight-year-old Noya Dahan wasn't safe. It turned out no one was. A gunman entered their California synagogue on the last day of Passover and opened fire.

N. DAHAN: I don't even have any words for it. It was terrifying, scary.

ISRAEL DAHAN, SURVIVED POWAY, CALIFORNIA, SYNAGOGUE SHOOING, DAUGHTER INJURED: All over his body. He has full magazines.

SIDNER (on camera): So he's covered in bullets.

I. DAHAN: He came to kill us. He came to grind us. The amount of bullets that he got on them, he came to destroy this place.

SIDNER (voice over): Noya's father, Israel Dahan, was beyond worried. He was terrified for his children. He had no idea Noya had already been hit.

N. DAHAN: My uncle, he was holding my hand and he was like grabbing me and stuff. And the person who was shooting, he was aiming at him. So he -- it hit him and the, like, it went like -- went like that. It hit me, too.

SIDNER (on camera): So you got hit with shrapnel.

N. DAHAN: Yes. SIDNER: Little pieces.

N. DAHAN: No. Like knee one is pretty big, but these are little pieces. So, you know, so this was like a pretty big piece, and then it went back here.

SIDNER: So the piece of shrapnel went in your leg and then came out the other side?

N. DAHAN: Yes.

SIDNER: What were you thinking then? Did it hurt?

N. DAHAN: In the first place, when it was like gushing blood, I didn't even feel it. And then after like they wiped it and like the blood was off and it was like -- it -- it felt like I had like the giantest bruise ever. It was just hurting bad.

SIDNER (voice over): Her uncle had been shot, too.

ALMONG PERETZ, RESCUED CHILDREN, SHOT DURING POWAY, CALIFORNIA, SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING: He's looking me in the face and the shoot -- and he want to shoot me in the gun.

SIDNER: Yet Almong Peretz managed to whisk more than a half dozen children to safety as the gunman blew off round after round.

I. DAHAN: And then I saw him shooting in our lady that she passed away -- terrible feeling. What can I say? It's scary that we need to live like that. It's just unbelievable. Like there is no one really to protect us.

SIDNER: Dahan watched his friend, Lori Kaye (ph), slump. She died of her injuries.

I. DAHAN: We have a big loss in the community. A big loss to the community in Poway. She was amazing woman.

SIDNER: The terror didn't end there. Their rabbi had also been hit.

N. DAHAN: I saw the rabbi. He like jumping from pain. His fingers were cut off. He was like shot.

SIDNER: Bullets had shredded the rabbi's hands. Noya's father tried to help him.

I. DAHAN: He doesn't want to go to the hospital. He started praying and he started praying for everybody. And he wants to keep the community strong and tight.

SIDNER (on camera): So the rabbi was refusing to leave the synagogue.

I. DAHAN: Yes. Yes, and he's still praying.

SIDNER: Even that he'd been shot. I. DAHAN: Even that he's been shoot and even that he's been bleeding. And I told him, rabbi, please, your life is threatened right now. You're bleeding so much, you can die. No, I will stay here. I build it, I'm going to die here.

SIDNER: Rabbi Goldstein (ph) survived, but his index finger had to be amputated.

The rabbi was one of the main reasons the Dahans had moved to Poway. The family left Sherot (ph), Israel, because a rocket hit their home. They wanted a safer place to raise their five children. They moved to Mira Mesa, California, but hate found them there, too. Swastikas were painted on the family's garage and car.

SIDNER (on camera): Did you leave there out of fear for your family?

I. DAHAN: Yes, of course. We were sleeping inside a locked bedroom with knives and with baseball pole because that's the only way I can protect my family. And then I met Rabbi Goldstein, and he told me, come to our community.

SIDNER (voice over): They loved it and moved to Poway.

N. DAHAN: The synagogue is always a safe place to be. We're not supposed to be worried about anything.

SIDNER: Three years later, terror would find them once again.

N. DAHAN: I'm feeling scared, unsafe. I just feel like I want to be with my family and in a safe place where the whole family is there and if someone gets hurt there's like someone always behind us and like watching out for us.

[08:35:05] SIDNER (on camera): How do you make them feel safe?

I. DAHAN: They don't. I cannot.

SIDNER: You've basically had to run from one place to the next because of anti-Semitism.

I. DAHAN: Yes. This is the right word to use, yes. And I might need to run again. It will -- I don't think it will stop soon. I might need to run again. And I need to prepare myself for the next run.

SIDNER: That's a horrible way to live.

I. DAHAN: It is horrible. Yes. But that's where we live and it's happened.

SIDNER (voice over): Sara Sidner, CNN, Poway, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Joining us now is Noya's father, Israel Dahan. You heard him there in that piece.

Thank you so much for being with us this morning. We're so sorry for what you and your family and your congregation have gone through.

I have to say, we saw Noya, you daughter, in that piece, so poised, so inspirational on camera. Is she doing OK when the cameras aren't on? How is she?

ISRAEL DAHAN, DAUGHTER INJURED IN SYNAGOGUE ATTACK: To be honest with you, she's -- she was sitting with me almost the entire night in the sofa, in the living room. She's still full of pain. I believe we're going to take her this morning to the hospital again. She start having a severe pain in her leg.

It's a terrible thing. What can I say? It's just -- it's just unbelievable that it's happening in United States of America in 2019, every couple months, it's just a terrible situation and terrible feeling.

BERMAN: Your daughter said -- one of the things she said so Sara Sidner was, we just finished praying, we're supposed to feel safe. We're supposed to feel safe. How do you explain to her why she's not safe or wasn't safe?

I. DAHAN: It's really hard to explain. And we're going to have to start thinking how can we really start explaining to almost nine years old and my other daughter, 10 years old, and my other daughter, five years old. How can we protect them better than what we are and how they can really feel safe.

I hope that all the right psychology and all the right people will help us to try to explain that because this is not something we've been trained for. And we don't want to do mistakes by explaining that is going to create in the future damages.

BERMAN: You said you might have to move again. You're not convinced you won't face yet another act of anti-Semitism. Why?

I. DAHAN: It's hard to say today. And, you know, it's a -- it's a feeling like -- it's a feeling like a movie. If someone wasn't there, it's hard to explain what's the feeling and what's the situation looked like. When you get into a closed room, which this -- this incident it was a synagogue, and someone getting in with the rifle and start shooting all over the place and you've seen your family and friend member surviving on their life, it's -- it is not -- is not the feeling that you want to feel on a daily basis.

BERMAN: No.

I. DAHAN: It's a feeling like -- it's hard to explain why we need to do it again. I hope we will not do it again. We really love this community. We really love the people. We really love the rabbi. We're feeling like a family. We don't have a family in the United States, and he became as part of our family, really. Is -- he's -- I believe he will be able to pick up all the pieces and put them up together and let's see -- let's see what will be tomorrow.

BERMAN: And he has been inspiring when we've heard from him. The friends of Lori Kaye (ph) have been inspiring when we've heard from them. And I know you lost your friend Lori Kaye (ph). And for that, I'm deeply, deeply sorry.

Again, I'm struck, though, by what you told Sara. I'm just concerned, as you look out, and you moved from Israel to be safer, to the United States. You had to move from one house after swastikas were painted on your house. You were attacked at your synagogue this weekend. So you have every right to feel this way. You think anti-Semitism in the United States, as you look around now, is getting worse?

I. DAHAN: I hope not, but, unfortunately, this is what's happened. And it start to be on a daily basis and a weekly basis. And I hope that I will not make the move because we really love the United States and we really love this community and we really love Poway. Just by seeing all the people that came yesterday, last night, to support us, from Christian to Muslim to Jewish to non-religious people, it's really -- it's really making me feel a little bit more comfortable when you see all the hugs coming from everyone in Poway, it's hard to say -- it's really hard to say that if I'll make any -- any other movement soon. But, you know, it's -- it's an internal feeling that you don't feel safe. No matter what, you don't feel really safe and really in a place that you can say, OK, here, I'm 100 percent safe. I won't say that I will not make the move, and I don't think there is any other place that is going to be safer. I mean it's happened everywhere.

[08:40:28] BERMAN: Israel, thank you very much for being with us. Know that the love isn't just coming from Poway in California. It's coming from the entire nation. We're so sorry for what you've been through and we're sending you our best. And your strength and the strength of your daughter inspires all of us. Thank you.

I. DAHAN: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Have a good morning.

BERMAN: All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Three well-known women and influential activists have just launched a new organization with the goal of galvanizing more women to recognize their power in this political season.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Supermajority is a new organization for women who want to build our collective power and use it to change this country for good, because one of us can be dismissed --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two of us can be ignored. But together --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We aren't just the majority --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are a Supermajority and we are unstoppable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right, joining us now are the three co-founders of Supermajority, we have Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood, Alicia Garza, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and Ai-jen Poo, the executive director of National Domestic Workers.

[08:45:10] Great to have all of you here at our table.

AI-JEN POO, CO-FOUNDER, SUPERMAJORITY: Thanks for having us.

CECILE RICHARDS, CO-FOUNDER, SUPERMAJORITY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Well, this sounds ambitious.

So, Cecile, women are a supermajority of voters, OK. More women vote than men. But what's the problem, women don't recognize their power?

RICHARDS: Well, I think that -- that as we're seeing, you know, women aren't represented in halls of Congress, and the legislature, even though we now have more women, more women of color than ever because so many women have turned out to vote. And I think women are just finally saying, you know, if we're the majority of voters, we're the majority of volunteers, of activists and work on every single issue, why aren't there things that we care about actually front and center in the political agenda. And we've been around the country, the three of us, listening to women and there are all kinds of issues that women deal with every day, access to affordable child care, concern about equal pay, ability to take care of their families and aging parents. And these are issues that seem to be dealt with sort of as sideline issues or issues that are not in the mainstream. And we think it's time that that changed.

BERMAN: As the token male at the table, I think one of the most interesting things you do focus on is the fact that you don't think that women's issues can't just be for the women candidates. I mean there are a number of women running for president right now, but they can't be the only ones asked and held accountable for these issues, correct?

ALICIA GARZA, CO-FOUNDER, SUPERMAJORITY: That's right. That's right. I mean there's a majority of Americans who want to see better, affordable health care. There's a majority of Americans that are impacted by child care issues and elder care issues.

And as Cecile said, these are issues that are often sidelined as women's issues or special interests. But what the Supermajority is saying is that these are issues that are impacting all Americans and they should be addressed as the national issues and the national emergencies that they are.

CAMEROTA: So, Ai-jen, we keep hearing that women are more energized than ever before, that women do want to get more politically active, but what's the evidence of that? Is that just a feeling or are you seeing that when you go around? And how is that -- what does that look like?

AI-JEN POO, CO-FOUNDER, SUPERMAJORITY: We've been -- we spent the last year going around the country to all kinds of communities, urban, suburban, rural and talking to women, listening to their stories. And it's been so inspiring. They're already much more engaged in unprecedented ways. I mean between the three of us, we have decades of organizing experience and we've never seen anything like it. So they're already engaged and they want to do more. They don't want to stop here. They want to do more. And they want to be connected. They recognize that one of us can be ignored. Two of us, right, the slogan of our -- of our whole organization is about the fact that as the supermajority, we can change this country. And we're already seeing that women are recognizing that and wanting to join up so we can do it together.

BERMAN: Are you seeing in labor -- you focus a lot on labor and organizing. Are you seeing it among those groups?

POO: Absolutely. I mean you've seen the teachers, right, who have been going on strike all over the country. Domestic workers are organizing and introducing a national bill of rights for domestic workers. They've already passed legislation in nine states. I mean Time's Up. There's so much momentum about sexual harassment and violence and pay equity. I mean and women of all walks of life are activated around these issues.

RICHARDS: One of the things I see too, and I couldn't agree with Alicia and Ai-jen more, is that women actually don't realize that they're toiling away on their own issue, or their own community, and they don't realize that this is happening everywhere. And that, in fact, women were, of course, 54 percent of the voters in the last election. And most likely they will be in 2020 and have the opportunity to really determine what happens.

So it's exciting when women begin to come together and realize how much we have in common.

CAMEROTA: And yet, of course, you can't really speak with just broad brush strokes. All women are different. They have different agendas. Is this also for Republican women or is this -- are you focused on Democratic women?

GARZA: This effort, Supermajority, is a home for women's activism. And we share a set of values that we think the majority of the country shares. And so this is a home for everybody who shares those values.

And we really want to make sure that in 2019 we solve the problem of women not having legislative power, not having political power, but yet being the majority of voters, changing the balance of power in Congress, electing historic numbers of women of color to U.S. Congress, and also really we think it's time to move forward a new deal for women. Again, we don't want to be sidelined. Women are mad as hell. We're ready to take action and we know that we're not going backwards.

BERMAN: When you look --

GARZA: So this is available for everybody who's ready to do that.

BERMAN: Again, this is for -- you're just saying it's not just one political party. But if you look at the Democratic race for president right now, and I know it's early and the polls mean what they mean today, but, you know, it's men who are in the top three spots for the most part. It's Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. When you look at that, given what happened in 2018 and what you're pushing for, is that discouraging?

[08:50:01] POO: No, I mean, there's so many talented women who have entered the race. And I'll tell you what, millions of women around the country are watching to see all of the candidates speak to the issues that they care about and actually understand that their concern should be front and center, right, not number seven or eight. And so whether they're women candidates or men candidates, I think we're going to see a race where everybody has to speak to the concerns of women.

RICHARDS: I think it's early, too. And I -- you know, one of the things that, of course, we've noticed is that two-thirds of political reporting is being done by men. So I feel like the women who are running for president have to work twice as hard, do twice as well to be given even half the consideration.

Fortunately, the women who are running, I think, know that and they're doing that. They have an incredible record of winning races, more so, I think, than any other group running. So it's too early, I think, to draw any conclusions.

CAMEROTA: Cecile, Ai-jen, Alicia, thank you very much for explaining the Supermajority to us. Best of luck.

POO: Thanks for having us.

RICHARDS: Thanks. Great to see you.

GARZA: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: You too.

BERMAN: All right, "The Good Stuff" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:09] BERMAN: It is time for "The Good Stuff."

An underachieving Brooklyn student is paying it forward. So after she was accepted at all eight Ivy League schools.

CAMEROTA: This just gets under your skin, doesn't it, John Berman?

BERMAN: Well, Nicolette John -- she's very impressive. Nicolette John, she wanted to help her fellow friends at Stuyvesant High School aim just as high, so she founded the SAT Club, tutoring students who may not be able to afford private prep classes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLETTE JOHN, STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I know the trouble of not having being the funds to prepare for this test myself. So having to self-study and go through all that, I know the struggle that it is. So being able to help students, wherever they are coming from, it was an amazing thing for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So Nicolette, who, again, got into all eight Ivy League schools --

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, she's incredible.

BERMAN: She's still deciding which college she wants to attend, but she does know she wants to become a pediatrician. That's the best thing I've heard in all of that.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, she's incredible. And she's giving back.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I mean she's giving back to her fellow students. She wants to be a pediatrician and she got into all Ivy Leagues.

BERMAN: You pointed that out to me.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I know. I mean I don't know if you got into all of them.

BERMAN: I didn't apply to all of them. I didn't apply to all of them.

CAMEROTA: All right, meanwhile, House lawmakers want to hear from the attorney general this week, but is -- he is threatening to skip the hearings. And Jim Sciutto has all the details, next.

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END