PITTSBURGH • They were professors and accountants, dentists and beloved doctors serving their local community.

A day after the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead, officials released the names of the victims. The oldest of them was 97. The youngest was 54. They included a pair of brothers and a husband and wife.

Said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light Congregation: “The loss is incalculable.”

Cecil and David Rosenthal

Cecil and David Rosenthal went through life together with help from a disability-services organization. And an important part of the brothers’ lives was the Tree of Life Synagogue, where they never missed a Saturday service, people who knew them say.

“If they were here, they would tell you that is where they were supposed to be,” Chris Schopf, a vice president of the organization ACHIEVA, said in a statement.

Achieva provides help with daily living, employment and other needs, and the organization had worked for years with Cecil, 59, and David, 54, who were among the 11 killed in Saturday’s deadly shooting. They lived semi-independently.

Cecil was a person who was up for all sorts of activities: a concert, lunch at Eat ‘n Park — a regional restaurant chain known for its smiley-face cookies — even a trip to the Duquesne University dining hall, recalls David DeFelice, a Duquesne senior who was paired with him in a buddies program three years ago. The two became friends, DeFelice said.

“He was a very gregarious person — loved being social, loved people. … You could put him any situation, and he’d make it work,” DeFelice said.

And when DeFelice recognized Hebrew letters on Cecil’s calendar, the elder man was delighted to learn that his buddy was also Jewish and soon invited him to Tree of Life. DeFelice joined him on a couple of occasions and could see that Cecil cherished his faith and the sense of community he found at temple.

“He was such a strong practitioner of his faith,” DeFelice said.

Emeritus Rabbi Alvin Berkun saw that, too, in Cecil, who according to his obituary was known as “the honorary mayor of Squirrel Hill,” and David, who worked at Goodwill Industries.

“They really found a home at the synagogue, and people reciprocated,” he said.

Cecil carried a photo in his wallet of David, whom Schopf remembers as a man with “such a gentle spirit.”

“Together, they looked out for each other,” she said. “Most of all, they were kind, good people with a strong faith and respect for everyone around.”

The two left an impression on state Rep. Dan Frankel, who sometimes attends services at Tree of Life and whose chief of staff is the Rosenthals’ sister.

“They were very sweet, gentle, caring men,” Frankel said. “… I know that this community will really mourn their loss because they were such special people.”

Bernice and Sylvan Simon

Bernice and Sylvan Simon were always ready to help other people, longtime friend and neighbor Jo Stepaniak says, and “they always did it with a smile and always did it with graciousness.”

“Anything that they could do, and they did it as a team,” she said.

The Simons, who were among those massacred Saturday, were fixtures in the townhome community on the outskirts of Pittsburgh where they had lived for decades. She’d served on the board, and he was a familiar face from his walks around the neighborhood, with the couple’s dog in years past.

Melvin Wax

Melvin Wax was always the first to arrive at New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood — and the last to leave.

Wax, who was in his late 80s, was among those killed when a gunman entered the synagogue Saturday and opened fire a few minutes after Sabbath services began. Fellow members of the congregation, which rented space in the lower level of the Tree of Life Synagogue, said Wax was a kind man and a pillar of the congregation, filling just about every role except cantor.

“He was a gem. He was a gentleman,” recalled fellow congregant Barry Werber on Sunday.

Jerry Rabinowitz

Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz and his partner in his medical practice were seemingly destined to spend their professional lives together.

He and Dr. Kenneth Ciesielka had been friends for more than 30 years

“He is one of the finest people I’ve ever met. We’ve been in practice together for 30 years and friends longer than that,” Ciesielka said.

“His patients are going to miss him terribly. His family is going to miss him terribly and I am going to miss him. ”

Joyce Fienberg

Joyce Fienberg and her late husband, Stephen, were intellectual powerhouses, but those who knew them say they were the kind of people who used that intellect to help others.

Joyce Fienberg, 75, who was among the victims in Saturday’s shooting, spent most of her career at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center, retiring in 2008 from her job as a researcher looking at learning in the classroom and in museums.

She worked on several projects including studying the practices of highly effective teachers.

Dr. Gaea Leinhardt, who was Fienberg’s research partner for decades, said she is devastated by the death of her colleague and friend.

“Joyce was a magnificent, generous, caring, and profoundly thoughtful human being,” she said.

Daniel Stein

Daniel Stein was a visible member of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, where he was a leader in the New Light Congregation and his wife, Sharyn, is the membership vice president of the area’s Hadassah chapter.

“Their Judaism is very important to them, and to him,” said chapter co-president Nancy Shuman. “Both of them were very passionate about the community and Israel.”

Stein, 71, was president of the Men’s Club at Tree of Life.

Rose Mallinger

Former Tree of Life Rabbi Chuck Diamond said he worried about Rose Mallinger as soon as he heard about the deadly shooting at the synagogue.

The 97-year-old had almost unfailingly attended services for decades, he told The Washington Post, and was among the first to walk in.

“I feel a part of me died in that building,” Diamond said.

Richard Gottfried

Richard Gottfried was preparing for a new chapter in his life.

Gottfried ran a dental office with his wife and practice partner Margaret “Peg” Durachko Gottfried. He and his wife met at the University of Pittsburgh as dental students, according to the Washington Post, and opened their practice together in 1984.

Gottfried, who often did charity work seeing patients who could not afford dental care, was preparing to retire in the next few months.

Irving Younger

A neighbor in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood on Sunday remembered victim Irving Younger as “a really nice guy.”

Jonathan Voye told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Younger, 69, was personable and occasionally spoke with him about family or the weather.

Gideon Murphy places a flower Sunday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a gunman opened fire Saturday, killing 11 people.

the associated press