One of the Littleton, Colo., gunmen who traded Nazi salutes with fellow “Trenchcoat Mafia” members is the great-grandson of a prominent Jewish philanthropist in Columbus, Ohio. The Jewish Community Center in Columbus is named after Leo Yassenoff, the great-grandfather of Dylan Klebold. While Klebold was raised as a Lutheran, he reportedly read the Four Questions at a Passover seder his family held earlier this month, and Klebold’s mother was raised in a Jewish home, family members have said. Klebold and another heavily armed student opened fire in their suburban Denver high school April 20, killing 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.