After the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting and local anti-Semitic incidents from the Valley to Orange County, congregations are torn between security and providing a warm, welcoming space.
Most of Daniel Rosenberg’s family moved from Eastern Europe to Pittsburgh in the early part of the 20th Century as refugees, fleeing the pogroms when violent anti-Semitic street mobs mercilessly attacked Jewish families.
“They thought Pittsburgh was paradise, that they were safe there,” said the music producer who grew up, attended synagogue and had his bar mitzvah in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a well known Jewish enclave.
But, on Saturday, Oct. 27, all he could feel was fear and horror after a gunman stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue and shot and killed 11 people as he shouted out anti-Semitic slurs. Rosenberg’s mother who still lives in Squirrel Hill, a few blocks away from the stricken synagogue, knew three of the victims, he said.
Since the shooting, like many in the Jewish community, Rosenberg says he has thought about whether synagogues should beef up their security.
“I don’t think I could be in a synagogue with armed guards,” he said. “It goes against the idea of sanctuary and prayer. How do you celebrate a birth, bar mitzvah or wedding if you have to be armed? It feels like you’ve lost everything you’re supposed to get at a synagogue.”
The question of security is probably the biggest one at a time when the Jewish community nationwide is continuing to see hate crimes, particularly vandalism, in the wake of the shooting.
In Irvine, a vandal scrawled “(Expletive) Jews” in red paint on the front wall of Congregation Beth Jacob Wednesday morning.
Over the weekend at Calabasas High School, a red swastika drawn on a walkway leading to a parking lot rattled the community.
In Placentia, police responded to a vandalism complaint over graffiti Thursday, that included a swastika and the word “heil” inscribed in a flood channel visible from Alta Vista Country Club’s golf course, said Sgt. Adam Gloe.
Reports of anti-Semitic graffiti also surfaced in other cities nationwide including New York City, Rochester, N. Y., Washington D. C., and Manchester, N. H.
Antisemitism has been on the rise nationwide.
The Anti-Defamation League documented a 58 percent increase in anti-Semitic hate incidents including hate crimes from 2016 to 2017. They noted a spike after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in August 2017 when white nationalists marched in the University on Virginia’s campus holding tiki torches chanting: “Jews will not replace us.”
While recent incidents may be perceived to be spiking in number after the Pittsburgh shooting, that’s probably not the case, said Joanna Mendelson, senior investigative researcher with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
“These incidents have been somewhat of a normal,” she said. “It’s not just Pittsburgh. But maybe our eyes are more open now as a result of the shooting to a point where community members are saying they won’t tolerate this hate.”
This is certainly a point in time when synagogues should pay attention to security, said Alon Stivi, a security consultant for synagogues, Jewish community centers and day schools all over Southern California.
“While many synagogues are well prepared, they are far from being sufficiently prepared,” he said. ” There is still denial among some because this is basically a peace-loving community. They don’t want to believe that bad things can happen.”
Stivi says he recommends armed security guards in synagogues, particularly during Shabbat and the high holidays when service times are publicly announced. Most synagogues in Southern California do hire armed guards during the high holidays, he said.
“At the end of the day, there is no substitute for having actual physical security, preferably armed, at any place of worship,” Stivi said. “As we saw in Pittsburgh, law enforcement can never get there soon enough to prevent the casualties. And most casualties in these mass shootings occur within the first five to 10 minutes.”
But he cautions that the guards should be “extremely well trained in advanced firearms use.”
“In the end, there’s simply no justification for not protecting ourselves,” Stivi said.
He said there are also grants available to houses of worship through the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides $60 million to support security improvements to nonprofits that are high-risk terrorist targets.
Security has become a concern even for smaller synagogues such as Congregation Beth Shalom in Corona, particularly after the Pittsburgh shooting.
“We cannot put a metal detectors or make this place into a fortress,” said Bruce Rouman, the synagogue’s board president. “But we’re looking at other things like providing active shooter training to our members and make the building easier for people to leave in case of an emergency.”
He has requested Corona police for additional surveillance and hopes that they will benefit from being located in an obscure industrial part of town.
But Rouman worries because his congregation, about 50 families strong, has a number of older people, and they tend to host several public events during the year. Rouman says, in the future, he’ll be requesting police presence during those events.
Enhancing security while still remaining a warm, welcoming environment is going to be a huge challenge not just for synagogues, but all houses of worship because they are no longer soft targets, said Dennis Zine, a former Los Angeles city councilman and veteran police officer.
“But finding that balance is important for places of worship,” he said. “If we become an armed camp, that’s not what freedom and democracy are about.”
This has to be a continuing conversation, said Rabbi Noah Farcas at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino.
“As a minority community who, like many minority communities, have dealt with our share of threats and violence, we have to remain vigilant in making sure that our families are safe,” he said. “Unfortunately this is the continued state of affairs for Jews across the globe.”
Farcas said all communities should come together “to banish hatred and bigotry wherever it resides.”
The Pittsburgh shooting has not just raised the issue of synagogue security, but also personal safety for Jewish people, said Rabbi Moshe Daniel Levine, director of Jewish Student Life and Learning at Hillel Orange County.
