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Rabbi Menachem Creditor never checks his phone on Shabbat, but on Saturday he telephoned and texted all day, trying to comfort a mourning community after 11 people were killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue by an anti-Semitic shooter .
"The American Jewish community is devastated," said the creditor rabbi, resident in residence at the UJA-Federation of New York and founder of Rabbis Against Gun Violence. "Some see it primarily as an expression of anti-Semitism, what it is. Some also understand it in the context of armed violence and white supremacy in the United States, which affects not only Jews. "
Houses of worship are often easy targets, with missions and traditions that emphasize peace and hospitality. Since 2012, at least a dozen people have been shot dead in places of worship.
Security professionals say that religious groups have shown growing interest over the past few years in active shooting training, as well as seeking ways to make places of worship safer.
"Large companies have moved faster in this direction," said Todd Clow, owner of Salvo Security Group, an affiliate of an active safety program for shooters at Texas State University. "Now, I see a greater push on the side of worship and religious."
The Anti-Defamation League said the Saturday massacre was probably the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in US history.
"It is simply unacceptable that Jews are being targeted during a worship on Saturday morning, and unthinkable that this is happening in the United States of America nowadays," said Jonathan Greenblatt, director General of ADL.
Last year, a veteran air force violence officer killed 26 people in a small church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, while he was praying on a Sunday morning. In 2015, a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers at the African Episcopal Methodist Church Emanuel in Charleston, SC In 2014, another white supremacist killed three people outside a center. Jewish community in Kansas. In 2012, another opened fire on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, killing six people.
Hate-motivated crime in the 10 largest US cities increased by 12.5% in 2017, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino . This is the fourth year in a row that the number of hate crimes reported to police has increased and is the highest number in more than a decade, according to the center. African Americans were the target most frequently followed by the Jewish people.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation found that in 2016, 54% of the 1,538 anti-religious hate crimes were motivated by anti-Jewish bias, the latest federal data available. According to the FBI, no other religious group has faced so many hate crimes.
Last year, more than 100 bomb threats against Jewish community centers, schools and synagogues led many institutions to rethink their security protocols.
Don Aviv, director of operations at Interfor International, a private security firm that consults many Jewish groups, said last year, during bomb threats, the demand for security services had increased by 70 percent. among Jewish organizations in the New York metropolitan area. But demand has fallen sharply since then, he said.
One of the institutions that has beefed up its security is the Bender JCC of Rockville, Maryland, which received several bomb threats last year. Some security measures have now been lifted, said Michael Feinstein, president of the JCC in Rockville, but said that professional security is present in many Jewish institutions in the region, including the two synagogues in which he participates.
"My heart goes to the Pittsburgh community," he said. "You want to have a synagogue open to everyone, and now you feel that you can not just be open and welcoming."
Write to Zusha Elinson at [email protected] and Ian Lovett at [email protected]
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