Anti-Semitism. Run amok. Time for draconian European Jewish precautions?
Weekly bomb threats against JCCs. Jewish cemeteries vandalized. Now, bomb threats against Jewish day schools.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called for a dedicated task force to investigate this potentially deadly threat. That is a much-needed long-term step, but what to do in the interim?
In Europe and South America, security at Jewish institutions has long been part of Jewish life.
Most synagogues and JCCs are guarded by armed police. Visitors, if unknown, are questioned, usually rigorously. Often, the security is run by local police. Sometimes, communities invest in bringing in a team of experts from Israel, typically ex-IDF men and women who know what they’re doing. Some communities even employ a rigorous double entry system: A person — even a member of the community — is allowed entry into a foyer, after which the front door locks. Only then does the door allowing entry into the building itself open.
Providing this level of security is expensive, and large portions of communities’ budgets — in some cases nearly half — are allocated to security needs.
The threat of anti-Semitism is real enough to pay this high price. The cold-blooded murder of a security guard at a Copenhagen synagogue in 2015 is enough proof for those entrusted with others’ safety that maintaining this high level of security is necessary. So was the cold-blooded killing in 2014 of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
For traveling Americans this can seem annoying at best or intrusive at worst. But the communities have deemed it necessary for their safety. This is the top concern.
Over the past few years, the uptick in anti-Semitism and radical Islamism in the US has caused many synagogues to reexamine their security protocols — or institute security protocols where none were extant. The IJN has covered local shuls’ efforts in this area.
With the latest wave of threats, all manner of American Jewish institutions are, once again, reexamining their security needs. Something they may have to consider is adopting the European Jewish security system.
This would be a tragic development in American society. It might, however, be necessary.
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
