Local shuls on high alert

Tightened security follows shooting at Holocaust museum

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of June 19, 2009 / 27 Sivan 5769

Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad of Mineola was not surprised to receive a phone call from the local police department last Wednesday afternoon, reassuring him of extra security measures being taken to protect his building, just hours after an elderly gunman fatally shot a security guard at Washington D.C.'s Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“Security is paramount in general,” Rabbi Perl said. “We have been toughening up security after what happened in Riverdale, and even before that, Chabad centers around the country were making proactive efforts since Mumbai.”

Coincidentally, on that same Wednesday, Chabad of Mineola was holding a meeting to discuss “how we are going to revamp our whole security system,” Rabbi Perl said. “Our building is going to be under watch 24/7.”

Rabbi Perl is not alone in recognizing the severity of the security threat, nor is he being overly cautious in addressing it.

“The risk is only going to increase over time, and is not going to go away,” warned terrorism expert Micah Halpern. “You can't bury your head in the sand and assume it will.”

Although James T. Von Brunn, the D.C. gunman, was a “lone wolf” working alone, Halpern said, shuls and other Jewish institutions,  especially those in New York, remain vulnerable to attacks.

“Jewish synagogues, schools and camps are what we call soft targets –– easy to attack because they don't move, as we saw in Riverdale last month,” Halpern explained. “Terrorists, even lone wolves, try to find places that are easy to hit.”

In the wake of last week's attack, the Nassau County Police Department is also stepping up surveillance and taking other precautionary measures.

“Whenever we have these unfortunate incidents, we have protocol we put in place immediately,” said Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. “We alert all radio patrol cars, make periodic visits to all our critical Jewish infrastructure, and commanding police officers of each precinct reach out and make phone calls of assurance to some of the key people. In this case, we also notified Glen Cove police to tighten security at our own Holocaust center in Glen Cove.”

The commissioner also noted that the Nassau County Police Department is one of the few agencies that has a fully operative “fusion center.” That, Mulvey explained, is “a room of multi-agency law enforcement personnel that collaborate with one another, so every day at our Intel center, we have a sitting member of the FBI, police personnel, MTA, village representatives and others, allowing a seamless sharing of information, very much up to the real-time intelligence.”

“We knew right away that this was a lone gunman not affiliated in a plot,” he told The Jewish Star. “Otherwise, we would have to take different types of measures, as we also have partners in a joint terrorism task force so we can incorporate their real-time intelligence.”

“We've gotten calls of concern because of what happened,” Mulvey added, “but no intel to suggest that there's a threat afoot.”

He advises everyone to be aware of their surroundings, and to err on the side of caution.  “Look for the unusual and don't hesitate the contact the police, however slight it may be... We'd rather check it out than dismiss it and have it overlooked and be problematic.”

Halpern emphasized the importance of Jewish leaders reaching out to their local police departments and enlisting their help when needed. However, he believes that people must also learn to fend for themselves and cannot rely solely on police protection.

“We have to just be vigilant and be aware as individuals,” he cautioned. “We have to get involved and keep our eyes open.”

He suggests that each shul train volunteers to patrol outside the building, and he also recommends the installation of security cameras and basic video monitoring equipment “that people can see so that they know they are being watched.” For holidays or other events that are widely attended, shuls should invest in outside security guards, he advised, and should also install a panic emergency call button.

“If you shore up your resistance, the enemy will try to find some other target,” Halpern noted, “so our objective is to shore up our defenses.”

Some local shuls in the Five Towns, such as Cong. Beth Sholom in Lawrence, do operate their own patrol groups and are in frequent contact with police officials. On Thursday, the shul sent an e-mail advisory alert to its membership from the Jewish Community Relations Council, detailing Wednesday's attack and urging congregants to maintain a heightened level of vigilance and to report anything suspicious.

“I have received numerous phone calls in regards to this latest incident and what happened in Riverdale,” said Jeffrey Rosenberg, co-chairman of the security committee at Beth Sholom. “We have increased the amount of security in the shul and taken other precautions that we prefer not to publicize. I am also in touch with the police department.”