Temple Israel was prepared for an attack. Jewish institutions have to be

CNN

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — When an armed suspect drove a vehicle loaded with explosives toward Temple Israel on Thursday, the synagogue was well prepared.

Physical bollards had been placed around the building, which includes a school, in an attempt to slow a ramming attack. Armed security guards were on site in the middle of a weekday. And employees had taken an active shooter prevention training class just weeks earlier.

The attack was stopped when the guards opened fire on a vehicle that drove through the front doors and down a hallway, and the suspect was later declared dead.

One guard was injured, and multiple first responders were treated for smoke inhalation after the vehicle caught fire in what the FBI called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” But all the children inside the synagogue’s school were safe.

“Everything that was supposed to happen, happened,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said, referring to the response to the attack. “Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.”

Heavy security is nothing new for Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, nor for Jewish institutions across North America. That’s because of a concerted effort over many years, particularly since the attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, to harden security and prepare for all manner of risks at synagogues, security experts said.

“I’ve worked a lot with houses of worship in DC, and every time I go to a synagogue I’m taken aback by how prepared they are, with armed security that is visible, sometimes law enforcement,” Donell Harvin, the former chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence for the District of Columbia, told CNN. “This community has been under siege for quite a long time. They’re not new to this.”

Overall, the Jewish community in North America spends $765 million per year on security, according to the Jewish Federations of North America. That’s the price to pay as Jewish institutions try to alleviate fears of shootings, arsons, car-rammings and bombings.

Security concerns were raised in the last two weeks after the start of the US and Israel’s war with Iran. There have been four suspected terrorist attacks since then, including in Austin, Texas, in New York City, and earlier Thursday at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

Bouchard said Thursday he texted with Temple Israel’s head of security two days earlier, as law enforcement has remained in contact with houses of worship throughout the area.

“What happens around the world sometimes affects us, so we have to think about it and be prepared for it,” he said Thursday.

Still, for Temple Israel, this was not a new issue.

“I don’t think anyone was necessarily more concerned in the last week or two than we have been for the last number of years,” said Temple Israel Rabbi Arianna Gordon, “and all of our security for that length of time has really reflected that we are fully aware of what the world looks like today for the Jewish community.”

‘We expect these things to happen’

In late January, Temple Israel received active shooter prevention training, according to a post on Instagram. A person from the FBI and the synagogue’s security director led the training for clergy and staff as part of Temple Israel’s “ongoing commitment to education, safety and readiness,” the post said.

That was just one of several security trainings in recent years, Gordon said.

“As a Jewish institution, we’re always concerned about security. We always worry that we are a target. And at Temple Israel, over the last number of years, we have had increased security,” she said.

“We’ve done trainings over the last number of years. In particular, we did one just last month because we are aware that we have the potential to be a target, and we want to make sure we are as well prepared as we possibly can be.”

A Temple Israel employee, who asked to remain anonymous because the worker was not authorized to speak publicly, told CNN the synagogue has regular security procedures. Every day there are “three to seven” security guards on duty, and at large events, local police are on campus. Visitors have to be buzzed into every door, he said.

“It’s the safest spot in metro Detroit,” the employee said.

The employee, who has been attending Temple Israel since childhood, said he noticed last week that guards began wearing guns on their hips and had become “more attentive.”

“(They’re) just the best guys,” he said. “You feel so safe there.”

Temple Israel Rabbi Joshua Bennett praised the “heroism” of the security team “who did exactly what we expected of them” when the attack began.

“At the same time we were trained, and all of our staff members, all of our teachers have been trained over the years because we expect these things to happen. We just never want them to be real,” he said. “But today everybody acted with a sense of purpose and did exactly what was needed in the moment, and because of that, we are standing here today safe.”

National org works on security training

Secure Community Network, or SCN, is a national organization that offers best practices, trainings and intelligence for securing Jewish institutions.

Michael Masters, the national director and CEO, described SCN as like the “FBI for the Jewish community,” providing security initiatives from a high level and offering a curriculum to regional Jewish federations.

“It is about creating an empowered community, and making sure our professionals – whether they are a receptionist at a community center, or a security guard – are well trained and adept at dealing with, unfortunately, the threats we are seeing as a faith-based community in the United States,” Masters said.

SCN has provided materials to the Jewish Federation of Detroit, which in turn employs Jewish Community Security Inc. to provide on-the-ground security and training in the Detroit area, including at Temple Israel.

Over 13,000 institutions are part of the network, and Masters said they trained over 40,000 members of the Jewish community last year. Their work has grown exponentially over the past decade. Masters said SCN had four employees and a budget of $1.2 million in 2017. It now has a $34 million budget and 130 employees.

Steve Leder, the rabbi emeritus at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, told CNN security was important for all Jewish communities.

“No Jewish community and no Jewish community in America is going to stand around with their hands in their pockets and be a victim,” he said. “So we need to protect ourselves. We’re grateful to the synagogue security. We need fences, we need bollards, we need guns, we need cameras. We need it all, at least for now.”

Yet all that security comes at a cost – not just materially but psychologically.

“We grieve for a lost sense of security,” Tree of Life CEO Carole Zawatsky said in a statement, “that we live in a world where Jews have to worship under the protection of armed guards; that preschoolers must be equipped to survive an active shooting situation.”

Multi-faith security efforts

Masters noted it’s not just Jewish institutions; faith-based groups of all kinds have been targeted by attacks in recent years.

“We do a lot of work with the multi-faith community because we recognize the threats we face as a faith-based community are shared with other faith-based groups as well,” he said.

For example, in Grand Blanc, Michigan – just 30 miles from Temple Israel – a former Marine rammed his truck into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church, shot congregants and lit the building on fire last September before being killed by responding law enforcement officers. Christian institutions with a combined school and church – much like Temple Israel – have faced violence in Nashville and in Wisconsin.

But securing religious institutions requires a tricky balance between the need for security with the welcoming and openness that is fundamental to organized religion.

Jewish religious institutions have long since recognized this security need, Harvin said.

“While many of us may be waking up to the realization that houses of worship are under attack, the Jewish community has been facing this for over a decade,” Harvin said.

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CNN’s Jeff Winter, Amanda Musa and Diego Mendoza contributed to this report.