Wake-up call for America's shuls

Last Saturday’s assault on a Texas temple and subsequent ten-hour hostage situation was up for interpretation by various agencies. To the UK Telegraph, it was an attack by someone “with an English accent.” To the Associated Press, it was an attack “specifically focused on an issue not connected to the Jewish community,” though it happened on a Jewish site and not a McDonalds. To the BBC, it was a “hostage scare” [quotes are theirs] situation.

To the Jewish community, though, most of whom did not find out about it until it was nearly over, the attack was yet another in a string of deadly incidents that introduced us to places we might not have known about — places such as Poway, Squirrel Hill, and Greenville. Now we’ve learned about the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville. While no innocent people died in the weekend incident, it brought home yet again the fragility shuls face in balancing the desire to convey an open door for davening, learning, or just a cup of coffee, with the sudden demand for security and vigilance.

The Reform Congregation Beth Israel had already realized the need to take security more seriously, and this past summer even underwent a training exercise offered by the Secure Community Network (also called SCN and pronounced “Scan”). The Network, established about 25 years ago by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America, works with any community requesting security advice and assistance.

“That congregation,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, a Conference vice chairman and founder of the network, “was part of a training this past summer. People were saying how prepared and professional they seemed.”

One security expert, though, told Mishpacha that while he is grateful no one was hurt, the fact that the terrorist had been able to gain access, and that he was later shot dead, meant that protocols were not followed.

“We have to be thankful that none of the hostages were killed — the loss of life would have been devastating,” said Akiva Sandler, a Toronto-based security expert who specializes in shuls and campuses. “But we now have to take a look at what happened. Once a terrorist enters the building, that’s already a failure. Also, ideally, this type of event should end with the perpetrator being taken alive, so that he can remain a source of information about motives and accomplices.”

Sandler, whose deep South African accent reveals his country of birth, served in an Israeli counterterrorism unit and has since taken his expertise to dozens of Jewish sites across the United States and Canada. He participated in an FBI briefing to the SCN after the attack, where investigators filled in whatever information they had.