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NYC Police Step Up Synagogue Security for Passover
April 07, 2004
NYC Police Step Up Synagogue Security for Passover
By Tatsha Robertson
The Boston Globe, April 7, 2004
Page: A3 Section: National/Foreign

NEW YORK - Recent violence in the Middle East, Spain, and North Africa has prompted the city's police and Jewish leaders to step up security around synagogues during the Passover holiday. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told Jewish leaders last week that following Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin and terrorist bombings in Madrid, the city would increase security around predominantly Jewish neighborhoods in New York during the eight-day holiday, which began at sundown Monday. Heavily armed police officers have been deployed to synagogues and Orthodox Jewish enclaves such as the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Rabbi Michael Miller, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, which represents 700 synagogues in the New York area, said religious leaders are being especially vigilant during the holiday. Many have installed security systems in the synagogues. "It's the sign of the times," said Miller. "Our objective is that anyone in the Jewish community should be able to come and pray in a safe environment. As leaders of these institutions, we are taking precautions to protect our members." While some Jewish residents have suggested the visible police presence near synagogues has placed a cloud over the holiday, Miller said the extra security in the neighborhoods makes members of the community feel safe.

"We are just concerned, but not worried," said Miller. Nathan Diament, a spokesman for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, said religious leaders in New York and Washington began to upgrade their security systems after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The bombings of two synagogues in Istanbul in November 2003 and recent threats by Al Qaeda have increased concerns, he said. Palestinian militants have also vowed to avenge Yassin's death last month. Diament said some local temples have added metal detectors, surveillance cameras, and shatterproof windows, while others have even started checking unfamiliar visitors with hand-held metal detectors before they enter synagogues. "In the wake of bombings of synagogues in Istanbul and Tunisia and elsewhere, the concern has only increased," he said. In Congress, a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week introduced legislation that could provide $100 million in grants and up to $250 million in low-interest loans to build security systems for "soft targets" deemed at risk of terrorist attack, including synagogues, schools, hospitals, and Red Cross facilities.

"What the bill will do is give a greater security to those soft targets, and in the process protect the institutions that are so much a part of the American system - freedom of religion and charitable giving," said US Representative George Nethercutt Jr., a Republican from Washington state who is a cosponsor of the bill. Nethercutt said he discussed the bill yesterday with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who Nethercutt said promised to study the bill. "You saw synagogues bombed in Istanbul and Casablanca, and it had nothing to do with what's going on Iraq or Afghanistan or Israel - it's just a synagogue," said US Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat from Manhattan who is another co-sponsor of the bill. "These people are obviously targeting Jews - period. So the security is necessary." The legislation would make federal aid available to what Nadler called "highly threatened institutions," for security devices such as walls and fences. In an effort to avoid challenges to the government for violating the Constitution by supporting religion, federal funding would not go directly to religious institutions. "You can't give money directly to a church, so we rewrote the bill and instead of giving money and vouchers to a church or synagogues....the Department of Homeland Security will go in and retain the contractor," Nadler said.

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