Synagogues Boost Security for Holiday Observances

In a jarring juxtaposition of the sacred and profane, the recent spate of anti-Semitic violence is shaping the prayers, sermons and physical security measures taken by the Jewish faithful as they begin the High Holy Days--the 10-day period of penitence that begins tonight.

Many community leaders stress the need to react with prudence, not panic. But the recent attack on the North Valley Jewish Community Center, arsons at three Sacramento synagogues, a bomb threat in Palo Alto and a racist shooting spree in the Midwest have created a heightened awareness of violence that will color holiday observances, they say.

“I think what will be on the minds of a lot of Jews as they come to synagogue is, ‘Are we safe?’ ” said Rabbi Harvey J. Fields of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles.

In his sermon, Fields plans to speak about the issue. He will explore how immediate concerns about physical safety raise deeper questions about the spiritual security of Jews today, and will urge more serious attention to Jewish tradition.

At Sinai Temple in Westwood, Annabelle Stevens plans to pray about it. The Jewish Federation public relations director says she will ask God to halt the hatred and violence.

And at scores of synagogues throughout the Southland, congregations have responded to the violence with heightened security measures as they prepare for the largest attendance of the year.

The High Holy Days, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, draw more than half of the nation’s 6 million Jews to synagogues, compared to about 15% who regularly attend weekly Shabbat services, according to a 1998 Los Angeles Times poll of American Jews.

Across the region, synagogues have added guards, increased electronic surveillance, trimmed shrubbery, enhanced lighting, developed security manuals and requested more frequent police patrols.

Jewish leaders are urging people not to overreact. Despite the recent attacks, reported hate crimes in Los Angeles declined from 995 in 1996 to 769 in 1998. The proportion of Americans admitting to anti-Semitic attitudes dropped from 20% in 1992 to 12% in 1998, said Marjan Keypour, Pacific Southwest regional assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the number of white supremacist organizations has declined by almost half in the last three years. (Internet hate sites are rapidly increasing, however, as is the level of violence of incidents that do occur, experts say.)

“The best thing is not to overreact in creating a bunker mentality with armed guards and metal detectors,” said Rabbi Lawrence Goldmark of Temple Beth Ohr in La Mirada, acting director of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. “The key is balance. There is a feeling that we will not be intimidated, bullied or frightened.”

Since the Aug. 10 shooting, Jewish organizations have sponsored community meetings with law enforcement on security. In addition, the ADL has developed a security awareness video and distributed more than 500 handbooks, which are available on its Web site (https://www.adl.org).

Such measures are not unknown to the region’s Jewish community, which periodically has braced itself against violent attacks during periods of tension in the Mideast. But compared to synagogues in New York and particularly in Europe, where metal detectors and armed guards have long been standard temple features, Southern California always has been markedly casual about security, community leaders say.

They pray that Los Angeles can stay that way--although many have begun to question whether it can.

“The only thing we can hope for is that the shooting that occurred here and other hate crimes in the last few months were isolated incidents, and we won’t have to migrate to the mode of European security,” said John Fishel, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. “But it’s too early to tell.”

For Stevens, the specter of added security measures is stirring unpleasant memories of growing up amid overt anti-Semitism in Paris, where her mother, a Holocaust survivor, managed to escape injury in a synagogue bombing. She says it was a culture shock to encounter the lax security in Los Angeles when she arrived here in 1981--and expects a second shock when she sees that enhanced measures have come here too.

Religious leaders say their deeper challenge and responsibility are to draw meaning from the recent tragedies in the spirit of reflection and repentance that mark the High Holy Days and start of the Jewish new year.

In his Rosh Hashana sermon, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino will speak on the new era of cooperation between Jews and non-Jews and how communities of faith must present “a united front against anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.”

David Lapin of the Pacific Jewish Center in Santa Monica calls the presence of security guards an “apt message” for the holidays. Contemplating the violence of others can promote reflection on one’s own capacity to hurt and destroy, he said, while confronting evil can deepen understanding on how sin is one inevitable outcome of God’s gift of freewill.

Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple, drawing on the themes in his new book, “Making Loss Matter,” will explore in his Rosh Hashana sermon how to make the most of negative experiences. He said the attack in the Valley may help people cherish more deeply the objects of the gunman’s rage--Judaism and children--and appreciate anew an American society that no longer shuns Jews but mobilizes its resources to protect them.

“The holiday gives us the opportunity to draw on our ability to integrate negative and even catastrophic experiences to deepen our soul,” he said.