As shuls nationwide debate whether to have armed individuals in their building to prevent possible terror attacks, the Secure Community Network has issued new research and scenarios on who might carry arms in a congregation—from trained law-enforcement personnel to congregational members—and how to keep attendees safe.
Titled “Firearms and the Faithful: Approaches to Armed Security in Jewish Community,” the 24-page white paper was crafted by SCN—the security arm of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. It was written in consultations with security experts, including federal and local law-enforcement officials.
The guidelines come just weeks after a terror attack at the home of a rabbi in Monsey, N.Y., and has been in the works for several months following last year’s deadly attacks at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh and Chabad of Poway in Southern California.
“With attacks against synagogues and Jewish communities at their highest levels in years, this report comes at an important time,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America. “We are rethinking our approach to security.”
According to the FBI, hate crimes targeting Jews are on the rise nationwide. In 2018, of the 1,550 recorded religiously motivated bias offenses, 57 percent were “motivated by anti-Jewish bias.”
“We’ve seen a rise in attacks against houses of worship and concerns about how to best protect worshippers,” said national director and CEO of SCN Michael Masters in a release. “This white paper provides a consistent, best practice approach to issues related to armed security to ensure people can worship safety.”
The paper advises that “an armed guard or armed congregant is not a security strategy or plan on its own. Armed security can be part of a plan, but it is only that—a component. A true security plan includes many other layers and components … .”
It also lays out eight points to know before deciding whether or not to have guns in the shuls, including concerns about legality, training, costs and more.
While noting that it is up to each congregation to make security decisions for themselves, the paper concludes that “if a congregation determines that armed security will be part of their plan, then this paper should help them reach the conclusion that employing a uniformed police officer is the option most likely to achieve their goals.”
The Algemeiner (c) 2019 . Benjamin Kerstein
{Matzav.com}
is this an a paid ad? exploiting the few people in shul who are shivering , a shul needs a combo lock not guns. unfortunatly the chance of winning the lottery is greater than a terrorist entering your shul JUST LIVE!
Spoken like a true leftist-liberal.
A combo lock is not the safest. Besides, until you get to the lock someone mind be behind you. What does it bother you that there’s a guard in front of the shul? Do you think he’ll mark attendance of the mispallelim? Maybe he should….
Said the people in Pittsburgh and Poway, and Halle Germany, and Har Nof ….
Ruby, just shut up and take many long walks in Ramallah! Fools like you have blood on their hands.
Halacha – Esav onay es Yaakov!
Antisemitism will never go away. It’s been here since the days of our Avos and will always be here until the days of Moshiach. We are guests in this wonderful country. It is not our land so we are reminded through antisemitism that we are guests.
The Torah teaches us that we are to always be the kol Yaakov and not the yadayim of Esav.
Hishtadlus? Of course. We must do what we can to be safe. People in Shuls with guns? Of course not. Even the non shomrei Torah, the ones who put out this report understand that an armed police officer trained for these circumstances is better and safer then people in shuls packing.
This just in! Group of random people hire cops who say to trust your safety to the cops. That’s right, don’t try to take the necessary steps to protect yourself, just hope that other people will do it. It’s worked well so far, hasn’t it?
Eileh elokecha yisroel. We are experiencing an eigel in our times. The Aibishter has been rendered useless r”l. These fear mongers have taken over as our daas torah.