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Synagogues size up security after Michigan attack amid intensifying risks
Jewish security professionals say the attack on Temple Israel in the Detroit suburbs Thursday highlights a need for Jewish institutions to prepare for more such “two-staged” assaults in which attackers use both a vehicle and weapons, as the threat of antisemitic violence grows following the Israel-U.S. launch of war on Iran.
“We crossed a threshold yesterday in terms of the way we think about Jewish security,” said Mitch Silber, who runs the Community Security Initiative in New York City. His organization is considering helping to pay for synagogues around the city to have at least two guards capable of stopping assailants who are carrying knives or guns.
Right now, some synagogues in the city only have a single unarmed guard intended to serve as a deterrent. “You need to have not one but multiple armed guards on the external part of the institution certainly for as long as the war continues,” Silber said. “An unarmed guard is insufficient given the nature of the threats we seem to be facing.”
But following years of massive investments in security infrastructure and a rising number of antisemitic incidents, many Jewish leaders say they were saddened but unsurprised by the attack on Temple Israel, in which an assailant armed with a rifle and smoke bombs drove his truck into the building before being shot and killed by a security guard, and already feel prepared to address such threats.
“The Jewish people are constantly attacked,” said Rabbi Natalie Shribman of Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield, Michigan, located just half a mile from Temple Israel. “So unfortunately, my fear remains at the same level of heightened.”
Shribman is from Pittsburgh, where a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 killed 11 congregants. At Temple Kol Ami, the congregation already has a security guard who carries a concealed weapon.
Shribman said she would follow the West Bloomfield police department’s guidance if it recommends additional security — but so far, it hasn’t recommended any changes.
Years of investment
One reason that more synagogue leaders may not be scrambling is that many already feel prepared. “The Jewish community has been at an 11 out of 10 for many years now,” said Rusty Rosenthal, a former FBI agent who runs regional security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
Adam Zimmerman has spent the past decade teaching Hebrew school at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, Maryland — a job description that as of late includes running security drills with police officers and keeping a constant eye on the door.
When he enters the building, he passes multiple armed guards.
“We get so used to it that sometimes we don’t even notice. And the fact that we’re so used to it speaks to the type of environment we’re living in,” Zimmerman said. “What the incident in Michigan exposed yesterday is that every time Jews gather anywhere for any reason, we are at risk of harm.”
“Jewish life in America is now accompanied by security presence.”
Rabbi Rick KellnerCongregation Beth Tikvah
The Jewish Federation of Detroit, which covers the region where both Temple Israel and Kol Ami are located, has one of the longest-running security programs in the Jewish community, spinning it off into an independent organization four years ago.
Temple Israel hired Danny Phillips, the guard who was injured in the attack, as its full-time security director in June and he oversaw a sophisticated operation that included a combination of in-house security team with metal detectors, guards for hire, police and even overhead drones during events like High Holiday services.
Nationwide, the Jewish community spends an estimated $765 million each year on security, according to the Jewish Federations of North America — representing an investment that surged in the aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting.
Rick Kellner, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Tikvah in Worthington, Ohio, also said that was when his synagogue increased its security. The congregation pays police officers who are regularly stationed outside the synagogue.
“Jewish life in America is now accompanied by security presence,” Kellner said. “That is a reality that we are facing and living with every day.”
Iran war prompted new measures
Even before Thursday’s attack, Kellner said his congregation had taken extra precautions in recent weeks amid heightened security concerns related to the Iran war. Secure Community Network, which coordinates nationwide security for synagogues and other Jewish institutions, said during a briefing on Friday that the number of violent social media posts aimed at Jews nearly doubled in the week after the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran and has continued to grow.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in calls for acts of violence targeted at Israel and the American Jewish community not only by Iran but also on Russian-linked forums, on al-Qaeda and Islamic State forums and white supremacist forums,” said Kerry Sleeper, chief of threat management at SCN, which sent a bulletin warning about these threats to its members on March 1.
Michael Masters, director of SCN, said that his main advice for Jewish institutions was to focus on maintaining the kind of active shooter training and “layered” physical security that has been encouraged for years — including bollards, window film and limiting public access — while increasing communication with local law enforcement.
Cost a consideration
But all these steps can come at a steep cost. Temple Israel advertises itself as the nation’s largest Reform synagogue, with more than 3,000 families, but smaller congregations and Jewish nonprofits can struggle to afford the $90,000 to $160,000 it can cost each year for an armed security guard or director.
Even properly installed bollards meant to stop vehicles can also cost thousands of dollars and require government approval to be installed on sidewalks outside of buildings.
A poll of Conservative synagogues last year found that most congregations assessed a separate fee to members for security costs, and some charged participants for security at life cycle events like bar and bat mitzvahs.
Millions of dollars in security costs are covered by the federal government in the form of grants from the Department of Homeland Security, but those dollars have been repeatedly tied up during the second Trump administration. They were initially frozen as an apparent cost-cutting measure, before being partly released last June after the shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. and the fire attack in Boulder, Colorado.
The federal government subsequently added restrictions to the grants, including a requirement that synagogues receiving the funding eliminate diversity programs and cooperate with immigration enforcement — requirements some congregations have deemed intolerable — and they’ve again been frozen after Congress failed to fund DHS.
Gary Togrow, chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, said on Friday that the money should be released and the total pool increased to $1 billion. He and other leaders have also called for more flexibility so synagogues can use them to pay for more security in addition to camera systems and physical infrastructure improvements.
While much of the conversation about security in the aftermath of Temple Israel has suggested a certain fatalism that threats of antisemitic violence will persist, some leaders have focused on a simpler appeal: discouraging the attacks themselves.
Rabbi Josh Weinberg, a vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote an article Friday titled: “Stop Shooting at Synagogues,” referencing both the Temple Israel attack in addition to those in Canada and Norway.
He said that while the Temple Israel attacker’s motive remains unclear, his assault felt like yet another sign that anger at the Israeli government is being directed toward Jews.
“Attacking synagogues is not OK. And don’t blame kids at preschool for war,” Weinberg said in an interview. “I mean, that’s not terribly profound.”
The post Synagogues size up security after Michigan attack amid intensifying risks appeared first on The Forward.
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They met on a Birthright trip then married. Now this American Israeli couple’s internet fame has turned to infamy.
Ethan and Hila Klein first met at Yad Vashem — Israel’s Holocaust museum — in 2007, a meet-cute they recounted, giggling, years later for their millions of YouTube followers.
“I think I went up to her and said something like, ‘They had it coming, don’t you think?’” said Ethan, known for his edgy humor and infamous internet trends, including Vape Nation and Papa Bless. “No I didn’t say that. I wonder if you would have laughed though.”
They were on a Birthright trip, Ethan an American and Hila an Israeli soldier on leave to join the group. Soon after the trip ended, Ethan moved to Israel to be with Hila, and the two began making videos under the name H3H3 Productions (the H for Hila and the 3 standing in as an E for Ethan). They married, moved to America, and started a popular podcast.
A Jewish love story, until Thursday, when Hila, now mother to their three children, accused Ethan publicly of having a months-long affair.
“The betrayal I feel is immeasurable,” Hila said in an Instagram post. “My only family on this side of the world. How do I even begin to make sense of this?”
Ethan reposted her statement.
Their podcast is run by a handful of crew members who often chime in and participate in various skits and bits. The crew also shared a statement saying they stand with Hila and refuse to work with Ethan, though they added they don’t know what this will mean for the future of the show.
A couple roiled by Oct. 7
The left-leaning, secular couple’s videos and podcasts focused primarily on pop culture, internet drama and general politics, not Jewish or Israeli issues.
Both Ethan and Hila would make statements sometimes when tensions in Israel flared, and they would occasionally speak out against IDF actions that upset them.
In 2021, Ethan started a podcast with political commenter Hasan Piker, a controversial left-wing influencer, called Leftovers, a nod to their leftist politics.
Then came Oct. 7.
Ethan, an American Israeli dual citizen like Hila, was horrified by the attacks but quick to call the IDF genocidal in the aftermath. In their first episode together after Oct. 7, Ethan and Piker said the show would continue through their disagreements. The episode was tense, and it was their last.
As Piker’s rhetoric on Israel intensified and became at times antisemitic, the two began a nasty internet feud, culminating in a nearly five-hour livestreamed debate.
Piker posted about the news of the affair on X, sharing a video of Ethan and expressing disgust for men who cheat.
“Now this is a high caliber man [with] good morals,” Piker said sarcastically. He also posted “Judge me by my enemies” after sharing Hila’s statement.
Hila, who owns a makeup and clothing company, increasingly came under scrutiny by Piker and others after Oct. 7 for her service in the IDF. Artists refused to work with her. One model she hired publicly disavowed her after finding out she was Israeli.
The couple was harassed, sometimes online, sometimes in-person, as they attempted to take what they viewed as a nuanced stance in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The united front seemed to fortify their relationship, as Ethan, ever outspoken, routinely came to his wife’s defense.
Their show lost thousands of subscribers, but loyal fans stuck with them — fans who now say they are gutted and confused by the news of the affair. Many in disbelief noted that Ethan had Hila’s face tattooed on his arm less than two years ago as a surprise for her.
“The greatest thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother,” says the quote surrounding the tattoo.
The Forward attempted to contact the Kleins through their work emails and did not immediately hear back.
The post They met on a Birthright trip then married. Now this American Israeli couple’s internet fame has turned to infamy. appeared first on The Forward.
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These Jewish college students have some ‘nonnegotiables’ for El-Sayed
At the University of Michigan, first-year student Robert Kashan, 18, and sophomore Jacob Reich, 19, sat behind a large blue sign. “Some things are nonnegotiable,” it declared in all caps.
The sign laid out their requirements for any candidate seeking their support: a commitment to Jewish safety, “including for Zionist Jews,” and supporting Jewish statehood in Israel, among other positions.
“Zionism is a legitimate part of the Democratic coalition, and a lot of us are feeling less represented by the Democratic Party,” Kashan told the Forward.
The students are part of a broader “Nonnegotiable” movement in Michigan, a coalition of Jewish Democrats who are spelling out their dealbreakers for candidates ahead of the Senate election between Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
The movement has attracted national attention, with hundreds of rabbis across 34 states signing on to the “Nonnegotiable” demands. Meanwhile, about 20 students at the University of Michigan have publicly signed, while hundreds more offered support anonymously, according to Reich.
The “Nonnegotiable” supporters aren’t saying whom they’ll vote for if their concerns aren’t addressed — or whether they’ll vote at all. But they are pushing back against the assumption that Jewish voters will, as the saying goes, “vote blue no matter who,” urging El-Sayed to engage with their demands if he hopes to earn their support.
That’s in contrast with two other Jewish political camps, including a group called Michigan Jews for Democracy that endorsed El-Sayed. Their petition, which has garnered almost 1,000 signatures, notes that some signatories hold reservations about El-Sayed but are voting for him nonetheless as a check on President Trump.
“We understand that a vote is not a valentine; it’s a strategic chess move,” the petition reads.
A competing petition, dubbed “Michigan Jews Against Extremism,” has drawn hundreds of signatures from Michigan Jews who plan to vote for Rogers. That petition similarly emphasizes that Rogers voters may still have reservations about the candidate: “Our vote for Mike Rogers does not require that we agree with him on every issue or that we support President Trump,” it reads.
“Nonnegotiable,” meanwhile, rejects the idea that Jewish voters would have to choose between Zionist and Democratic values. Some have criticized the nonnegotiable movement for ignoring the reality of the electoral choice at hand. Others have called it “a veiled attempt to excuse the actions of Jewish Democrats who want to feel validated about voting for Mike Rogers.”
But Kashan and Reich, who met at Hillel and plan to major in political science, said the “Nonnegotiable” movement was the only way they could see themselves engaging in the election, as they felt increasingly pulled between their identities as Democrats and as Jews.
Some Michigan Jews have expressed alarm at El-Sayed’s questioning of whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state and his decision to campaign alongside controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has been accused of antisemitic rhetoric. Rogers, who Trump has endorsed, earlier this week called El-Sayed “anti-Jew.”
In a letter to Michigan Jews, El-Sayed has vowed to “stand up against antisemitism and take the threat of violence against our Jewish community incredibly seriously.” He has also hired a Jewish liaison in the final weeks leading up to the election.
This will be the first election when Kashan, who just turned 18, is eligible to vote, and Reich’s first national election after voting in a local primary in his hometown of Palo Alto, California. For both, voting Democratic in their first major election had once seemed like a given.
“I’m a Jewish Democrat, and I want Democrats to take the Senate,” Reich said. “I want to vote for a Democrat in my own state.”
They’re still holding out hope that will happen — and that, with less than two weeks until the Nov. 3 election, El-Sayed will sign on to their petition.
And if he doesn’t? Neither student is ready to say.
The post These Jewish college students have some ‘nonnegotiables’ for El-Sayed appeared first on The Forward.
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Does anyone in Jerusalem care what happens to us?
An Israeli think tank has put on paper what most American Jews know in their kishkas: Israel’s actions over there affect our safety here.
So here’s my question: Does anybody over there care?
The report, published by The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), drew on the input of 20 Jewish leaders from five countries. It concluded that Israel’s actions since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 have normalized hostility toward Israel, divided Jewish communities, sapped the political influence of pro-Israel organizations and fueled antisemitism.
Those actions include damaging statements by government officials, limits on humanitarian aid to Gaza at the height of the war, widespread damage to civilian infrastructure in Gaza and unchecked settler violence in the West Bank. The authors also cited as inflammatory “the proliferation of images of civilian death and suffering in Gaza” — though the actual civilian death and suffering has also alienated and enraged many outside Israel, including Jews.
“The conflict is not only over there in the Middle East, it is local all over the Jewish world now, and Diaspora Jewry has skin in the game,” said Theodore Sasson, one of the report’s authors, in an interview with JTA’s Andrew Silow-Carroll, who first wrote about the study.
To be clear, the report doesn’t excuse, exonerate or rationalize people who commit antisemitic acts. “Jews and Israelis are not to blame for antisemitism,” the report states.
“What we’re saying is that Israel is not the cause” of antisemitism, Sasson said, “but enlightened Israeli policy can seek to maintain robust Diaspora support for the state of Israel and can deny the antisemites the material that fuels their mostly spurious claims.”
This is not a novel connection. Three previous academic studies, in Belgium, Australia and the U.S. found statistically significant links between Israeli military operations that result in high Palestinian casualties and spikes in reported antisemitic incidents abroad. Not surprisingly, a Mellman group poll found that 56% of U.S. Jewish voters believe Israel’s policies have fueled antisemitism.
None of this means Israel shouldn’t act in its own interest and put the security needs of its own population first. Antisemites would continue to exist even if Israelis did nothing but play backgammon and sip arak. The report is not about eradicating antisemitism, but about Israeli actions that provoke and endanger Jews abroad — and what Israel can do about those.
I get the principled resistance to a report that seems to shift some of the burden of antisemitism onto the Jews. David Bernstein of the North American Values Institute told Silow-Carroll that American Jews aren’t agents of Israel, and that nobody would say an African country’s actions endanger African Americans. That’s not entirely true — the 9/11 attacks increased hate crimes against American Muslims and bigots targeted random Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pretending actions have no consequence even if the reaction is illegitimate is principled, but naive. If Israel can lower the temperature, it should.
But here’s the sad fact about the current Israeli government: it doesn’t even lower the temperature for its own citizens.
Exhibit A is Oct. 7. This is the government on whose watch that horror happened, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never engaged in a full, independent accounting of what went wrong. How do you prevent future Oct. 7s when you don’t know the weaknesses that enabled it in the first place?
Exhibit B is the flydubai near-disaster, which we in the Diaspora have already mythologized as yet another example of Israeli courage and pluck. It was that, but also a result of a complete breakdown of government responsibility. Israel’s rules should have kept the Omani pilot out of that cockpit, but, as Channel 12 reported, Minister of Transportation Minister Miri Regev took no action despite multiple warnings. Regev, a close ally of Netanyahu, remains in her job.
Finally, Exhibit C: Police under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have failed to curb violent crime in Israel’s Arab communities which recorded 252 murders in 2025 — and 2026 is on track to surpass that record.
Israel’s supporters often comfort themselves with the mantra that Israelis love life while their enemies love death. But this government has been pretty cavalier about life.
If that’s how Israel’s leaders treat their own citizens, is it so surprising they fail to be overly concerned about Jews abroad? Last year saw the highest death toll from antisemitic attacks in 30 years, while the agency Israel created specifically to deal with such calamities has been AWOL. The Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, a Tel Aviv University report found, has “not contributed in any meaningful way to the cause, and in some cases has been an embarrassment.”
All this is happening as the screws are tightening on Jewish communities in Australia, France, Italy, Canada and elsewhere. But Israel, established in part to keep Jews safe, has, under this government, too often increased or ignored the dangers. Zionism is supposed to be the Diaspora’s Iron Dome, but this government, by inexorably, deliberately foreclosing on the possibility of a democratic Jewish state, is functionally anti-Zionist.
The report listed several measures Israel could take to reduce the threat to Diaspora communities, among them controlling the incendiary rhetoric of government ministers and opening a diplomatic path with the Palestinians that stops the slide toward a single, non-democratic state.
One of the report’s recommendations is that Israel set up procedures to assess how its policies affect Jews abroad. In other words, the think tank is asking the government to start caring, formally.
It’s hard to imagine any of that happening unless, on Oct. 27, Israelis vote the current government out.
“Netanyahu cannot be part of the healing process. It is Netanyahu from whom we must be healed,” David Horovitz, the far-from-radical founding editor of The Times of Israel, wrote this week in an editorial titled, “For Israel’s Sake, Netanyahu Has to Go.”
As it turns out, it’s for all our sakes.
The post Does anyone in Jerusalem care what happens to us? appeared first on The Forward.
