Anticipating record turnouts for High Holy Day services this year, Bay Area synagogues are anguishing over safety measures — following a rash of anti-Semitic attacks nationally.
“Everyone is beefing up security,” said Rabbi Stephen Pearce, president of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California and senior rabbi at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El.
Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset Friday, Sept. 10.
In a marked departure from the open-door policy of its tradition, San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Sholom is restricting attendance to members only, all of whom will be required to show their tickets.
The move is a significant step for the Conservative congregation, which in years past had added additional services to accommodate those who did not have tickets for the scheduled services.
“It kills me to do this but I didn’t have to think about it for two seconds,” Rabbi Alan Lew said. “It’s abhorrent to me religiously. But we have to consider the feelings of congregants, and even if the threat isn’t real, their feelings and fears are real and must be considered.”
At Congregation Beth Israel-Judea in San Francisco, officials are equipped with “panic buttons,” pendants that send an immediate electronic signal to police when pressed, according to administrator Svetlana Leykin.
“We are in real close contact with the Taraval Police Station,” she said. “They assured us they are sending extra patrols. And we’ve hired some big, scary looking guys to direct traffic and watch over the child care.”
In San Rafael, Congregation Rodef Sholom will have extra congregants: Off-duty sheriff’s deputies will be attending all the services, including a special children’s service.
In Alameda, Temple Israel, which had an open-admission policy last year, will also require all those attending High Holy Day services to bring their tickets with them.
A letter about enhanced security measures asked synagogue members to help cover the costs.
In a novel twist at Berkeley’s Congregation Netivot Shalom, a group of about 20 trained congregants will patrol the facilities in addition to a uniformed officer from the city’s police department.
“We wanted to keep it within the congregation,” said President Pauline Moreno. “So we built our own little security force. Our objective is to deter bad guys.”
Some congregations balked at discussing their security plan, including officials at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo.
Talking about it “would be a terrible breach of security,” contended administrator Ruth Cohen. “For one thing, any wacko can read the newspaper and find out exactly what you’re doing. But whether it’s a hate crime or just someone saying, ‘Great! Look at all these unattended cars!’ it’s just foolish to divulge that kind of information.”
At the Palo Alto Orthodox Minyan, officials were even more circumspect: “We’d rather not comment,” a volunteer said. “Why come up with a security system, then tell people what you’re going to do?”
Meanwhile, some 15 representatives of synagogues and Jewish agencies met Tuesday with San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau for what Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, termed “a serious working meeting” to plan for the High Holy Days.
While he declined to discuss specifics, Kahn said Lau offered maximum support.
“We’ve always had excellent relations with the police,” he said, adding that Lau was “outstanding” in his response.
“We talked about the balance between police deployment and the extent to which agencies must provide alternative forms of security,” such as through private firms or internal systems.
That meeting followed a security conference sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League last week that was attended by many synagogue leaders at San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Some came in search of advice on how to nurture an atmosphere of spiritual abundance within the constraints of heightened security.
Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum, executive director of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, noted that “one of the points an expert made is that if you have security guards, they should not have weapons” because it could put a crimp in the services.
Others said that they refused to tarnish the spirit of the High Holy Days with fear or fortification.
One South Bay congregation, for example, chose not to have tickets. Its rabbi said, “Our doors are wide open. We’re in touch with the police department but we don’t plan to hire guards or take other security measures.”
He and other rabbis, however, will meet Tuesday for a security briefing at Redwood City’s Temple Beth Jacob.
Meanwhile in Santa Rosa, Congregation Shomrei Torah is hiring off-duty police officers as guards, “to our members’ very great relief,” according to Rabbi George Gittleman.
He added: “Twice a guy came here and interrupted services, mentioned a bomb. It turns out he is a homeless guy who had done the same thing at several synagogues and churches. But still, it reminds us of the possibility.”
Pearce said his own Reform synagogue, San Franciso’s Emanu-El, will hire plainclothes police, uniformed officers and a police cruiser, plus “there are a lot of additional things I can’t talk about because they’re new.”
Emanu-El, along with a number of other congregations, also is tapping its own members to serve as grassroots security support. It has trained a handful of congregants to be “spotters” who will take note of unfamiliar visitors to High Holy Day services.
Teitelbaum cautioned, however, against “running scared.”
“Take appropriate measures but don’t go overboard to the point of impeding on the experience” of worship, he emphasized.
But at Jewish day schools, administrators maintain that it is impossible to go too far to protect students.
San Francisco’s Hebrew Academy has closed its campus. The school’s name has disappeared from the front of the building, locks have been changed and video cameras installed.
“No one can enter without our seeing them first,” said the dean, Rabbi Pinchas Lipner. “It’s sad. I never thought in the United States [we’d have] to live this way, but this is the way it is now. We must start to live like in Europe, with doors locked and more security.”
Heads of school at Brandeis Hillel Day School’s San Francisco and San Rafael campuses would not divulge current precautions, other than to say that they, too, have made permanent changes.
“The only responsible position for schools is to be aware that there is the issue of an external threat,” said Gerald Barkan, head of the San Rafael campus. “We live in interesting times, and we are responsible for the safety and well-being of our children.”
To discuss the security plan, he added, would mean “that it no longer becomes secure.”
Pearce said he hoped the need for such constraints for synagogues would subside, but he voiced support for maximum efforts in the meantime.
“You can never go too far in the name of security,” he said. “God forbid you should not take that one step and have tragedy.”