For Jewish congregations across the United States, the upcoming High Holy Day (always compelling celebrations and repentance) will be more than this year’s charge. Many of their fellow countrymen were concerned about the surge in anti-Semitism, including two deadly attacks in the spring, but were more determined to worship together in the next few days.
“It’s undoubtedly a very unstable moment,” the rabbi said. Rick JacobsChairman of the Reform Judaism League. “People feel uneasy and vulnerable, and they feel that the high sacred days are irrelevant.”
Rabbi Erez Sherman said his various congregations seemed eager to meet side by side at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles’ conservative synagogue.
“Obviously, safety is the most concerned issue,” Sherman said. “It leads people to say I want to be here. I want to wear these benches. I also want to go out with a proud Jewish identity.”
Similar views come from Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Alliance.
“At the moment, the atmosphere in our precious country is full of hatred, which is a tough time for all Americans, and of course for the Jewish community,” he said via email. “This will inspire our communities to come together and fill our synagogues with prayers, rather than discouraging attendance on senior holidays.”
Photo: For many American Jews, the High Holy Day will be a mixture of anxiety and determination
The holy days begin on September 22, the Rosh Hashana begins and continue to travel through Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur, which falls on October 2.
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s recent assassination puts Americans on the edge nationwide. For Jewish Americans, a huge anti-Semitism threat earlier this year was violently and completely posed a huge threat.
In April, during Passover, the home of Jewish Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania was bombed. In May, two Israeli embassy staff shot deadly outside the Jewish Museum in the capital of Washington. On June 1, an attacker threw a Molotov cocktail at people in Boulder, Colorado, demanding the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. One of the injured people – an 82-year-old woman – died of injuries on June 25.
These attacks have occurred in an unprecedented surge in the number of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic threats in the United States since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War on October 7, 2023. Leaders of several major Jewish organizations held a briefing on Wednesday at Capitol Hill to provide Jewish security with greater restrictions, an anti-Semitic incident and anti-Semitic threat in the United States.
“This is a family terrorism crisis,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the North American Jewish Federation. “We need to maintain a foothold in war to respond.”
In Houston, Beth Israel’s Rabbi David Lyon used horrible language in an email to the Associated Press.
“Nothing like this in recent years,” he wrote. “It’s a hate of calculation, organized and funding.”
Like many American rabbis, Lyon serves politically divided communities with a variety of opinions.
“In a Jewish environment, nothing is closer than a pope or a bishop, we exercise free will and autonomy,” he wrote. “In my congregation we hear from the left and right, but the role of the rabbi is to position us on the mutual path of cherishing human life, dignity, peace based on the values of the law.”
At the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, Sherman and his wife Nicole Guzik serve as senior rabbi.
They tried to avoid getting rid of politics from the pulpit, but they arranged activities designed by synagogues so that the masses would hear letters from people with multiple views. A recent guest was Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, founder of the Major Palestine Survey, a project seeking “a new policy framework advocated for the revival of Pro-Palestine.”
“I’m proud of our congregation,” Guzk said. “They’re willing to listen to opinions they don’t quite agree with.”
The Sinai Temple also has a mental health centre composed of social workers to support fellow citizens affected by anti-Semitism.
“We want to admit that people are scared, but at the same time they don’t want to sit at home and hide Judaism,” Guzk said.
Rick JacobsThe leaders of reforming Judaism say that for our general rabbis, given that deadly anti-Semitism and war will not end, this is an impossible time. ”
“The security measures that congregations have to upgrade to are overwhelming,” he added. “It feels like in the community – we need it desperately. But you don’t want to tell someone something wrong, like ‘Don’t worry.’
Today, most synagogues adopt a hierarchical security strategy – guards, cameras and various systems that control access to activities through ticketing, registration or other forms of review.
The safe community network provides security advice to Jewish institutions in North America, highlighting synagogue security issues in a report earlier this month. The network reports gun sales are surging American Jews.
The main recommendation of the report is that if the chapel will allow individuals to carry firearms, it should be coordinated with law enforcement through an organized and trained safety team. The report recommends that individuals are prohibited from carrying firearms in their personal capacity outside of such team structures.
SCN’s previous report suggested that hiring a unified police officer is the best option if the congregation determines that armed security will be part of its plan.
SCN Country Director and CEO Michael Masters said Jews have survived centuries of unique and challenging threat environments.
“But for the diaspora, especially Jews in the United States, this moment does make a difference,” he told the Associated Press. “The Jewish community and others must care about their physical safety and security in order to practice their religion.”
The Bethel Temple in Augusta, Maine was one of many congregations following this proposal. Rabbi Erica Asch in the temple newsletter said a uniformed policeman will be outside the synagogue during the High Holy Day service and event.
“This year, I’ve heard from many people that they feel particularly unwelcome, worried and worried,” Ash wrote in a newsletter. “So, during the higher holidays, I will focus on how to find our foothold in a world that seems uncertain and how to follow our own moral compass, no matter what is likely to happen to us.”
