Security is top of mind as hundreds — or even thousands — of people pour into synagogues across the DMV for the High Holidays. Many shuls are sticking to standard security procedures with some reinforcements due to the influx of people in the buildings.
“We obviously have to take into account, when it comes to the High Holidays, the increased number of those in attendance and the heightened activity that typically comes with the season,” Lindsay Feldman, Washington Hebrew Congregation’s executive director, said.
“As we always say, we hope that our institutions are getting to the point that they’re already addressing security on a regular basis, so that we don’t necessarily have to flex and do things differently now as we head into the High Holidays,” Rusty Rosenthal, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s executive director of regional security, said.
JShield, the Federation’s security initiative, recently held community-wide trainings to address those who may not attend a shul during other times of the year.
“They may only be coming to synagogue because it’s the High Holidays; we know that a lot of people do [that],” Rosenthal said. “So we want to make sure that they have that same level of awareness and vigilance as the rest of the congregation that may have already heard from us throughout the year.”
He encourages non-regular visitors to be in contact with the synagogue to understand the emergency protocol and to be aware of one’s surroundings.
Tikvat Israel Congregation is among the synagogues that have recently hosted a JShield workshop for staff members. The Rockville shul also held a separate training for its ushers and greeters, according to Tikvat Israel’s Rabbi Marc Israel.
While Tikvat Israel first implemented ushers five or six years ago, the focus was ensuring that everyone felt welcomed and comfortable upon entering. Now, there’s “much more focus” on spotting possible suspicious behavior and making sure that everyone in the building is supposed to be there.
Israel said the synagogue staff will “definitely exercise more scrutiny” over the next few weeks, “precisely because there are so many people coming in and out, including people we may not see all that regularly.”
The rabbi wants to welcome the many guests into the building for High Holiday services while keeping everyone safe.
To solve this, Rosenthal recommends that synagogues have a way of identifying everyone who walks in the doors.
“We encourage any institution to have some kind of vetting process and some kind of registration or ticketing system in place so that they know who’s coming, who they already know as a member of the synagogue, who may be coming as a guest and who they’re affiliated with, so that they can verify that,” he said. “Then, some smaller subset of people that may be coming that they don’t know, they can give a little bit of extra scrutiny to before they’re invited to come to the services.”
Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah in Potomac will also be especially vigilant in the coming weeks. Rabbi Eitan Cooper, Beth Sholom’s associate rabbi, said the team works “very closely” with local law enforcement. The shul also has a Community Security Services team plus volunteers.
“We have a really amazing and dedicated group of volunteers, and they’re really in full force on the High Holidays,” Cooper said. “Everybody’s really pitching in and doing everything they can. It’s similar to what we do every week; we have security every single Shabbat, but we do it in an even more robust way over the High Holidays.”
Washington Hebrew Congregation in the nation’s capital will also ramp up security measures. The Reform synagogue can see up to “a few thousand” congregants between its two locations in a day during the High Holidays.
“We have our regular security measures, [which we’ll] increase because of the heightened traffic that comes,” Feldman said. “The more people you have, the more foot traffic. … [Like] every synagogue, we heighten the security just because of the attention that [the High Holidays] bring and the numbers of people.”
Both Beth Sholom and Washington Hebrew Congregation are relatively large synagogues in the D.C. area. Rosenthal hopes that, regardless of size, area shuls all have the “same general plan” when it comes to security.
“Security should be scalable to the larger synagogue, meaning they’re just going to have more people in a larger space, but they also might have more resources,” he said. “They may have additional security. It may mean more hired off-duty law enforcement or private security. It may mean that their volunteer corps, members that are volunteering to help with security, might be larger. It depends on any given institution.”
Some synagogues have access control, registration or ticketing systems in place, metal detectors and a bag check policy.
Some community leaders feel at ease knowing that so many security measures protect their shuls.
“People looking to do harm are looking for places where there’s vulnerability, and there’s much less [vulnerability] on holidays than other times of the year,” Israel said. “So, with more people being there, it’s more difficult to get everybody into safe places. On that level, there’s a greater concern. There are people who might not know the building or evacuation plans as well. But I feel safer on the holidays than I do during the year.”
