Increased security efforts mirror those of synagogues across the U.S.
Eight Jewish institutions in the Greater Washington area will each receive $150,000 in federal funds through the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program that boosts security for “high-risk nonprofits,” according to a Dec. 19 press release.
These eight institutions are among the 50 Maryland faith-based organizations set to receive a share of the $7,393,350 in funding, Maryland lawmakers — United States Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Reps. Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone and Glenn Ivey (all D-Md.) — announced.
“Religious freedom is protected under our Constitution, and every Marylander must be able to worship without fear for their safety,” the lawmakers wrote.
“With threats and attacks against faith communities on the rise, we must not only speak out against those hateful actions — we also must invest in protecting these institutions that support communities across our state. Maryland families can trust that these federal grants will help ensure houses of worship have the resources they need to keep them safe.”
The eight local recipients are Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah, Chabad of Potomac Village, B’nai Israel Congregation and Talmud Torah, Magen David Sephardic Congregation, Orthodox Congregation of Silver Spring, Torah School of Greater Washington, Young Israel Shomrai Emunah of Greater Washington and YISE of GW-Youth House.
‘An Extra Pair of Eyes’
Matthew Manes, the director of development at the Torah School of Greater Washington, said he and other staff members had “always proactively” sought out ways to improve the Orthodox Jewish day school’s campus, but the 2023 attack on Israel prompted them to take more direct action.
“Right after Oct. 7, as the biggest watershed for everybody, we made the conscious decision that we had to have a full-time security guard at all hours that any children are on campus essentially,” Manes said in an interview. “And we have a long school day.”
He said TSGW students are on campus starting at 8 a.m., some until 5:15 p.m., plus for Sunday school sessions.
Some parents of TSGW students feared for their children’s safety immediately after Oct. 7, 2023, Manes said.
“After Oct. 7, there were these Days of Rage; antisemitism was on the rise, and you have all these different accounts that are happening exponentially in Montgomery County and across the nation, around the world; our parents really demanded [the presence of a security guard],” Manes said.
He noted that although tensions have eased now, parents initially didn’t want to send their kids to the Orthodox Jewish day school “unless there was some security guard on campus.”
“A lot of parents were reacting,” Manes recalled, referring to the verbal threats he said some neighboring Jewish students experienced. “It was just a sense of fear among families.”
Because TSGW is an openly Jewish Orthodox school with a website making that clear, “if anyone wanted to do something malicious, it’s not that hidden from them,” Manes said. For that reason, he and his team opted for an “extra pair of eyes” to coordinate with, increasing physical security for active threat scenarios and ensuring proper training for lockdown procedures.
Manes added that he aims to install security cameras in every classroom on campus to deter malicious behavior, know what’s going on in an intruder situation and be proactive in cases of school vandalism, for example.
“If there were ever a threat that was taking place anywhere in the building, you have full visibility of the entire school should you need it,” Manes said of the benefit of more security cameras.
A full-time security guard and more security cameras are “very expensive,” which is why Manes applied for the DHS grant with the help of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. This same three-year grant in 2021 funded a fence around TSGW’s property, some security cameras and guards, Manes said.
“[These grants] are essential to our operations and our ability to maintain a high level of security and a level of security that [TSGW] parents would like to see from the school,” he added.
‘The Jewish Community Is a Targeted Community’
Rachel Lang, the executive director of Beth Sholom Congregation, said the Potomac synagogue stations off-duty Montgomery County police officers on campus rather than security guards, for congregants’ safety while worshiping.
Beth Sholom’s leadership team applied for the grant this year, its third time, to ensure stronger security features for the entire complex, which houses the synagogue and preschool.
In addition to police officers, Beth Sholom made efforts to upgrade its surveillance, access control, lockdown ability and other physical security needs, Lang said. These efforts reflect those of many synagogues across the country.
“After the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh happened, synagogues across the country increased their security in many ways,” Lang said. “And then when Oct. 7 happened, there was an increase in antisemitic incidents in the area and the community felt the need for heightened security.”
Lang said antisemitism has “always been a concern” in Beth Sholom’s grant application, given the uptick in antisemitic incidents in the Montgomery County and Washington, D.C., areas.
“I think it’s just an awareness that the Jewish community is a targeted community, and that things have tightened since Oct. 7,” Lang said. “Anything that we can do to make our community members feel safe in this space to be with us, we’re going to follow through and do that.”
