Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
South Florida synagogues step up security
Synagogues throughout South Florida stepped up security Sunday, a day after a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh temple that killed 11 and injured six.
The massacre — the deadliest attack on Jews in American history — prompted Gov. Rick Scott to order tightened security at temples throughout the state.
“We started putting a police officer at each synagogue [on Saturday after the shooting rampage],” Aventura Mayor Enid Weisman said. “The true sanctuaries used to be schools, churches and synagogues. And we can’t feel that way anymore.”
Shooting suspect Robert Bowers reportedly shouted “All Jews must die!” before opening fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue. He faces 29 charges, including 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder and multiple counts of two hate crimes.
Rositta Kenigsberg, president of the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center in Dania Beach, said the tragic shooting harkens back to darker times.
“I’d always hoped and prayed this hatred would die in Auschwitz,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do, and we have to do it together. Our hearts and thoughts go out to all the victims and families and community of Pittsburgh. And we will do everything we can so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Synagogues around the nation have been holding special prayer services since the attack while doubling down on security.
That included B’nai Aviv of Weston, which opened its doors
to people of all faiths for a prayer gathering Sunday night in honor of the 11 victims.
“One of our congregant’s cousins was inside the building and lost their life,” said B’nai Aviv Rabbi Adam Watstein. “A set of brothers were killed and a husband and wife. Whenever there is a target on Jewish people in particular, it’s going to hit close to home. That means they want to harm all of us. In some way, each of us is a victim.”
Jonathan Berkun, an Aventura rabbi whose father had been a rabbi at the Tree of Life for 23 years, was on a plane to Pittsburgh on Sunday morning to be with his parents.
His father had planned to go to Shabbat services the morning of the shooting but stayed home because his wife wasn’t feeling well.
“She very well may have saved his life,” Berkun, a rabbi at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, said of his mother.
Before Rabbi Berkun left for Pennsylvania, his temple sent an email Sunday to members: “We ask for your ongoing cooperation and patience as we heighten security check points. Please be ready to show your ID when requested. Although there is no known threat to our synagogue, please report any suspicious activity directly to
law enforcement.”
In Boca Raton, police have stepped up patrols at temples throughout the city. “Boca residents can feel secure that our first responders continue to remain proactive to keep our community safe,” Mayor Scott Singer said.
Fort Lauderdale is doing the same.
“We visited all synagogues yesterday and are increasing our presence today,” Police Chief Rick
Maglione said Sunday. “The incident in Pennsylvania was isolated and there are no threats, but we want our Jewish neighbors to feel safe.”
Out of respect for the victims, Fort Lauderdale is lowering all flags on city properties to halfstaff, Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
“We are reaching out to the Jewish community and their leaders to see if we can join together this week to organize a memorial
[service] on behalf of the victims and their families,” he said.
At a rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis on Sunday in Coral Springs, Parkland parent Andrew Pollack, who is Jewish, said he takes his personal security “very seriously.”
“We as Jews, it’s terrible that we have to live that way, but I feel they should have been better protected at that temple. They should have had security. At my temple here in Coral Springs, we have security, armed security every Shabbat service,” said Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “So my heart goes out to them. It is terrible, but it’s a societal problem. It’s not a gun issue, it’s societal. … And you have to take security into your own hands.”
South Florida synagogues are well aware of the need to remain vigilant about security in today’s day and age, Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said.
“While the tragedy in Pittsburgh makes us more mindful of how evil people can get, there’s nothing in South Florida that I know of that’s been cause to elevate security,” Levy said.
But Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a prominent Orthodox Jewish leader and author in New Jersey, says the federal, state and local government is going to have to start offering protection to temples around the country.
“What the Jewish community fears now most is seeing copy-cat crimes,” he said. “I’m not a security expert, so I can’t tell you what kind of security [we need]. But we can’t have business as usual.”