Daily Alert Archives

The Case for Safety in the Synagogue

(City Journal) Stuart Halpern and Tevi Troy - American Jews are feeling vulnerable. The 2018 Tree of Life and 2019 Poway Chabad house synagogue shootings; the Colleyville, Texas, hostage standoff in January 2022; and arrests of those threatening to harm Jews in synagogues in New York, New Jersey, and Michigan in recent months contribute to this unease. Coupled with largely unpunished street violence against Jews in Brooklyn and social-media threats, Jews have had to bolster security measures at houses of worship. Many Jews have recently decided that the only ones who can defend them are themselves. Increasing numbers of congregants are attending services while armed, often with the foreknowledge of the rabbi and the synagogue security committee. While some well-meaning laws seek to limit an individual's choice to bring a weapon to synagogue, the fact remains that while potential victims will comply with the law, their potential attackers won't. As a result, the attackers will remain armed and dangerous, while potential protectors will be disarmed. In Israel, Jews wary of terror attacks regularly attend synagogue armed. Most of the carriers are trained veterans of the nation's mandatory military service. Judaism's emphasis on personal safety is threaded throughout its traditional sources, stressing the importance of protecting life, while seeking to avoid a militaristic mentality. There appears to be sufficient rabbinic justification to allow taking weapons to synagogue for self-protection on religious grounds. Those who receive the certification and training to do so are acting in accord with rabbinic and historic tradition that favors protecting life above all other religious considerations. Rabbi Stuart Halpern is the senior advisor to the provost and deputy director of the Straus Center at Yeshiva University. Tevi Troy is a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a former senior White House aide.
2022-12-29 00:00:00
Full Article