Enough Is Enough: We Are Running Out of Time to Protect Our Jewish Community

After yet another incident, this time at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, our community is left reeling. Once again, when Jews gather in our sacred places, we are infiltrated by haters. Once again, when we want to develop solidarity with our neighbors, protesters arrive to drive our communities apart. Once again, the Jewish community of our city is beside itself at the tepid response of our elected officials.   

From the streets of New York to the streets of Los Angeles, our Jewish communities are under assault. Growing threats seek to disrupt our lives, prevent us from exercising our constitutional rights, and destroy our indigenous connection to our homeland, Israel.  

Last June, after an attack on a peaceful gathering of Jews at Adas Torah synagogue, I wrote a piece for the LA Times urgently calling for more security at our local Jewish institutions, synagogues, and schools. Nothing has improved and the situation has only become more dire and more urgent. Just last week in New York, a synagogue came under siege by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters.  

How long must we wait until these “protests” at our houses of worship turn violent and deadly? What is it going to take for this scourge to stop? We must not wait for more violence to act. The time to act is NOW. This moment demands more than symbolic gestures and verbal assurances. We do not need more community meetings or social media statements. We need action and results, and we need them now.  

At Jewish Federation Los Angeles, where I serve as President & CEO, we have been actively implementing a security strategy to protect our community and synagogues. Our strategy, led by our Community Security Initiative (CSI), is built on four pillars. First is training, where we provide, for free, the latest safety and security protocols to make sites harder targets.  Second, we conduct physical risk assessments, where CSI identifies key vulnerabilities. Third, is information sharing and analysis. Using our state-of-the-art Analysis Center, we coordinate information with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, and local security organizations 24/7.  

Fourth, is advocacy. While we appreciate the support of many elected officials, we need to mobilize our community to demand change to protect our community. We need real commitments tied to measurable outcomes. I am calling on our Mayor, our City Councilmembers, and our state representatives to do more.  

We’ve been told many times that existing laws cannot prevent the actions at Wilshire Boulevard Temple or Adas Torah. We’ve been told that there are not enough police to protect Jews in synagogue both here in and New York. We’ve been told, by elected officials, that Jews congregating to explore and celebrate our relationship with Israel [untruthfully] violates international law. Or, that the solution to the question of Jewish safety is simply to sit down in dialogue to “hear the other side.” Forcing us to listen to the demands of those who want to use violence against us is abusive. It’s blaming Jews for being Jewish. 

Protecting our community is foundational to Jews feeling safe enough to express our First Amendment rights, like everybody else in America. Through our four pillars, we are implementing expert-vetted strategies that work, but we can no longer go it alone. We need help and we need it NOW.  

We must not wait until dead Jews start lining our streets.  

Rabbi Noah Farkas is President & CEO, Jewish Federation Los Angeles