LAPD: As High Holy Days Approach, No Specific Threats Targeting Community

In advance of the High Holy Days, leading Jewish groups in Los Angeles convened a security briefing that outlined whatever threats there may be facing the community. 

This year especially, in a post-Oct. 7 environment when antisemitic incidents are at their highest levels, Jews in Los Angeles are seeking reassurance that it’s safe to attend in-person services at synagogues. 

Fortunately, “There is no specific articulable information of anyone targeting the Los Angeles Jewish community during this season — none,” Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Commander Steve Lurie, the department’s Jewish community liaison, said during the security briefing, which was held Sept. 24 at Sinai Temple and was live-streamed to viewers around the community.

Approximately 50 attendees — including nonprofit professionals, synagogue leaders and security volunteers — attended the security preparedness discussion, featuring remarks by representatives of Anti-Defamation League (ADL), LAPD and the Jewish Security Alliance, a first-of-its-kind coalition that’s made up of leading California Jewish security organizations.

The formation of Jewish Security Alliance was announced in the summer of 2023, a time when antisemitic incidents in California were at an “all-time high,” according to the ADL. It also was a moment when the Los Angeles Jewish community was reeling from a pair of synagogue shootings in Pico-Robertson that had happened earlier that year. 

But that predated Oct. 7 and its aftermath, which has led to even more heightened concern around the community about what consequences there may be of being visibly Jewish on such high-profile days on the Jewish calendar as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Together, ADL and Jewish Federation Los Angeles — which runs Community Security Initiative (CSI), a network of Jewish schools, camps, synagogues and nonprofit organizations that attempts to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the Jewish community — are working closely and liaising with law enforcement to ensure the community feels safe, Jeffrey Abrams, regional director at ADL, said. 

“We’re blessed with [robust] law enforcement relationships,” Abrams said.

ADL and L.A. Federation co-chair the Jewish Security Alliance, which partners with Community Security Service (CSS), an expert in volunteer security services. 

During the briefing, Lurie spoke about the many steps law enforcement is taking to ensure the community feels secure this year. These steps include the strategic placement of security personnel — which Lurie described as “visual deterrents” — in areas where there will be heavy foot traffic of people walking to services. Many officers will be on foot; police vehicles will be present; and officers will be mounted on horseback.

“Our police officers on horseback, to this community that is both a great visual deterrent to crime and a great P.R. tool,” Lurie said. “Kids especially love and gravitate towards those horses. And we get a chance to have a conversation about safety, about awareness, about talking to the police [and emphasizing], ‘If you see something, say something,’ right?”

Also in attendance was Aubrey Farkas Harris, western states director for the Community Security Service (CSS), which offers free security training, guidance and resources to Jewish community members and institutions that want to protect against antisemitic incidents and security threats. 

Farkas Harris spoke about the importance of “situational awareness.” She urged synagogue leaders to have control over the ways visitors can access their buildings and to focus on “suspicious behaviors,” she said, “not suspicious people.” 

Rabbi Lori Shapiro, spiritual leader of Open Temple, was among those in the crowd. She leads an alternative community in Venice Beach that often meets in unconventional locations. She described her community, and those like it, as “synagogues without walls.” 

This year, her congregation’s Rosh Hashanah service is taking place on a beach in Venice, and she expressed concern that her congregation won’t be as secure as those attending services in traditional buildings. This was a worry she’d recently shared with a police officer in her neighborhood, she said.

“I’m here tonight to just bring awareness that a lot of communities look very differently than Sinai Temple and the brick-and-mortar synagogues,” Shapiro said at Sinai.

“I’m here tonight to just bring awareness that a lot of communities look very differently than Sinai Temple and the brick-and-mortar synagogues.” – Rabbi Lori Shapiro

Lurie, in turn, told Shapiro she did the exact right thing by speaking to an officer in her community, because feedback like that enables law enforcement to do its job more effectively.

“So, anybody here is in this community, anybody on the livestream, you need to reach out,” Lurie said. “Your first step is always your local police division.” ■