Security Concerns Mount for Local Jewish Communities Following Michigan Synagogue Attack

Jewish communities across the United States are spending nearly $1 billion annually on security, a figure that one Pennsylvania rabbi described as both sad and frustrating in the wake of a vehicle-ramming attack on a Michigan synagogue last week.

Rabbi Elliott Kleinman of Congregation Beth Israel in Honesdale, Pa., said the incident reflects a troubling pattern facing Jewish communities nationwide.

“Unfortunately, [it’s] part of a long pattern that has challenged the Jewish community,” Kleinman said.

On Thursday, Ayman Ghazali waited in his car outside Temple Israel, near Detroit, for about two hours with a rifle, commercial grade fireworks and jugs of liquid believed to be gasoline, before crashing into the building full of dozens of children, according to authorities.

He started firing his gun through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard. Ghazali fatally shot himself after he got stuck in his vehicle and the engine caught fire, said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office. No staffers or children inside the synagogue were hurt, likely due to beefed up security in recent months.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community. But the agency said it didn’t have enough evidence yet to call it an act of terror.

Kleinman noted the disparity between the security burdens facing Jewish institutions and those facing other houses of worship.

“The churches in this community in Honesdale and all around the country do not need to have bulletproof windows,” he said. “Do not need to have multiple security guards.”

Congregation Beth Israel, which has operated in Honesdale for more than 175 years, has strong ties to the surrounding community. Kleinman said neighbors and other faith communities have been a source of ongoing support, though a sense of fear persists.

“There’s real sadness and there is obviously some concern about our own security,” he said. “We do look over our shoulder.”

Kleinman called on community members to respond by reaching out directly to Jewish neighbors and by immediately and publicly confronting antisemitism when it surfaces — including in casual settings among friends.

“The only way to stop it is to make it absolutely unacceptable,” Kleinman said.

He also emphasized the particular vulnerability of Jewish students in rural areas, noting he has spoken with young people who are the only Jewish student in their entire school.

“The need for Jews to feel secure wherever they are is a fundamental basic right of all Americans,” he said.

Kleinman says community is a source of resilience during difficult times, a value he said extends beyond the Jewish tradition.

“It is in community, it is in conversation, it is in dialogue, it is in reaching out to one another that we can find not just comfort and support, but we can bolster one another,” he said.

Image: Police tape hangs outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)