Security Concerns Mount for Local Jewish Communities Following Michigan Synagogue Attack

Jewish communities across the United States are spending over $765 million 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.”

Dr. Peter Alan Chester, president of Landfield Avenue Synagogue in Monticello, said the Michigan attack also resonated deeply in Sullivan County, where Jewish life has long been part of the region’s history.

“I was not at all surprised,” Chester said. “Unfortunately and sadly, not only in the United States but across the world, there’ve been attacks of this kind, principally on synagogues and Jewish houses of worship.”

Chester said such violence is often associated with large metropolitan areas, but smaller communities are not immune.

“You would expect that these kinds of attacks might happen in large metropolitan areas with large Jewish populations,” he said. “And unfortunately they’re not limited to those places.”

Sullivan County, he noted, has a sizable Jewish population that grows significantly during the summer months, with synagogues throughout the county that have existed for generations.

“When something like this happens, the hairs on your spine go up, the antenna go up, and we say to ourselves, ‘My God, are we next?’” Chester said. “What do we do to protect ourselves? What do we do to protect persons who are coming to the synagogue just to pray and to show their piety?”

Chester said security concerns remain a constant challenge for congregations that traditionally aim to keep their doors open.

“We are vigilant. We are cautious,” he said. “But vigilance and security cannot stop us from what we do in our house of worship. The moment we say we are not going to go to our house of worship because of fear, then the bad has won.”

Chester added that incidents like the Michigan attack affect Jewish communities across generations, particularly older members who have witnessed antisemitism throughout their lives. Both of his parents, he said, were Holocaust survivors.

“It affects all members of the Jewish community,” Chester said. “And I believe it affects all members of the community, all decent citizens, who just say there’s no place for this.”

He also emphasized the importance of support from neighbors and the broader community.

“If you need an ear or a shoulder, we are here — it’s that sense of community that gets you through this type of horrific crisis,” Chester said. “We have that here in Sullivan County.”

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.

A correction was made on March 16, 2026. Security costs for the Jewish community amount to $765 million per year, according to Jewish Federations of North America, not nealry $1 billion.

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