Friday, September 10, 1999
Temples increase security for holy days
BY MARIE McCAIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Synagogues in Greater Cincinnati, like others across the country, are increasing security for the services of the high holy daysbeginning with Rosh Hashana today and ending later this month with Yom Kippur.
“It's a reflection of a very difficult world,” said Rabbi Lewis Kamrass, senior rabbi of Isaac M. Wise Temple in Amberley Village.
Two shooting rampages this summer by white supremacists have renewed feelings of vulnerability.
In July, a shooting spree in Chicago and Indiana by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a member of the World Church of the Creator, left two dead and seven others — all minorities — wounded.
In August, Buford O. Furrow Jr. killed a Filipino postal worker after opening fire at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles, injuring five others, police said.
Thousands of Cincinnati area Jews are expected to attend services for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, as well as Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, Sept. 20. Besides additional off-duty police officers, some synagogues will have members on the lookout for unfamiliar faces; others will install security cameras.
“The general public needs to understand that we have some groups in this society that are prepared to terrorize certain other groups,” said Aubrey Herman, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati Jewish Federation has offered to give synagogues money for increased security, Mr. Herman said. He would not say how much the group is offering or how much has been handed out. But out of 18 area synagogues, five have requested help, he said.
Rabbi Arthur Flicker of Congregation Ohav Shalom in Sycamore Township said his synagogue has hired police to provide security during services.
In August, local members of the same white separatist group to which Mr. Smith belonged distributed booklets espousing anti-Semitic and racist ideology in at least two neighborhoods. .
“There is really nothing anyone can do to make sure they're safe anywhere. ... But I'm not about to hide my Judaism out of fear. Not in America,” Rabbi Flicker said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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