US Synagogue network urges Jews not to walk home alone

Following anti-Semitic shooting in Kansas, US Jewish community on high alert; Police increase presence at Jewish sites in New york and Washington.

By SAM SOKOL
New Jeresey Synagogue 521 (photo credit: DAN IELLA CHESLOW)
New Jeresey Synagogue 521
(photo credit: DAN IELLA CHESLOW)
The National Council of Young Israel has urged US synagogue-goers not to walk home alone during the final days of Passover.
The security precaution is one of several emailed to those affiliated with the national modern-Orthodox synagogue network last week in response to last Sunday’s shooting attacks at Jewish communal institutions in Overland Park, Kansas.
Jewish community centers, synagogues and other institutions around the US boosted their security last week following the attack, in which Klansman Frazier Glenn Cross killed three people, including a teenage boy.
Police have increased their presence at Jewish sites in New York and Washington and senior Jewish communal officials have consulted with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Don’t walk home alone late at night. Always walk with a buddy,” NCYI’s Ari Matityahu recommended to affiliate communities.
Other suggested security precautions include not letting strangers into synagogues, employing the “Run, Hide, Fight” model of active shooter response and securing trash cans so that bombs can’t be hidden in them.