On March 19, a lone gunman in southern France murdered three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi outside of the Ozar Hatorah secondary school in Toulouse. On Thursday morning, just three days after the shootings, French police killed Mohammed Merah after they stormed the gun-wielding suspect’s home.
The incident has sent ripples across the world, and put New York police—and Brooklyn synagogues— on alert. The NYPD responded this week by stepping up security at Jewish institutions throughout the city, including Yeshiva University in Washington Heights and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan.
The city “remains the most likely venue for global tensions with Iran to spill over onto American soil,” said Mitchell Silber, director of intelligence analysis for the NYPD, in his testimony before Congress Wednesday.
New York City boasts one of the largest Jewish populations outside of Israel, and local residents have been stirred by the Toulouse killings. Abe Rosen, a retired Williamsburg schoolteacher, said while the NYPD generally has a strong presence around Jewish institutions in Brooklyn, it’s great to have more security in the wake of such an episode.
“We see them standing by the synagogues on Saturdays, and during the week by the schools,” Rosen said. What he doesn’t understand, however, is the motive of people like Merah. “Those people, they don’t care for their own lives.”
Yoel Braver, a 33-year-old Williamsburg salesman, said that although he’s happy with the increase in the city’s police presence following the killings, he thinks more could be done to ensure security in the area. “We appreciate it,” he said, “but it would be helpful if they put in more cameras.” Braver believes that more surveillance around schools would help prevent such incidents.
But not everybody is sold on the surge in protection. Rabbi Zalman Liberow of Flatbush appreciates the NYPD’s efforts, but says he doesn’t understand what immediate protection from the police department will ensure.
“It’s hard to pinpoint when the next terrorists will decide to strike” Liberow said via telephone.
Though the Toulouse gunman’s actions have been called an isolated hate crime, Brooklyn’s leaders have been mindful of hate crimes here at home – not only against the Jewish community, but also to other groups in the community.
According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate groups – particularly ones targeting people based on race, religious affiliation and sexual orientation – are on the rise in America.
A spokesman for Councilmember Stephen Levin, who didn’t wish to be named, says the Jewish community is only one of many minority groups in the area that are targeted for hate crimes, and that citizens should be mindful of that.
“The very best we can do to make sure that the community is safe is to encourage them to be aware,” Levin’s spokesman said in a telephone interview. Drawing attention to such crimes, he says, is one of the best ways to ward off threats.
Rabbi Liberow, meanwhile, is confounded by such tragedies. “We’re living in a crazy world now. I don’t know what really should be done,” he said. “Honestly speaking, it really lays in the hands of God.”
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