NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Last weekend, the lives of congregants at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas were forever changed when a gunman stormed in and took them hostage.
While the standoff between police and the gunman was short, and the latter wound up being the only fatality, the incident is a reminder that danger can strike at any time and at any place.
How effective is preparation though? Should Jewish communities specifically be the ones to train in the event they are targeted again?
Evan Bernstein seems to think so. He’s the CEO and National Director of the Community Security Service, the leading volunteer organization in the Jewish communal space. He says that even though hostage situations are unpredictable, violent acts at synagogues are often predictable due to an increase of anti-Semitism across the nation.
On this week’s episode of WCBS 880’s In Depth Podcast, reporter Peter Haskell sits down with Bernstein to analyze the current state of hatred in America and to answer the lingering question: should synagogues still keep their doors open?
“I think it's a balance,” Bernstein explains. “I think you need to be inclusive and welcoming, but I think you need to have people that are outside of your facility [too], that are aware of what fits in and what doesn't fit in.”
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