Secure Every Synagogue

Stand for Israel  |  May 7, 2019

The recent shooting at the Chabad Synagogue in Poway, California, was just the latest attack on a place of worship. But the increasingly common attacks, while they seem to have become routine, have spurred The Fellowship to act. The Christian Post’s Samuel Smith reports on how Fellowship President Yael Eckstein is looking to secure every synagogue under threat:

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is behind the effort to secure synagogues across the globe and is expanding its efforts in response to the shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California on Passover that killed one woman and injured others.

The initiative was launched prior to the outbreak of violence this past weekend between Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian militants (Hamas and Islamic Jihad) that saw over 700 rockets launched into Southern Israel from the Gaza Strip and hundreds of rockets that struck in the Strip.

The Fellowship, the largest philanthropic organization in Israel, is no stranger to helping overseas synagogues as its efforts have already bolstered security at hundreds of synagogues throughout 40 countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

But now the organization is looking to extend its existing program to cover all of the world’s “vulnerable” synagoguges. As part of the expanded effort, The Fellowship will immediately hone in on synagogues in eights countries in order to provide them with added security measures.

“We have realized now with the attacks specifically in America, both with the Tree of Life attack [last year in Pittsburgh], where 11 Jewish people were killed in their house of worship and with the recent San Diego attack, we see that it is getting worse,” Yael Eckstein, the organization’s president, told The Christian Post.

“Once it gets to America, we know that we have a problem. So if America is vulnerable, just think about how vulnerable the Jewish people in a place like France are or in places where the government doesn’t stand for freedom and the government doesn’t like Jews. If it can happen in America, just think how much it could happen in locations that are more vulnerable than American Jews.”

The Fellowship has already planned to provide additional security measures for synagogues in Mexico, Georgia, Germany, Norway, India, Finland, France, Mexico and Thailand…