West Virginia man who praised synagogue shooter arrested after he threatened jurors during neo-Nazi gunman’s trial.

By The Algemeiner Staff

A white supremacist with a long history of threats against Jews and other minorities has been arrested by federal authorities on charges of intimidating witnesses at the trial of Robert Bowers, the neo-Nazi gunman who murdered 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018.

Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, was arrested on Thursday at his home in Follansbee, West Virginia. During the trial of Bowers, who was convicted and sentenced to death earlier this month, Lloyd penned a series of emails and blog posts in which he celebrated the atrocity and attempted to persuade jurors to exonerate the killer.

“Walk into a synagogue and gun down 11 Jews and one rabbi,” he wrote in one post in late May. “That’s how you make a difference, people.” In another post, he addressed the jury directly, telling them, “make sure to vote what you know in your heart is morally correct.” Meanwhile, in a May 14 post on the Russian social media site VKontakte, Lloyd allegedly wrote: “Free Robert Bowers Now!! … We need to support anyone who kills jews (sic),” according to a federal criminal complaint. In another post three days later, Lloyd said that “Robert Bowers did Pgh a favor. Any juror who finds him guilty is guilty of anti-White racism.”

“The offender in this case targeted the Jewish community for years with hate, vitriol, and calls for violence,” Michael Masters, director and chief executive of the Secure Community Network (SCN), a nonprofit providing security to Jewish communities across North America, told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. “He is well known to the Jewish community. He is also well known to the security professionals at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and SCN, and to the members of law enforcement.”

In other posts, Lloyd allegedly threatened to publicly release the names and addresses of the jurors. In a May 17 email to local news stations, Lloyd said that people would be watching the jurors and “taking pictures of ALL cars and people who leave the courthouse,” according to the complaint.

Mike Nordwall, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, said separately that “threats of violence used to intimidate or influence a community or jury cannot and will not be tolerated.”

Lloyd, who has a history of involvement with white supremacist groups, is the self-appointed “reverend” of the hate group dubbed the “Church of Ben Klassen,” named for the late Florida congressman and white supremacist.

Lloyd’s previous legal woes include a trial in 2006 for the killing of 41-year-old Lori Hann, whom he met through an internet dating service. Lloyd shot Hann in Aug. 2004 after a heated argument between the couple but cleared was of first-degree murder as well as voluntary manslaughter. Jurors found him guilty only of carrying a firearm without a license, and apparently believed that Hann was herself armed. He later wrote a song about the killing in which he plagiarized a well-known lyric from country legend Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” saying, “I shot that b—- in Squirrel Hill just to watch her die.”

“That has a better ring to it, after all, than ‘I gunned down a frightened, unarmed woman,’” the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors US far right groups, observed at the time.

In 2010, Lloyd was sentenced in a federal court in Pittsburgh to 2 1/2 years in prison for possessing ten firearms and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition as a convicted felon. Last year, the Texas Department of Public Safety offered a $1,000 reward for information that led to his arrest after he allegedly made online comments saying he would be carrying a firearm onto the Texas State Capitol grounds and would challenge any law enforcement officer who tried to stop him.

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Israeli social media influencer Hananya Naftali discusses with ILTV the current trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, who massacred 11 Jews in 2018, and hate crimes against Jews in general in the United States.

The post ‘JEWISH LIVES MATTER’: What can we learn from the Pittsburgh shooter trial? appeared first on World Israel News.

The “depths of the defendant’s malice and hate can only be proven in the broken bodies and his hateful words,” Assistant US Attorney Soo C. Song said.

By The Algemeiner

Relatives of the 11 Jewish worshipers murdered in a gun attack upon Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in Oct. 2018 wept in court on Tuesday as they listened to the prosecutor’s arguments on the first day of the trial of the assailant, Robert Bowers.

A 50-year-old truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, Bowers sat in court impassively as the prosecution asserted that he should face the death penalty for the massacre — the worst antisemitic atrocity in the history of the United States. Twelve jurors and six alternates — chosen on Thursday after more than 200 candidates were questioned over a month — are hearing the case. They include 11 women and seven men.

Bowers stormed into the synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. The synagogue was hosting three congregations, Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light, for weekly Shabbat services. Members of the three congregations arrived at the courthouse on Tuesday in a school bus and entered together. The atmosphere in the large, wood-paneled courtroom was grim and somber as the gallery filled with media, survivors and family members, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Armed with three handguns and an AR-15 rifle, Bowers shot out of a large window near the entrance to the synagogue and then opened fire on congregants, according to the indictment. He was shot in turn multiple times by police and ultimately surrendered and was taken into custody. Authorities have said they believe he acted alone.

The mass shooting left 11 people dead and six wounded, including four police officers who responded to the scene. Among the dead were a 97-year-old great-grandmother, an 87-year-old accountant and a couple who were married at the synagogue more than 60 years earlier.

Minutes before he launched his assault, Bowers uploaded a video to Gab, a social media platform widely used by far right extremists, in which he ranted that Jews were responsible for an influx of immigrants into the US to the detriment of its white population, declaring: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

Prosecutors began presenting their case Tuesday by playing an initial 911 call from Bernice Simon, who reported “we’re being attacked!” at the synagogue and that her husband, Sylvan, had been shot.

Shannon Basa-Sabol, the dispatcher who took that call, testified she advised Mrs Simon to find the wound and stanch the bleeding. Then the dispatcher heard additional gunfire and screaming as Mrs Simon, too, was shot. The couple were among the victims.

“Bernice, are you still with me?” Basa-Sabol asked in an audio recording played for the jury, There was no answer.

Addressing the jurors, Assistant US Attorney Soo C. Song remarked that the “depths of the defendant’s malice and hate can only be proven in the broken bodies and his hateful words.”

Bowers has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. If convicted, he could face the death penalty, which is shaping up to be the main debate at the trial, as the defense is not disputing that Bowers is guilty.

Defense lawyer Judy Clarke argued that Bowers could be understood to have acted on an irrational belief and not hatred. His lawyers have also claimed that he suffers from schizophrenia and other mental health challenges.

“He had what to us is this unthinkable, nonsensical, irrational thought that by killing Jews he would attain his goal,” Clarke said, adding: “There is no making sense of this senseless act. Mr. Bowers caused extraordinary harm to many, many people.”

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Three Jewish congregations, resolute in their defiance of the hatred that tried to destroy them, are still waiting for justice.

But united in their horror and grief, they haven’t been standing still as the criminal case for the massacre that changed everything has crawled through the federal court system.

Four and a half years ago, a gunman invaded the Tree of Life synagogue on a Sabbath morning and killed 11 worshippers from the three congregations that shared the building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The shooting, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the long-delayed trial of the suspect, accused of dozens of charges including hate crimes resulting in death.

The three congregations are wary of what’s to come. Some members may be called to testify, and they’re bracing for graphic evidence and testimony that could revive the traumas of the attack on Oct. 27, 2018 — often referred to around here as simply 10/27.

The tension can be felt in private conversations and encounters — the griefs, the anxieties, the feelings of being in a media fishbowl.

But each in their own ways, members are finding renewed purpose in honoring those lost in the attack, in the bold practice of their faith, in activism on issues like gun violence and immigration, in taking a stand against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.

“We don’t want to be silenced as Jews,” said Rich Weinberg, chair of the social action committee for Dor Hadash. “We want to be active as Jews with an understanding of Jewish values. … We are going to still be here. We will not be intimidated.”

That was evident even in subtle details of a Passover service held earlier this month in New Light’s chapel, joined by some members of Dor Hadash.

Some offering Yizkor, or remembrance, prayers were doing so in honor of slain loved ones. One prayer was read in memory of the “Kedoshim of Pittsburgh, murdered al kiddush Hashem” — holy martyrs, killed while sanctifying God’s name. The prayer, modeled on prayers for Jewish martyrs of medieval Europe, has been woven into the ritual fabric of Jewish Pittsburgh.

One of those leading Passover prayers was Carol Black, who survived the attack that claimed the life of her brother, Richard Gottfried, and two other New Light members, Melvin Wax and Daniel Stein. They had led much of New Light’s ritual worship.

“Rich and Dan and Mel were our religious heart,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light. “And we had some very big shoes to fill.”

Members such as Black and Bruce Hyde have stepped into them. Hyde said when he once read a passage that had been read by Stein, he felt his presence: “He was up there with me.”

Cohen said the congregation had three priorities after the attack: to memorialize those lost, to continue their ritual life and to further religious education. New Light, like Tree of Life, is part of the moderate Conservative denomination of Judaism.

The congregation dedicated a monument honoring its three martyrs — shaped with images of Torah scrolls and prayer shawls — at its cemetery, where it also created a chapel adorned with stained glass windows and other mementos honoring the victims.

New Light Co-President Barbara Caplan said her dream for the congregation is “that we have many more years of Friday night services, Saturday morning services, holidays together, where we just go on being the family that we are.”

Cohen said the congregation has been overwhelmed by support from Christian, Sikh and other communities and wanted to build on those relationships. It has held Bible studies with local Black churches, and members visited the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, drawing solace from a congregation that lost nine members to a racist gunman in 2015. “I’ve never been part of a group hug of a hundred people,” Cohen recalled.

All three of the modest-sized congregations have been meeting in nearby synagogues since the attack closed the Tree of Life building.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers had been leading Tree of Life Congregation for just over a year when he survived 10/27. He carries the scarred memories of the gunshots that killed seven members: Joyce Fienberg, Rose Mallinger, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon and Irving Younger. Andrea Wedner, Mallinger’s daughter, was wounded in the attack.

Myers continues to speak forcefully against the bigotry behind it.

His mission is “primarily to help my congregation community heal,” Myers said. “But beyond it is to speak up, to be a voice, to say, ‘No, this isn’t okay. It’s not acceptable. It never was. And it can never be.’”

He’d like to think the trial will expose the dangers of rising bigotry, but “it takes a concerted effort to be able to … walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” he said. But it affects more than Jews. ”Someone who is an antisemite is most likely also the possessor of a long laundry list of personal grievances and other groups that that person does not like.”

Members are each recovering in their own ways, congregation president Alan Hausman said.

Each week when he makes announcements, Hausman said he includes this one: “It’s OK not to be OK, and we will get through this together.”

On Sunday, the day before jury selection, the Tree of Life Congregation is having a closure ceremony for its historic building. The congregation and a partner organization plan a major overhaul of the site, which will combine worship space with a memorial and antisemitism education, including about the Holocaust.

“We’re not really leaving, we will be back,” said Hausman.

“Hopefully we’ll be once again a happy, grounded, 160-year-old congregation,” added member Audrey Glickman, a survivor. “Back to being a solid group of people who come together regularly and do our thing.”

Dor Hadash, founded 60 years ago, is Pittsburgh’s only congregation in the progressive Reconstructionist movement of Judaism. Many members are drawn to its interlocking focuses on worship, study and social activism.

It was that activism that appears to have drawn the shooting suspect — who fulminated online against HIAS, a Jewish refugee resettlement agency — to the address where Dor Hadash met. The congregation was listed on HIAS’ website as a participant in a National Refugee Shabbat, which wove concern for migrants into Sabbath worship.

On 10/27, members Jerry Rabinowitz and Dan Leger were gathering for a Torah study when they heard the gunshots and ran to help. Rabinowitz was killed, and Leger seriously wounded.

But the attack has only emboldened Dor Hadash members.

They were soon organizing what became a separate group, Squirrel Hill Stands Against Gun Violence, advocating for gun safety legislation. And they redoubled their support for immigrants, refugees and their helpers such as HIAS. The congregation has sponsored a refugee family originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And they have taken a strong stand against rising antisemitism and white supremacy.

“I think advocacy has been a huge part of our healing,” said Dana Kellerman, communications chair for Dor Hadash. Advocacy “isn’t just about making myself feel better,” she added. “It is about trying to move the needle so that this doesn’t happen to somebody else.”

The congregation has been growing since the attack, said its president, Jo Recht. The historically lay-led congregation has hired its first staff rabbi, Amy Bardack. Her formal installation is this Sunday — a date that wasn’t specifically chosen in advance of the trial but that provides a welcome occasion of celebration.

“There are a lot of people who are seeking some way to help so that the world is a more compassionate place,” Recht said.

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An internet announcement is troubling, but the idea of Jews cowering in response and the mainstreaming of antisemitism by the corporate media is the real problem.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, JNS

Far-right hate groups have got the Jewish community scared and with good reason. After the murderous synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh in 2018 and Poway in 2019, extremist antisemitic hate ceased being a theoretical problem.

Random viral videos of hateful acts and speech, vandalism as well as those public events in which white supremacists and their allies are able to generate publicity—like the August 2017 neo-Nazi “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.—have all combined to create the impression that such groups not only present a credible threat to Jewish security but that they have considerable support.

In this context, the effort by a network of neo-Nazi groups to promote a “National Day of Hate” aimed at harassing and threatening Jews on Saturday, Feb. 25, has attracted the notice of both the organized Jewish world as well as law enforcement in places like New York City, Chicago and elsewhere.

In the end, thankfully, nothing actually happened on Saturday.

The problem with the justified worries about the existence of these groups and threats like the one surrounding the “Day of Hate” is twofold.

One is that the spectacle of Jews responding with fear rather than resolve to directly confront the neo-Nazis gives these vile creatures an undeserved victory. The largely misleading impression that such outliers are a major force in American society also helps obscure a more important challenge: the daily mainstreaming of antisemitic hate from the intersectional left by leading media outlets, and the way Jew-hatred has become normative in much of the Muslim and African-American communities.

Although the “Day of Hate” did not turn out the way it was feared, the sad truth is that the furor it generated had to be counted as a success for hate groups even before the start of Shabbat.

By generating such publicity and alarm, the neo-Nazis demonstrated their ability to project the sort of strength that their paltry numbers and utter lack of mainstream support should have prevented them from attaining.

We already know that the Internet and social media have given extremists of all stripes tools they lacked before these things existed.

Though they remain the primary focus of the efforts to counter antisemitism on the part of legacy Jewish organizations, there is no evidence that the number of those involved in white-supremacist or neo-Nazi groups is great. On the contrary, they appear to have only a tiny number of actual supporters. However, their ability to bring together small, isolated and disparate cells of extremists virtually makes them seem not only louder but more numerous.

Indeed, all it takes is for an individual to post a video of a few of them acting out their hateful beliefs, even if it involves nothing more than waving a sign or yelling insults on a street corner to freak out a community that is primed to believe that such outliers are the primary threat to Jewish life in America.

Worse, the entirely justified efforts of police to step up protection of Jewish institutions in response to the Internet threats of a day of hate allows those involved to both claim a public-relations triumph and to further depict Jews as cowering in fear in response to what might well prove to be empty threats.

The proper response

The proper response to this sort of Internet-inspired attempt at intimidation is for Jews to choose to gather on that day specifically to demonstrate their contempt for antisemites and solidarity in the face of threats. Like the national Jewish response after the Pittsburgh shooting, efforts like that of groups like StandWithUs to promote a “Shabbat of Love” or Club Z’s call for massive synagogue attendance on Feb. 25 demonstrate a healthy unwillingness to be terrorized by a tiny cadre of neo-Nazis.

Equally significant (and well-timed) was a Times Square celebration on Saturday night for thousands of young people as part of the annual CTeen Shabbaton sponsored by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Still, it is more than likely that such efforts won’t command the same kind of support as those organized by left-wing groups like the National Council of Jewish Women, who used the previous Shabbat to promote their stands in favor of abortion. That’s an issue that seems to generate far more fervor among most American Jews than those that revolve around efforts to defend Jews against attacks, either in the United States or Israel.

The hate groups aren’t really focused on what the organized Jewish community does. But should neo-Nazis or white supremacists attempt some sort of organized march to intimidate Jews, they know that it is unlikely that the community will respond with force or active measures of self-defense since the vast majority of them are still resolutely opposed to gun ownership or any form of counter-protest that could possibly lead to violence.

At the same time, the hysteria about unspecified threats from the neo-Nazis tends to distract the community away from forms of antisemitism that, while seemingly less scary, demonstrates the way hatred for Jews is legitimized in 21st-century America.

The demonization of Israel and its supporters in mainstream political discourse and in national publications and broadcast networks are so commonplace as to become routine. In academia or even in popular culture, the acceptance of toxic left-wing ideologies rooted in intersectional myths about Jews being the embodiment of “white privilege” who assist in the oppression of Palestinian people of color is rarely even challenged.

Such charges have the support of many progressives with real political clout in a Biden administration that has embraced an “equity” agenda that is harmful to Jewish interests and ready to treat Israel unfairly. Neo-Nazis have no support anywhere in American politics.

Moreover, as worrisome as threats may be, it should not be forgotten that the epidemic of antisemitic violence against Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, N.Y., has shown no signs of abating, as New York City hate-crime statistics have recently shown. That is an ongoing threat that has continued to generate little interest among the liberal majority of American Jewry, not least because the perpetrators of almost all of those attacks are African-Americans and perhaps inspired, at least in part, by the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan.

Legacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League are able to enjoy great fundraising success by sounding the alarm about neo-Nazis. But apparently, rallying to the defense of Jews who do not share the beliefs or politics of their donors isn’t as exciting.

At the same time, the publication that liberal Jews continue to venerate as a holy text—The New York Times—has stepped up its bizarre campaign to demonize ultra-Orthodox Jews. The latest entry in the series is an effort to depict them as deceitful looters of the public purse.

While the initial point of the Times’ recent coverage of this community was a legitimate inquiry about the standards of secular education in haredi schools, fears that this massive effort by the so-called paper of record was not only fueling antisemitism but also an example of it have been proven correct.

So while Jews do well to take neo-Nazi threats seriously, the general apathy about the Times’ mainstreaming of anti-Zionist rhetoric and its own antisemitic campaign against the Orthodox illustrate the organized Jewish community’s upside-down priorities.

A Jewish community that is petrified about vague threats from politically isolated extremists but is largely indifferent to antisemitism at the nation’s leading newspaper is one that no one can pretend has a rational or serious interest in defending Jews or Jewish rights.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

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Matthew Mahrer, who is Jewish and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, was released after his family posted a $150,000 bail, despite warnings that he is “dangerous.”

By World Israel News Staff

Two men accused of planning a shooting attack on a New York City synagogue were freed from jail last week, pending trial, the New York Post reported.

Officers from the New York Police Department took 21-year-old Christopher Brown, a resident of Long Island, and 22-year-old Matthew Mahrer, from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, into custody at Penn Station late Friday night, November 18, after investigators uncovered threats to Jewish houses of worship.

“This was not an idle threat,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference on Nov. 21, where he was joined by officials from the FBI, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other agencies involved in the arrests of Mahrer and Brown.

“This was a real threat,” he said.

A bag containing a Glock-style pistol with a large-capacity magazine and 17 bullets was seized from Mahrer’s apartment building, according to the complaint. Surveillance video from shortly before their arrests showed Brown and Mahrer walking into the building, with Mahrer carrying the bag, according to the criminal complaint.

Brown, who was charged with making a terrorist threat in addition to the weapons charges, told police that he runs a white supremacist Twitter group and Mahrer is one of his followers, according to the complaint.

“I have Nazi paraphernalia at my house. I think it is really cool,” Brown told police, the complaint said.

Brown said he and Mahrer met at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before buying a gun because he “wanted to get the blessing,” according to the complaint.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Neil Ross, however, ruled Wednesday that Mahrer may walk free. His family posted a $150,000 bail last month — despite Assistant District Attorney Edward Burns’ warning of disturbing new facts about his plans that were reason enough to keep him behind bars, according to the Post.

Police said Mahrer “has a history of mental illness and has recently expressed interest in traveling to New York City to purchase a firearm. The subject should be considered armed and dangerous.”

“This could have been a Pittsburgh Tree of Life situation, this could have been a Buffalo Tops supermarket type of situation, and thankfully it was averted,” Community Security Initiative executive director Mitchell Silber told CBS News at the time.

“There are a lot of questions here,” defense attorney Brandon Freycint said of Mahrer, who has allegedly been diagnosed with autism, bipolar disorder, anxiety and ADHD, the Post reported.

“My client is of Jewish heritage. He resides with his parents and his grandfather is actually a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor—and my client is his part-time caretaker,” Freycinet said.

Prior to his arrest, the Post reported, Mahrer had been sending payments to an unnamed jailbird for the gun he and Brown were planning to use in the would-be attacks last month, the prosecutor said.

Following the verdict to set him free, Mahrer was seen casually puffing a vape pen and smirking as he strolled with his lawyer in Lower Manhattan, the Post reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A security expert offers sound advice to taken to ensure that this Passover is a safe one for American Jews.

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS.org

Colleyville. Pittsburgh. Poway.

Too many Jewish institutions are wondering if they’ll be next. Too many in Brooklyn, N.Y., and elsewhere already deal with the reality of anti-Semitic attacks that keep on coming.

The federal government says it stands ready to help ahead of the holiday season.

Marcus Coleman, director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, sat down one-on-one with JNS to explain what resources are available for those looking to secure their facilities and worshippers, and what steps can be taken to ensure that this Passover is a safe one for American Jews.

“We had a conversation last week with faith leaders and really focused on practical steps to do self-assessment for facilities—how to take care of your people—and then just some reminders. I think one of the things that I’ve been humbled by in speaking with faith leaders across the country is that a lot of places still are operating at maybe 50% capacity, or they have just a few people coming in.

“We know those folks are preparing for the spring. They’re expecting big crowds. So, we want to provide all available resources from the federal government to help make sure that they can gather safely,” said Coleman, who hosted a webinar last week titled, “Protecting Places of Worship: A Religious Observance Briefing on Safety and Security.”

He indicated that as many as 1,200 people attended the webinar—one of a number of engagements on the issue of synagogue security. More than 1,800 people have attended an ongoing webinar series on the Nonprofit Security Grant program since the start of the calendar year.

‘Increased threats on the Jewish community’

Coleman told JNS that the focus for religious leaders, including those preparing for Passover, Easter and Ramadan, should be one of three areas of concern, the first being the threat landscape.

“There’s been increased threats and attacks on the Jewish community and on multiple faith organizations, and we gave a briefing that provided a sense of the threat landscape and the types of threats particular faith communities have faced over the past few years. The Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, has developed a Mitigating Attacks Against Houses of Worship Guide and that includes the self-assessment.

“And, so, using that self-assessment, check your facility to make sure that you’re thinking about inflow and outflow, having the right relationships with local first responders, and then, of course, taking care of your people.

“And so, we presented some information on a training called ‘Until Help Arrives.’ We know a lot of people like to take trainings, and it’s been encouraging to hear faith leaders finding some of our DHS trainings around active shooter and active assailant threats valuable.

“But in addition to that, we have trainings and help people know what to do before help arrives. In addition to calling 911, being able to stop bleeding, if necessary, and just being that first responder because usually, we’re going to have citizen first responders until the actual first responders arrive,” explained Coleman.

Funds to protect synagogues and other religious institutions are available through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The recently passed federal budget includes a 40% increase in funding available for the program.

“It’s a program that essentially is responsible for helping to provide funding for what we talk about in terms of facility hardening activities—that’s everything from purchasing security cameras to affording people the opportunity to take on additional trainings and get contract support for security for their facilities.

“We know a number of people may not have the means to afford a full-time, private institutional security organization on their own. And so, that particular grant program also provides opportunities to get contract security as well.

“We are [holding] webinars and outreach virtually as well on that particular program. I believe it’s upwards of $250 million for this grant cycle, and we anticipate we’re going to get a lot of need there. We know that that’s not the only source of funding available for houses of worship, but that is the part that the federal government is making as a contribution to help those security professionals keep their facilities secure, and more importantly, their people safe,” said Coleman.

He added that “we’ve gotten a number of inquiries—upwards into the thousands—in terms of not just what to do to apply for the grant program, but what other partners and resources and steps can people take today. And that’s something that we’re going to continue to be committed to doing.”

‘Making sure people are prepared’

DHS and other law-enforcement agencies around the country get put under a microscope each time there is a terror attack on a synagogue that garners headlines. Coleman said federal agencies are listening to religious leaders and implementing the lessons learned from such tragic incidents.

“I was asked a similar question by the U.S. Senate when we talked about domestic violent extremism—what we’re doing across the government institutions. And I appreciated the senators’ passion across the board for making sure that we’re listening to faith leaders in applying those lessons learned. I’d say, number one, that we’ve given faith leaders, especially those that have been successful either applying for the nonprofit security grant—or in Congregation Beth Israel’s case, to have the best possible outcome from an attack like that—is make sure that you really take the time to not only test, but practice and have conversations within your facility.”

“Oftentimes, for many faith leaders, it’s overwhelming,” acknowledged Coleman. “We don’t want faith leaders to go alone. And so, we have actually consolidated a lot of the resources on fema.gov/faith that walk through the federal resources and information available from across government.”

“Number two, in terms of making sure people are prepared, you may have a security lead for your Jewish community center, for your synagogue, for your place of worship or another facility, but it’s not just that person’s responsibility to know how to keep a facility safe and secure. Keeping other people involved in providing opportunities to connect to trainings and resources, particularly those leaders of other programs in your facility, is helpful,” he said.

“And then the third piece is relationships. I’ve been touched by hearing not just from the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel; there’s been a number of faith leaders that I’ve connected with. They talk about the value of building relationships before incidents occurred. It’s those types of relationships that really help you get connected. And so, you may be talking to local law enforcement because there’s something that recently happened … build that relationship with local first responders now, build that relationship with DHS,” he encouraged.

“In our webinar, we talked about how you can get connected to fusion centers that provide information for threats and specific areas. Those relationships are going to be incredibly important.”

‘Better outcomes for many of our faith partners’

DHS also provides protective security advisers across the country. According to Coleman, these are individuals responsible for helping with assessments for facilities, which include houses of worship, and are resources to help facilitate introductions to other state and local law-enforcement officials, if that is needed as well.

In terms of preventative measures, there has been a call to create some sort of federal task force—either under the auspices of DHS, FBI or other law-enforcement agency—to connect the proverbial dots before there’s an attack, allowing for interagency connection and information sharing that may have prevented missing the type of red flags that could have been spotted prior to the Colleyville attack.

Coleman told JNS that he supports that type of call and that the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is spearheading an Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) to work on such issues.

“We’ve been able to meet with several faith leaders, including leaders representing Agudath Israel of America, Secure Communities Network, which now sits on the DHS Homeland Security Advisory Council, and others. IPC, from the federal government’s position, is providing us an opportunity to really help and hone in on what are some practical things that we need to be doing in a more coordinated fashion that’s going to result in better outcomes for many of our faith partners,” said Coleman.

“One example is we’re looking at is doing an even more robust effort to have a one-stop-shop of best practices and information similar to schoolsafety.gov for faith-based and community-based organizations,” he noted. “That’s something that’s also been called on from Congress, and many faith leaders and community leaders have asked for something similar as well.”

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Newly designed Tree of Life campus to include memorial to victims of massacre, educational and worship spaces, and wing for Holocaust museum’s use.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The Pittsburgh synagogue which was the site of the deadliest attack on Jews on American soil will be given $6.6 million in funding by the state of Pennsylvania, for a project to redevelop the house of worship.

The funding given to the Tree of Life synagogue will “transform the site of the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history into a new place of hope, remembrance, and education,” Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said in a statement.

“You’ve given Tree of Life a very generous Hanukkah present. Your timing is impeccable,” said the synagogue’s rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, during a news conference on Monday.

Architect Daniel Libeskind, who helped plan the World Trade Center rebuild after the September 11th attacks, will be the chief creative force behind the synagogue’s redesign.

In October 2018, Robert Bowers, a lone gunman, allegedly burst into the synagogue yelling, “All Jews must die.” He then opened fire, killing 11 people, including a 97-year-old grandmother.

Bowers was shot several times by police but survived and is currently in jail. No date has been set for his trial, and his attempts to strike a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table have failed.

“After the attack on the congregations in the Tree of Life building three years ago, many noted that our community had joined a club that nobody wants to be in: those devastated by hate-driven violence,” said local politician Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny.

“This funding allows the site of that trauma to become something more — a place of remembrance, healing and education for all.”

USA Today reported that the redesign is expected to include a memorial to victims of the massacre, educational and worship facilities, as well as a wing set aside for use by the Pittsburgh Holocaust museum.

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Eleven people were killed by a white supremacist gunman at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Three years after a white supremacist killed 11 worshipers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue and injured seven, the congregation held a memorial ceremony in a local park while President Biden took a strong stance against antisemitism and Jewish leaders pledged action to protect their communities.

Tweeting a picture of a memorial (“Yizkor”) candle with the names of the mostly elderly victims, in its invitation to the ceremony, the synagogue wrote, “Each person left an indelible mark on our community. It is our prayer that their memory be a blessing on this day and all of the days to come.”

The rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, who had been in the synagogue and pulled some congregants to safety during the shooting, told the Times of Israel that those who died were “the really engaged, active, involved people,” who came to synagogue “because of great devotion…a love of being Jewish.” He had never thought “that houses of worship of any faith would be attacked,” but said that hatred of against all kinds of minorities was on the rise, which “speaks to a serious illness in humanity.” He was, however, heartened by the non-Jewish community’s empathetic response and support after the attack, which is “still there to this day.”

Many synagogues became more security-conscious as a result of this attack, hiring guards, locking doors, and maintaining closer relations with local police forces.

Just this month, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) began a three-year, $54 million campaign to expand its comprehensive community security initiative to all its 146 communities. Only 45 so far have LiveSecure, which JFNA calls “a single point of contact for critical incident coordination, information and intelligence sharing, safety and security training, and resources for every Jewish institution in a community.”

The fact is that antisemitism is a rising challenge in the United States. The FBI’s hate-crime statistics published in August showed that in 2020 Jews were the most-targeted religious group in the country. Fully 57% of all such crimes were committed against Jews even though they comprise perhaps two percent of the population.

Just this week, an American Jewish Committee poll also revealed that 24% of Jews reported being attacked either online or in person in the past year, although only three percent said they had been physically assaulted. A whopping 90% feel that antisemitism is a problem in the U.S.

President Joe Biden sent a strong message against hate on the anniversary Wednesday.

“We must always stand up and speak out against antisemitism with clarity and conviction, and rally against the forces of hate in all its forms, because silence is complicity,” he said in a statement. “We must recognize in others our shared humanity…. As we mark three years since this heinous attack, we resolve to remember the lives lost and commit to protecting a future worthy of their memories.”

On Saturday, October 27, 2018, 46-year-old Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life/Or L’Simcha building in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood during the prayer services of three congregations housed there. He opened fire with both a semi-automatic rifle and semi-automatic pistols to kill and injure congregants in the entrance to the building, the main hall and in the basement. Within ten minutes the police arrived and a shootout began, in which five officers were wounded, one critically, and Bowers himself was hit three times before being captured.

The trial is still ongoing. He is facing 63 charges in all, including federal hate crimes violations, obstruction of religious belief and firearms offenses and could get the death penalty for his actions.

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Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter but some prominent surviving members are opposed.

By Mark Scolforo/Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

A man charged with killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue last October should face the death penalty if convicted, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Monday.

However, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Light Congregation, which lost three members in the deadly shooting attack, has pleaded with Attorney-General William Barr not to issue the death penalty.

Also, in an op-ed published earlier this year in The Jerusalem Post, Beth Kissileff, the rabbi’s wife, opposed the death penalty. “The evil of the shooter who took their lives is beyond human reckoning. And yet, I hope the prosecutors do not pursue the death penalty,” she wrote.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against the anti-Semitic shooter, 46-year-old Robert Bowers.

The government filing said justification for a death sentence included allegations of substantial planning and premeditation, the vulnerability and number of victims, and a motivation of religious hostility.

It also listed the injury, harm and loss caused to the victims and the choice of the Tree of Life synagogue as the site of the attack.

The notice accused Bowers of targeting the worshippers “in order to maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes, and instill fear within the local, national and international Jewish communities.”

Bowers has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. His lawyers did not return messages seeking comment. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Scott Brady declined to discuss the filing.

Prosecutors wrote that the death penalty will be justified if Bowers is convicted of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death or of using a gun to commit a crime of violence.

Bowers is accused of using an AR-15 rifle and other weapons to target worshippers in the Tree of Life synagogue during Saturday morning services in October. Seven people were also wounded, including five police officers.

Police have said he expressed hatred of Jews during and after what was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Shortly after the shootings, before Bowers was publicly identified as the suspect, President Donald Trump said the perpetrator should “suffer the ultimate price.”

“I think they should very much bring the death penalty into vogue,” Trump told reporters in October. “Anybody that does a thing like this to innocent people that are in temple or in church. We had so many incidents with churches. They should really suffer the ultimate price.”

Two weeks ago, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a 120-day extension in the case.

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The honor has been bestowed in solidarity with Pittsburgh Jews following the deadly terror attack at the Tree of Life Congregation.

By World Israel News

Israel has announced that the torch on behalf of Diaspora Jewry at the Jerusalem ceremony marking Independence Day next month will be lit by Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

The honor has been bestowed upon the Pittsburgh community leader in solidarity with the Jews in that city following the terror attack at the Tree of Life Congregation in October, in which 11 members of the community were murdered by a white supremacist.

Israel’s Culture Ministry said Monday that it selected Finkelstein in recognition of his contribution toward leading “the Jewish community’s efforts to cope and rebuild” in the aftermath of the massacre.

Culture Minister Miri Regev said Finkelstein symbolized the “spirit of greatness and social cohesion among our people.”

The synagogue announced last week that it was inviting young people worldwide to submit artwork to cover the fencing surrounding the still-shuttered building.

The art project is called “#HeartsTogether: The Art of Rebuilding.” Organizers said that the Tree of Life Congregation is looking for “original, uplifting images and graphics” to be printed on windscreens that will cover the temporary perimeter fencing.

Two years ago, Regev, whose ministerial position puts her in charge of state ceremonies, had decided to include a Diaspora lighting for one of the torches, but she dropped the idea for this year’s event until an outcry from various Jewish communities convinced her to maintain the new custom after all.

The prestigious ceremony, which takes according to the Jewish calendar, is scheduled for May 8 on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. It marks the conclusion of Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims and the beginning of Independence Day in an emotionally charged atmosphere as the two occasions are marked on consecutive days.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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In the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre last October, Ner Mordechai Congregation in Queens, New York, has launched an active shooter training program for self-defense.

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The hearing in Robert Bowers’ case is expected to be short and involves giving him formal notice of the criminal charges issued in a new indictment.

By Associated Press

A truck driver accused of killing 11 people and wounding seven during an attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in October is expected to appear Monday morning in a federal courtroom to be arraigned on additional charges.

The hearing in Robert Bowers’ case is expected to be short and involves giving him formal notice of the criminal charges issued in a new indictment.

A grand jury on Jan. 29 added 19 counts to the 44 he had faced in the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue building. The additional charges include hate crimes violations, obstruction of religious belief and the use of a firearm during crimes of violence.

Bowers, 46, of Baldwin, Pennsylvania, is accused of targeting worshippers from three Jewish congregations when he attacked Saturday, Oct. 27, while Sabbath services were being held.

Seven people were wounded in the rampage, including five police officers.

Investigators say Bowers posted criticism of a Jewish charity on social media before the attack, claiming the immigrant aid society “likes to bring invaders that kill our people.” Authorities said he told investigators that “all these Jews need to die.”

Bowers has been incarcerated in the Butler County Prison, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of the shooting scene. If convicted of the most serious offenses, he could be sentenced to life without parole.

A spokeswoman for federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh said a decision about whether to pursue the death penalty against Bowers remains under review.

Messages left for defense lawyers listed in the court record were not returned.

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At the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, Judah Samet celebrated his 81st birthday at the State of the Union address on Tuesday. Samet survived 10 months in a Nazi concentration camp.

He was also at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October when 11 Jews were massacred by a white supremacist shooter.

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President Donald Trump warned of rising anti-Semitism and honored two Holocaust survivors, one of whom survived the Pittsburgh shooting.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

President Donald Trump tackled anti-Semitism in the midst of his second State of the Union address.

Not only did the American president underscore America’s strong ties with Israel, but he reunited a Holocaust survivor with an American hero who liberated concentration camps.

“One of the most complex set of challenges we face and have for many years is in the Middle East,” Trump said. “Our approach is based on principled realism — not discredited theories that have failed for decades to yield progress. For this reason, my administration recognized the true capital of Israel — and proudly opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem.”

Trump also attacked Iran for calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. He said America “will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people.”

The president spent several moments addressing a rise in anti-Semitism by sharing the story of Timothy Matson, a SWAT team officer who responded to the Pittsburgh Tree of the Life synagogue shooting.

“Just months ago, 11 Jewish-Americans were viciously murdered in an anti-Semitic attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,” President Trump said. “SWAT officer Timothy Matson raced into the gunfire and was shot seven times chasing down the killer. And he was very successful.”

Trump spoke of the danger of rising anti-Semitism in America.

“We must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism, or those who spread its venomous creed,” he said. “With one voice, we must confront this hatred anywhere and everywhere it occurs.”

He also spoke of Judah Samet, who narrowly missed being caught in the middle of the Pittsburgh attack, arriving minutes late to services and witnessing the shootout from the parking lot. Samet is also a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp.

“Judah says he can still remember the exact moment, nearly 75 years ago, after 10 months in a concentration camp, when he and his family were put on a train, and told they were going to another camp,” Trump said. “Suddenly, the train screeched to a halt. A soldier appeared. Judah’s family braced for the worst. Then, his father cried out with joy, ‘it’s the Americans.'”

Making things more special was that it happened to be Samet’s 81st birthday. When the president made note of that, the entire House chamber broke out into song, singing “Happy Birthday” to the man who narrowly escaped death multiple times.

Another survivor of Dachau, Joshua Kaufman, was also in attendance at the invitation of the president.

Trump said, “He remembers watching through a hole in the wall of a cattle car as American soldiers rolled in with tanks.”

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A Pittsburgh police officer who responded to the Pittsburgh mass shooting and was wounded is to be recognized in the U.S. president’s address.

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News 

Holocaust survivor Judah Samet, who narrowly escaped last year’s deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, has been invited by U.S. President Donald Trump to be one of his personal guests at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

In its statement, the White House notes that Samet survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel, where he lived in 1948 when the State of Israel was declared. He then served in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade, before leaving in 1960 for the United States.

A resident of Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood who turns 81 on Tuesday, Samet was invited by the White House through the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

The White House also invited Pittsburgh police Officer Timothy Matson, 41, who was shot more than a half-dozen times inside the Tree of Life synagogue during the October 27th massacre that left 11 people dead and seven injured.

Samet was born in Hungary and survived the Bergen-Belsen death camp. He came a few minutes late to the Shabbat service at the congregation. He says that by the time he pulled into a handicapped parking space at the synagogue, he could hear shooting and was urged by another man to leave the area. He stayed in his car and watched the accused gunman, Robert Bowers, engage in a shootout with police outside the building.

Samet said his invitation includes a noon meeting with President Trump in the White House’s Oval Office.

“I’m going to say a Jewish blessing that you say only when you meet a head of state,” he told Trib Live, a local news outlet.

Samet describes himself as a Trump supporter.

“I like him very much. He is strongly pro-Israel,” Samet said. “That a man would go outright for Israel and declare for Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel … that was something new.”

Pittsburgh Public Safety officials said Matson’s acceptance of the White House invitation had nothing to do with politics.

The department is “honored that Officer Matson, on behalf of all city first responders, is being recognized for his life-saving efforts,” said spokesman Chris Togneri.

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