Local Jewish community 'shaken to our roots'

LACONIA — The massacre of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh has the Jewish community in the Lakes Region and throughout the state distraught and anxious.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Saturday’s mass shooting is the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.

The gunman killed 11 worshippers and made anti-Jewish comments during the rampage, which took place as Saturday Shabbat services were underway in the Temple of Life synagogue.

While no Jewish congregation in the Granite State has been the target of violence on such an horrific scale, local Jews are all too familiar with threats against them because of their religion.

Temple B’nai Israel in Laconia was one of a number of congregations in the state which received a letter about two years ago that the synagogue president called a “non-direct threat.”

“We received a letter in the mail that made us concerned, talking about the Jewish problem that needed to be eradicated,” said Marsha Ostroff, president of the synagogue, which has a membership of 60 to 70 families.

Synagogues in Manchester and Concord received the same letter, said Melanie Zalman McDonald, executive director of the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire. She said the letter’s author was “known to authorities.”

Ostroff said the tragedy in Pittsburgh struck the local Jewish community particularly hard, since one member of the local synagogue knew one of the people who died in the shooting. Citing privacy concerns, Ostroff said she was not at liberty to name who that local person was.

Zalman McDonald said a member of one of Manchester’s two synagogues was related to the two brothers who were killed inside the synagogue situated in Pittsburgh’s close-knit Jewish community of Squirrel Hill.

Ostroff said the congregation of Temple B’nai Israel is coping with the fact that something Jews feared for years — an attack inside a synagogue — is now a horrifying reality.

“A 97-year-old woman. How can this happen?” Ostroff asked referring to the oldest victim of Saturday’s shooting, who was a Holocaust survivor.

Some, including President Trump, have suggested that having armed guards posted inside houses of worship might have prevented Saturday’s tragedy.

“Increased security is something we have to consider,” Ostroff said, but added: “It’s a sad statement to have armed guards where people pray.” But while security needs to be taken seriously, Ostroff said, “It’s not the problem. The problem is the hate that is rampant in this country.”

Temple B’nai Israel’s rabbi, Boaz Heilman, agreed.

“We are against hate,” he said. “We are not one nation divisible. We are one nation indivisible” And while the man who has been charged in the synagogue shootings has a history of anti-semitic sentiment and made anti-semitic remarks during the shooting, Heilman said what happened in Pittsburgh should not be seen as a threat unique to Jews alone. “It’s not the first time a place of worship has been attacked,” he said.

As one whose mother escaped from the Nazis four times, Heilman said the trauma of these kinds of attacks are being passed down to generation after generation of Jews, some of whom are afraid to attend a synagogue for fear of being attacked.

“We are deeply shaken to our roots by a man with an AK-47 and three handguns” who stormed in the Pittsburgh synagogue, he said.

Zalman McDonald said there is no evidence that any Jewish entity in the state is under any immediate threat. She said Jewish congregations and groups will, in the days and weeks to come, be figuring out how to balance “between being safe and being open.” She said that her organization has been contact with the state Attorney General’s Office and New Hampshire State Police.

She put the state’s Jewish population between 10,000 and 15,000, with 15 synagogues, two collegiate Jewish worship centers (at UNH and Dartmouth), and a number of informal lay-led Jewish prayer groups called Hazurahs.

Ostroff said Laconia police in the past have provided advice to the synagogue about security measures and ways to be alert to potential threats, as well as providing extra patrols on occasion. “They have been wonderful,” she said.

Police Chief Matt Canfield said his officers are highly trained in dealing with active-shooter situations like the one in Pittsburgh.

“Here we are absolutely prepared should that (kind of situation) occur,” he said.

He said communication with community groups, including places of worship, is vital to reducing the likelihood of such tragedies occurring. “It encourages them to call about concerns they have early,” he said.

Regarding armed guards inside places of worship, Canfield said that while that is a decision which would need to be made by individual congregations, he cautioned that such a step would have to be well thought-out.

“The presence of a firearm is not a guaranteed deterrents of violence,” Canfield said.

Ostroff said, after much consideration, the synagogue’s TBI We Care team decided to go ahead with a benefit concert by a folk-rock group on Saturday evening, just hours after the Pittsburgh tragedy. But Rabbi Boaz Heilman led a moment of silence to honor those killed or injured, she said.

Ostroff said synagogue leaders are discussing the possibility of holding a special service or vigil to honor the memories of those who died, but no decision has yet been made. She was grateful for the comments and kind wishes which the synagogue has received from various churches in the area.

Special observances were being organized by other synagogues and faith communities across the state, Zalman McDonald said. The federation will host a live Kaddish service on its Facebook page today, starting at 6 p.m.