{"id":87897,"date":"2025-05-22T16:51:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T21:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=87897"},"modified":"2025-05-22T16:51:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T21:51:49","slug":"there-should-have-been-a-plan-jewish-security-groups-face-down-lapses-in-dc-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/there-should-have-been-a-plan-jewish-security-groups-face-down-lapses-in-dc-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There should have been a plan\u2019: Jewish security groups face down lapses in DC shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ANDREW LAPIN<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 On Wednesday night, three armed security officers stood guard as the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington held its annual meeting in the nation\u2019s capital. On the agenda: discussions about the various ways antisemitic rhetoric can lead to violence.<\/p>\n

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Security officers surround the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, on May 22, 2025, following a shooting that left two people dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum the day before. (Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hours later, JCRC CEO Ron Halber said, he found out about the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staff at the Capital Jewish Museum. It was a nightmare come to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just godawful. There\u2019s no other way to describe it. It was a horrific, antisemitic, anti-Israel, violent attack,\u201d Halber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Thursday. \u201cFor years I\u2019ve said in Washington, we\u2019re lucky we\u2019ve never had anything\u201d of this magnitude attacking the Jewish community. \u201cThat record came to an end last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the attack\u2019s aftermath, Jewish community professionals including Halber are refocusing, again, on how to protect their institutions from threats. The shooting has also raised urgent questions: What went wrong? And what needs to change?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy they failed tonight we obviously have to figure out,\u201d Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in an interview with JTA hours after the shooting, regarding security.<\/p>\n

He added later, \u201cThe risks have continued to rise as antisemitism has risen and as anti-Israel behavior in America has risen and our security teams have worked so hard to keep up with that. They obviously didn\u2019t succeed tonight but we will not stop until we\u2019ve ensured the security of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timeline of the attack is relatively clear and, to security analysts, troubling: According to reports, the attacker shot his victims, the couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, on the street outside the museum as the event, organized by the American Jewish Committee, was winding down.<\/p>\n

He then walked inside the museum, where an eyewitness said he remained for around 10 minutes until he was apprehended. Both elements of the incident \u2014 that the attacker was able to reach his victims outside the event and then proceed inside for an extended period of time \u2014 indicate missteps, according to security professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat concerned me as a seasoned law enforcement official is in all the work and the efforts that we put into training civilians, his behavior was almost literally screaming that there\u2019s an issue here,\u201d said Paul Goldenberg, the former head of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide. Goldenberg said that in a widely circulated video of the suspect entering the building, he appeared nervous and disheveled, with jerky movements.<\/p>\n

Goldenberg says in the future, rank-and-file attendees need to be aware of those signs \u2014 and act on them by alerting someone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second he walked in after the shooting there should have been a plan,\u201d added Goldenberg, who is now the chief policy adviser and head of global policing at Rutgers University\u2019s Miller Center on Policing. \u201cIf we know that he just shot individuals outside, whatever security was in place, he never should have made it inside that building.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The recommendations focus principally on expanding the security perimeter of events; withholding the details of events and vetting attendees; and coordinating with law enforcement or hiring security guards.<\/p>\n

The AJC had done at least some of that: The invitation said the location would be \u201cshared upon registration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish community is already among the most hardened targets in the country,\u201d Oren Segal, who oversees the ADL\u2019s Center on Extremism, told JTA prior to the recommendations being publicized. \u201cBulletproof glass and metal detectors is the norm. And the question is, how broad does the perimeter need to be for the Jews to feel secure?\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading up to the event, the museum was broadly conscious of threats. The day before the shooting, it had announced a new security grant from the local D.C. government \u2014 one that Halber said the JCRC had helped arrange \u2014 in connection to a new exhibit on LGBTQ Jews.<\/p>\n

The $30,000 grant was meant to help the museum cover the costs of security guards both at the front desk and roaming around the museum \u201cto make sure that everybody is safe and that we are prepared in the event of an emergency,\u201d executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told local news at the time. She added that the grant \u201calso helps our staff prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the shooting, Gurwitz and the museum\u2019s board said in a statement they were \u201cheartbroken by the murders,\u201d vowing to reopen in the coming days \u201cwith all necessary security in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the museum grant, Halber has also helped arrange state and local Jewish security grants in Maryland and Virginia. He is now urging increased funding of security at Jewish institutions \u2014 funding that has already seen massive boosts in recent years following 9\/11, the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and other antisemitic attacks \u2014 and pushing the federal government to free up \u201cbillions\u201d in more security funding for such centers.<\/p>\n

That money, he believes, should not go toward major capital improvements like state-of-the-art monitoring systems; instead, he believes Jewish institutions are most in need of funding everyday operating costs to pay security guards and other basic needs.<\/p>\n

Halber added that he did not blame the AJC, whose senior staff he knows personally, for any lapses. He also acknowledged that it\u2019s impossible to fully secure oneself from all threats, while noting that the fact the victims were shot outside the venue suggested one proper course of action could be to \u201cextend the perimeter around our institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cResources are finite,\u201d Halber said. \u201cI know they did everything possible. There\u2019s no blame to AJC on this. But how far can you extend the perimeter? One block, two blocks?\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Jewish community leaders with security expertise told JTA that, while physical security measures remain crucial, they should not be expected to stop every attack.<\/p>\n

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