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<\/a><\/p>\nLaw enforcement remain on site at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, on March 12, 2026, after an assailant drove a vehicle into the building. (JEFF KOWALSKY \/ AFP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He hit and injured the congregation\u2019s security director, Danny Phillips, with his car as he plowed through the synagogue\u2019s doors and drove down a hallway. But he didn\u2019t manage to harm anyone else after he was shot by members of Temple Israel\u2019s armed security team.<\/p>\n
And because the rest of the staff knew exactly how to respond to an active shooter threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always worry that you can plan and plan and plan and practice and practice, and it won\u2019t matter, because it will be something else, but it feels like a miracle that everything worked the way it was supposed to, that our team was so incredibly brave, local law enforcement\u2019s been amazing, and that everybody\u2019s OK,\u201d Rabbi Jen Lader of Temple Israel told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/p>\n
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and West Bloomfield County Police Chief Dale Young immediately praised the security response in the wake of the attack.<\/p>\n
Bouchard noted that the security team had \u201cneutralized the threat\u201d before police officers arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply proud of the response, not only from the security that was on site, but also of all the police officers and the firefighters that are here right now, we train on active shooter events a lot,\u201d Young said during a press conference outside the synagogue on Thursday. \u201cI think that training certainly helped to mitigate what happened here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, it was a situation that Jewish institutions across the United States have trained for, as antisemitism and threats of violence have ticked up in recent years, especially following the 2018 synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh that killed 11 Jews during Shabbat services. The rabbi of a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, credited security training with enabling him to respond when a man took him and three congregations hostage in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody flees danger, and our team went straight toward it, and they were the ones who neutralized the terrorist and saved everybody,\u201d said Lader. \u201cAnd our teachers followed, you know, to the absolute letter, our active shooter training and lockdown procedures, and saved every kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the synagogue\u2019s full-time director of security, Lader said Temple Israel also has a full team of armed security guards on the premises at all times as well as a remote security system that is able to secure different areas of the building during threats.<\/p>\n
In late January, FBI agents also visited Temple Israel to train clergy and staff about how to respond to an active shooter.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DUGz8AigE7D\/<\/p>\n
According to a social media post from FBI Detroit, the Active Shooter Attack Prevention and Preparedness course \u201ccombines lessons learned from years of research and employs scenario-based exercises to help participants practice the decision-making process of the Run, Hide, Fight principles and take necessary actions for survival.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Masters, the national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network, an organization that coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide, said that the outcomes of the attack Thursday reflected the preparedness of Temple Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvesting in security is an investment, it\u2019s a down payment on the Jewish future,\u201d said Masters. \u201cThe community that made up the synagogue, the larger Detroit Jewish community, has been making that investment for years and years, and today, that investment paid off and lives [were] saved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the security measures that Masters said his organization recommended were \u201cbollards or fences or natural obstructions\u201d to the building, controlling access to the facility through reinforced doors or windows and having a security presence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we hope this reaffirms is that security needs to be an ongoing investment in order to allow Jewish life, faith based life, to thrive,\u201d said Masters. \u201cAnd very much that investment can result, and did result, in Jewish lives being saved, and so we all need to recognize that and commit ourselves as members of the community at every level to be a part of making that investment at whatever level we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington D.C. in June, the synagogue hosted a town hall on hate crimes and extremism.<\/p>\n
Among the speakers at the town hall was Noah Arbit, a lifelong congregant of Temple Israel who represents West Bloomfield in the Michigan House of Representatives. Arbit said in an interview on Thursday that after he first learned of the attack while working on the state house floor, he immediately began to cry and raced down to his home synagogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI campaigned on taking on hate crimes,\u201d said Arbit. \u201cTo be working on these issues, and then to see it come home to roost in my own community, in my own synagogue, in my hometown that I represent is, frankly, just like my worst nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Arbit praised the response by security and law enforcement as the attack unfolded, he said he was \u201coutraged and enraged and deeply pained that it was necessary in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish communities across the country and world have watched, you know, for the past decade, as our institutions have congealed into fortresses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are now forced to live behind, basically, you know, militarized, institutionally securitized institutions, and what a shame that is. It\u2019s not just a shame, It\u2019s unfathomable, it\u2019s unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Rabbi Mark Miller of Temple Beth El, another Reform synagogue a 20-minute drive away in Bloomfield Hills, the attack on Temple Israel served as a stark reminder of why security infrastructure was essential for Jewish institutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of those moments when, for years and years, we have bemoaned that we have to put so much time and energy into security for our institutions,\u201d said Miller. \u201cAnd this is one of those days that reminds us that we don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s synagogue had a recent security crisis of its own, when a man drove through its parking lot in December 2022 and shouted antisemitic threats as parents walked their preschoolers into the building. The assailant, Hassan Chokr, was sentenced to 34 months in prison in September for illegally possessing multiple firearms inside a gun store after leaving the synagogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a terrifying day, obviously for a lot of people, especially for parents with their kids at not only Temple Israel but at ours and other temples and Jewish institutions,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Lader said that among her congregants, two competing sentiments had jumped out: Those who \u201cnever, in a million years, in our heart of hearts, thought it was ever going to happen to us\u201d and others who \u201cknew it was only a matter of time before it knocked on our door.\u201d<\/p>\n
But another feeling was even stronger, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the overarching sentiment, and the one that I want to make sure gets out there, is our absolute gratitude to our internal teams, our amazing staff, local law enforcement and our teachers for really, like, a building full of absolute heroes, who were able to keep us safe,\u201d Lade said.<\/p>\n