Attack on Chasidim Leads to Concern but Not Alarm Among Jews Nationwide

Even while Aaron Halberstam, the young Chasidic student slain in last week’s Brooklyn Bridge shooting, was being eulogized Sunday as a “holy sacrifice for the Jewish people,” the mood in his Crown Heights community remained somber but calm.

The same tone was echoed far beyond Halberstam’s insulated fervently Orthodox world, as Jewish institutions throughout the United States beefed up security but continued to play down the level of concern in the community and the likelihood of further attacks.

“We’re just sort of lying low and monitoring what’s happening,” said Deborah Lauter, community relations director for the Atlanta Jewish Federation. Lauter said there is a heightened awareness but not a heightened anxiety over the safety of individual Jews.

The muted response of some Jewish groups, according to their representatives, may reflect a strategy of trying to maintain a low public profile, in the hope that the less that reaches the front pages, the more likely it is that events of recent days will pass from memory.

“The more Tonya Harding is in the news, the better” for the Jewish community, said a source close to the Atlanta Jewish community, who asked not to be identified.

The source linked the shooting of four Lubavitcher youths on the Brooklyn Bridge to the publicity generated by recent rifts in black-Jewish relations, which might have set the tone for further bias-related attacks, he said.

Rashad Baz, a 28-year-old Lebanese national, was indicted Tuesday in the shooting, which left Halberstam dead and three other students wounded, one gravely.

The attack came four days after a militant Israeli settler fired on Muslim worshipers at a Hebron mosque, killing at least 29 people.

It also took place while jurors were deliberating the fate of the four men charged with blowing up the World Trade Center last year.

Those men, who were convicted a few days later, have been linked to Islamic fundamentalist and anti-Israel groups.

The New York Police Department has so far refused to confirm widespread speculation that the attack on the Chasidim was in retaliation for the Hebron attack. Police have also declined to comment on whether Baz acted alone or was connected with a larger group.

But fears that Middle East-style terrorism may have become a fixture on American shores set the tone for a swift, citywide response to the shooting.

Just 24 hours after the shooting, police had the suspect in custody. Police are also holding two Jordanian nationals accused of aiding Baz and hindering the investigation.

And this week, following a meeting with New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, spokesman for the New York Jewish Relations Council said the police have spread a “high-level security net” over the New York Jewish community.

Many have compared Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s response to the shootings to that of former Mayor David Dinkins, who was widely accused as being slow to respond to the needs of the Lubavitch community during the 1991 Crown Heights riots, in which another Chasidic student, Yankel Rosenbaum, was killed by a group of African-Americans.

Shamaya Glick, a 19-year-old yeshiva student who was at the Halberstam funeral and spends weekends in Crown Heights, said people in the community feel much safer than they did after the riots in 1991.

Michael Miller, executive director of New York’s JCRC, credited the swift response and ongoing cooperation on the part of the mayor and city officials with the calm that has prevailed. City officials have worked closely from the start with Jewish leaders to suppress rumors and avoid public panic.

For many of those who work in the Jewish community or who spend time at Jewish institutions around the country, increased security since the attack on the Brooklyn Bridge has meant an additional police officer or a metal detector, and not a feeling of being under siege.

“This isn’t a radical-end-to-innocence type of thing,” said Michael Kotzin, director of Chicago’s JCRC. Kotzin, whose group is working with the ADL to organize a regional security conference, described the current situation as one of the periodic swells in security that should subside as tensions ease.

But Brooklyn City Councilman Noach Dear warned that the United States is passing into a new era of security-consciousness where increased vigilance will have to become “a way of life.”

Dear likened the current changes to the 1950s, when an increase in residential crime led people to begin locking their front doors.

But Jewish leaders admit it will not be easy to get Jews to be more careful. “The Jewish community has been complacent over the last few years,” said David Pollock, assistant executive director of the New York JCRC. “Security always costs some money and is always inconvenient.”

Some communities have made strong public appearances to renounce the attacks and project a strong, unified public face. Councilman Dear, who represents an Orthodox Jewish district, warned that minimizing the issue may ultimately damage the Jewish communal presence.

“You can’t stay out of it. It’s a fact of life. We’re here,” said Dear.

But many Jewish communities outside of New York feel far removed from the turmoil of New York, preferring to view the incident as an isolated act which, while it may have crossed the Atlantic to New York City, will probably not travel inland to Dallas or Detroit.

Many communities already had strong security systems in place, or had planned to increase precautions around the Passover holiday season.

And in many urban communities, other factors are of more immediate concern than the possibility of terrorist attacks. “I’ve got other things to worry about, like cocaine cowboys,” said Lisa Shanbrun, a store owner in Miami.

“Everybody in Miami looks over their shoulder anyway because of crime,” explained Rabbi Jonathan Kendall of Miami’s Reform Temple Beth Am.

Nevertheless, Shanbrun and others say this is not a time to flaunt one’s Jewishness. “I wouldn’t want anything that screamed `I’m Jewish,’ that might be a target,” Shanbrun said.

Even in New York where the attack occurred, the mood – at least in the secular community – is benign.

“I’m a secular Jew, so there’d be no reason for someone to target me,” said David Solomon, an assistant professor at Columbia University, echoing the sentiments of many in the non-religious world who feel pained by the attacks but not personally vulnerable to future incidents.

Betty Ehrenberg, who heads the Union of American Orthodox Congregation’s Institute for Public Affairs, said Orthodox Jews tend to feel more vulnerable than their secular counterparts because of their identifiably Jewish clothing.

Orthodox Jews also tend to spend more time at Jewish schools and synagogues where they are more likely to be the victim of religiously motivated attacks.

The Orthodox Union has circulated a memorandum to its member synagogues detailing increased security precautions, including checking for suspicious letters and packages, locking doors, keeping buildings and cemeteries under closer scrutiny.

But Ehrenberg said the mood in the Orthodox community is one of awareness, but not alarm. She said few in the orthodox world have altered their lifestyle in light of last week’s shooting.