How 9/11 Reshaped Synagogue Security for Jewish Communities

At sundown Friday, Sept. 11, as the nation observes 25 years since the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives, Jewish families nationwide will begin Rosh Hashanah, welcoming the year 5787.

As they head to synagogues during one of the busiest periods on the Jewish calendar, worshippers will encounter armed guards, surveillance cameras, reinforced entrances and bag inspections.

That overlap underscores the lasting effect of the Sept. 11 attacks on synagogue security in America, as well as the growth of a nationwide system dedicated to safeguarding Jewish institutions and communities.

When Rosh Hashanah arrived just six days after the 2001 attacks, seeing a guard outside a synagogue remained uncommon. A quarter-century later, heightened security is not an occasional measure but an enduring part of Jewish communal life.

“The confluence of events, the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and Rosh Hashanah, is really very meaningful to us,” Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, told News Media. “If you trace the evolution of the security situation for the Jewish community in North America, you see that 9/11 really was a major turning point.”

Before 9/11, Fingerhut said, synagogues might have asked police to manage High Holiday traffic or depended on simple alarm systems. But there was no broad expectation that Jewish institutions required protection against direct physical threats.

“That changed on 9/11,” he said. “The Jewish community understood quite clearly that the people who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacking America that day, but they had a special animus for the Jewish community and the Jewish people.”

Fingerhut said that shift led Jewish Federations of North America to help create the Secure Community Network after 9/11, giving communities a model for protecting Jewish institutions and a unified channel to federal law enforcement.

For generations, Rosh Hashanah preparation meant apples and honey, prayer books and the shofar. Now the checklist also includes secured entrances, emergency plans and congregants standing watch while their neighbors pray.

The price of that new reality is staggering.

A national study by Jewish Federations of North America found that Jewish communal institutions spend an estimated $1 billion annually on security. Based on an examination of more than 4,500 institutions, that amounts to nearly $2.8 million every day simply to keep Jewish life open and accessible.

The organization leads the national initiative placing professional security directors across all 141 Federation communities.

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, described the contrast on his own block.

“If you walk past the churches on our block, the doors are wide open, inviting people in,” Steinmetz told News Media. “But at our synagogue, there are security cameras, a double door system and a line of guards outside, at the cost of untold thousands of dollars.”

That security is no longer reserved for major institutions or large cities. From New York and Florida to Michigan and Los Angeles, ordinary worshipers are training in situational awareness, access control, surveillance detection, emergency response and coordination with law enforcement.

The Community Security Service, or CSS, said more than 20,000 people completed its training in 2025. Of those, 6,100 volunteers protected 440 synagogues and nearly 100 Jewish events, logging more than 300,000 guard hours across 24 states.

The Secure Community Network (SCN) provides national intelligence and coordination. In 2025, it recorded 4,400 incident reports, trained 40,000 people and made 851 referrals to law enforcement.

“While the threat environment accelerates, our community has never been more prepared, informed or engaged,” Michael Masters, SCN’s national director and CEO, told News Media. “This year our Duty Desk logged nearly 3,200 threat incidents, pacing ahead of last year.”

Steinmetz said threats to the Jewish community “exploded after Oct. 7th,” adding that “the hatred of Israel encourages antisemites to come out of the woodwork.”

The FBI recorded 1,528 hate crime incidents targeting Jews in 2025, representing 63% of the nation’s 2,408 religiously motivated incidents. Jews comprise roughly 2% of the U.S. population, yet incidents targeting Jews represented 14% of all hate crimes reported nationwide.

During the first eight months of 2026, major crime fell 6.2% across New York City, while confirmed hate crimes targeting Jews rose 8%, from 212 to 229, according to new NYPD figures. That averages nearly one such crime every 25 hours.

News Media contacted NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch about the department’s High Holiday preparations. The NYPD said it will hold a briefing ahead of the holidays and provide additional security details at that time.

In neighboring New Jersey, the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) said it is coordinating with the state Attorney General’s Office, New Jersey State Police, the FBI’s Newark field office, local law enforcement and community partners.

“Together, we are protecting houses of worship, helping ensure every New Jerseyan can practice their faith without fear, and keeping New Jersey safe and secure,” NJOHSP said.

The coordination follows recent attacks on Jewish institutions.

On Aug. 14, a man was charged with allegedly disrupting a Friday night service attended by approximately 375 people at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, damaging ceremonial candlesticks and assaulting a congregant and security guard. The charges against include federal hate crimes and damaging religious property resulting in bodily injury.

Five months earlier, an attacker inspired by Hezbollah rammed a pickup truck carrying gasoline and fireworks through the doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, according to the FBI. Armed with a rifle and hundreds of rounds, he struck one security guard and exchanged gunfire with others.

Inside were 140 children at the synagogue’s early childhood center. Every child and staff member escaped without physical injury and the guard survived.

For Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, the assault remains a powerful reminder of the need for vigilance as families prepare to gather.

“We take the security of our community with the utmost seriousness, and, of course, the assault on Temple Israel remains fresh in our minds,” Ingber said. “We will enter the High Holidays vigilant and prepared. But we will also enter them with confidence and pride.”

Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in suburban Detroit, who also serves as president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis, said Jewish Michiganders are entering the new year “with a feeling of heaviness.”

“From marking the 25th year since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 to marking six months since the terrorist attack on our community and especially our children, anxieties are heightened,” Starr told News Media exclusively. “We enter with heaviness, but we are also filled with hope for a better tomorrow.”

“No family should have to weigh their safety against their faith,” Fingerhut said.

Employing one full-time security guard costs an estimated $90,000 annually, according to Jewish Federations of North America. The organization is advocating for greater federal support through the bipartisan Jewish American Security Act, which would strengthen security assistance for at-risk nonprofit institutions.

For Jewish communities, the question is no longer whether security is necessary, but who will bear the growing cost of making worship possible.

Steinmetz called that cost “a vicious tax on the Jewish community,” one “levied by the antisemites.”

For Fingerhut, the purpose of security is not simply to prevent an attack. It is to ensure fear never determines whether a Jewish family participates in Jewish life.

“We do not want anyone to make the choice not to participate in Jewish life because they are afraid for their safety,” Fingerhut said. “What we have learned is that the visible presence of security, and the real impact of that security, is what enables and encourages people to come out and participate in Jewish life.”

Fingerhut’s message to Jewish communities in America and around the world was clear: do not retreat, but continue to “lean into Jewish life.”

He said, “We will make sure that there is safety and security in place so that we can all feel confident in our involvement in Jewish life.”

That is the purpose, according to the experts, of every guard, camera and volunteer: not to turn a synagogue into a fortress, but to ensure that Jewish life continues inside.