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October 25, 2002/Cheshvan 19 5763, Vol. 55, No. 9
Life in the cross hairs
GEOFFREY W. MELADA
Jewish Exponent Staff
It was early in the morning on Columbus Day, Oct. 14, and a group of some 30 men were arriving at the Magen David Sephardic Congregation in Rock-ville, Md., to begin their daily minyan.
A few blocks away on tree-lined Tilden Lane, three women were jogging in tandem.
Across from the joggers, a gray-haired man stood alone on a public tennis court, practicing his ground strokes with the help of an automatic ball feeder.
Ordinarily, there would have been nothing unusual about any of this, but in suburban Washington, D.C., where fatal sniper attacks have been ongoing during the past weeks, such activities now seem courageous.
There have been a total of 13 shootings - resulting in 10 deaths and three seriously wounded civilians - since the killer, nicknamed the "Beltway Sniper," began his rampage on Oct. 2. Six of these murders have occurred in the immediate vicinity of Rockville, a heavily Jewish community of roughly 50,000 residents.
In fact, the sniper's second victim, 39-year-old landscaper James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, was shot dead fewer than two miles from Rockville.
At the spot where Buchanan fell, a makeshift memorial has sprung up, complete with bouquets of flowers, farewell cards and a poster admonishing the killer to "Stop the Violence!"
Back in Rockville, fear and anxiety continue to mount.
Rene Nissim, a Magen David congregant and mother of three, was out of town when the first shooting took place. "I didn't believe the news," she said. Who could blame her for being surprised?
Unlike neighboring Washington, D.C., Montgomery County rarely sees violent crime, a fact prominently touted on the county's Web site. The median price for a single-family home is almost $400,000, and the schools are considered first-rate.
Now those same schools are on a "Code Blue Alert," having canceled all field trips and outdoor activities until further notice. The story is much the same at local religious schools. At the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, where Nissim's two youngest children go, a number of new safety measures have been implemented in the past two weeks. Students now need personal identification badges to enter the building and off-campus driving privileges for 12th-graders have been suspended.
Changes have been made at other Jewish schools, too.
The Children's Learning Center Jewish Elementary School in Rockville now has parents drive up to the door to pick up their children, instead of letting them walk out to the car.
The Hebrew Day School of Montgomery County in Silver Spring has also begun monitoring dismissals and keeping students inside during school hours.
Like other academic institutions, the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville has canceled outdoor sports.
But schools aren't the only places making changes in the wake of the recent violence. "All of our institutions - including 60 synagogues, eight day schools and three Jewish community centers - have taken dramatic steps to increase and heighten security," said Robert Hyfler, chief operating officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
In Rockville, all of these concerns about safety are affecting the way the town does business. Katz's Kosher Market off of Rockville Pike is usually packed with shoppers in the late afternoon, according to area Jewish residents. But on this day, it's empty, save for the owners, employees, and two or three customers at most.
Next door, at the Royal Dragon glatt-kosher Chinese restaurant, the manager drummed his fingers on the counter and surveyed the empty tables - not a single diner in the place. Business is down 50 percent here in the past two weeks, he bemoaned.
One person is smiling though, and that's the manager of the Pizza Hut on nearby Nicholson Lane. Since the shootings began, requests for pizza deliveries have increased five-fold.
But there is much more than the bottom line at stake here. These shootings are taking a considerable toll on the emotions of area residents.
"I can't stand to live like this," said Aimee Avissar Lyani, a 25-year-old native of Israel, who was shopping with a friend at Israeli Accents, a Judaica store near Rockville Pike. "I'm always looking for white trucks because the police say the killer uses a white truck. I'm scared to pump gas, and when I do, I turn on the pump, get in my car and lean back in my seat so no one can see me."
"You think about it every time you look out the window, and you look up everywhere you go," said Ken Karbeling, the manager of American Reprographics, a printing firm on Rockville Pike. The store is only 100 yards from where James Buchanan was shot, and "it's all we talk about here," he said.
"It makes me hope people here in America understand the situation in Israel," added Karbeling, who is Jewish.
He, like many parents in this area, struggles with what to tell his three children, ages 5, 10 and 12.
"My 5-year-old asks me: 'What if the bad guy shoots you, Dad?' "
Karbeling's response? "It won't happen. We have to hope that good will win."
Rene Nissim's 16-year-old daughter, Eliel, said she wishes her school would keep students more informed of developments during the day.
But the more Eliel and her friends know about the sniper case, the more scared they become. Whereas they typically spend weekends hanging out at the local Starbucks and chatting for hours, "we now stay for about 10 minutes before someone looks out the window and says, 'We have to go.' "
Not everyone here in Rockville is scared for his or her life, of course, but even those who consider themselves the least affected are making changes in their lifestyles.
Retiree Aaron Greenberg, 71, still comes to the Rockville Borders Books & Music store every morning to read the paper and shop. Relaxing back in an upholstered chair, he said, assuredly, that he's been unaffected by the shootings.
Leaning in a minute later, he corrected himself. "I guess I have changed one thing. I don't take the sidewalk up here. Now, I weave between the cars to avoid the sniper's aim."
Meanwhile, authorities continue their efforts to apprehend the elusive sniper, who early on was considered most likely to be male.
"Our investigation continues with a tremendous amount of leads," said Officer Derek Baliles, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Police, his voice going hoarse.
Approximately 1,000 local and federal investigators are on the case, he explained, "and we are confident that we will take this person into custody."
Douglas Duncan, Montgomery County executive, told Reuters on Oct. 14 that he understood how urgently area residents want this case resolved: "Their message is catch him. Catch him as fast as you can. ... We will not be at peace in this community until we catch whoever's doing this."
This article, which first appeared in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, was made possible by a grant from the Irving Felgoise Memorial Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
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