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August 20, 1999/8 Elul 5759, Vol. 51, No.46
Jewish leaders, police move to boost security
TAMI BICKLEY
and CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writers
With last week's shootings at a Los Angeles-area Jewish community center still fresh in their minds, Valley Jewish leaders and police officials are working together to increase security and awareness at synagogues and Jewish agencies.
Phoenix police have increased their presence around synagogues and Jewish facilities, especially during weekend Shabbat services. Police say this will continue for as long as the Jewish community remains concerned about the risk of copy-cat violence.
Police also urge Valley residents to report anything suspicious or unusual.
"There's no 100 percent guarantee that you can prevent something," said Sgt. Jerry I. Hill of the Phoenix Police Department's Bias Crimes Unit. "If somebody wants to do something, eventually they're going to find a way to do it. But, if people are reporting (suspicious) activities ... those are the things that give our investigators and the FBI leads."
Hill also said that the police follow up on any such reports. "We make contact with individuals and try to find out what they were doing or why. (Sometimes) just that simple phone call may prevent something significant down the road."
Their actions are in response to the shooting Aug. 10 at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in the San Fernando Valley community of Granada Hills that left five people - including three young children - wounded. A postal worker was slain in a separate shooting the same day. Buford O'Neal Furrow turned himself in the next day in Las Vegas and reportedly has confessed to the crimes. He is said to have told police he wanted the shooting at the JCC "to be a wake-up call to America to kill Jews."
That incident, coupled with a recent surge in anti-Semitic violence across the nation, including arsons at three Northern California synagogues June 18 and shootings two weeks later of six Hasidic Jews near Chicago by a gunman who later killed himself, has increased concern within the Valley's Jewish community.
Detective Sebon White of the Phoenix Police Department Community Relations Bureau acts as liaison between police and the Jewish community. He said that there has been no reported increase in anti-Semitic activity in Phoenix in the past week, but he has "touched base with Jewish leaders, rabbis and agency directors and we've had meetings set up to talk to not just staffs but to parents, too."
However, Jewish Family and Children's Services offices in the Valley received three threatening phone calls Monday afternoon, Aug. 16, said Gail Parin, JFCS president and CEO.
Detective Al Ramirez of the Phoenix Bias Crimes Unit said the unit is investigating a call to the JFCS main office at 2033 N. Seventh Street in Phoenix during which the caller said, "I'm getting sick and tired of all you Jews and I want you to know I'm going to do something about it."
Ramirez said investigators have the name of a possible suspect but declined to release the name or provide any other details of the investigation. Ramirez said another call was made to the JFCS offices in Scottsdale and at 7102 W. Thomas Road in Phoenix.
However, Scottsdale police believe the calls may not be a hate crime but a personal grudge in which the caller attempted to impersonate somebody to get that person in trouble, said Sgt. Doug Dirren, a police spokesman.
Police stressed that in addition to stepping up security, they want to reassure the Jewish community that officers are remaining vigilant.
"It's very important to let the bad guys know that they are being watched," said Sgt. Ed Peeples of the Community Relations Bureau. "They don't like to be watched. If you look the bad guy right in the eye, most of the time you won't be a victim. It's the same with the community; if the community lets the bad guys know we're not going to tolerate them, we're not going to sit back and just be a victim, they'll go someplace else."
"There aren't very many brave anti-Semites," Peeples added.
Caution should not give way to paranoia, however, said Rabbi Kenneth I. Segel of Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale.
"We cannot become so defensive and so paranoid that people are almost afraid to enter our institutions for fear that they are exposing themselves to the likelihood of some violent attack," Segel said. Although he agrees with police that Jews must keep vigilant, especially when children are involved, he doesn't "want Jews to use (the L.A. attack) as an excuse to stay away from Jewish institutions (and) religious, cultural, social and educational (activities).
"Then the terrorist, racist or bigot wins because they've instilled such fear that every day they are inflicting a punishment upon us at a heavy price."
Police warned that, though they don't know any details, security could be a concern at the new Jewish Community Campus when it eventually opens at 40th Street and Shea Boulevard, especially if it serves as a hub for Jewish agencies and activities.
"A lot of it has to do with the type of building they're in, the signage they have, if it's going to be known to everybody what it is," Peeples said.
Current plans call for five agencies to operate out of the campus - the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, Bureau of Jewish Education, Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, Council for Jews with Special Needs and the future Phoenix Jewish Community High School. Phoenix Hebrew Academy will operate a satellite facility and Valley of the Sun JCC a preschool there.
"We're not going to let (the L.A. shooting) get in the way of us completing our mission (to build a new JCC)," said Mark Shore, executive director of the Valley of the Sun JCC. "The reality is, wherever Jews are is a tiny lightning rod."
Fred Zeidman, assistant executive director of the federation, agreed, noting that "in a sense, we have a lightning rod now. ... I think for anyone to strike at the Jewish community, there are any number of (existing) outlets."
Zeidman said the federation is aware of the need for security and the overall campus plans will take security into account, but he said the details of any such plans would remain confidential and would include considerations for how the campus will be used.
"If (an anti-Semite) wants to (attack us), he'll find a way to do it," Zeidman said. "Our job is to make sure that we can thwart (him)."
As part of that effort, the Anti-Defamation League and United Jewish Communities have a handbook on security available on UJC's Web site at www.jewishcommunities.org/interoffice on the Internet.
Shore and Parin said JFCS crisis counselors would take part in a series of workshops, to begin in about two weeks, to teach parents how to talk to their preschool children about the Los Angeles shootings. Workshops on the shootings and dealing with hate crime also will be offered separately for pre-schoolers, older children, teenagers and seniors.
As an expression of solidarity with the victims of the Los Angeles shootings, 34 Valley residents, brought together by the Phoenix federation, attended a rally Aug. 15 in Los Angeles. The rally, co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the ADL and the Jewish Community Centers Association of Los Angeles, brought some 2,000 people together - including U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the families of the victims.
"To an extent, (it was) preaching to the choir," said Neil Hiller, president of the Phoenix federation. "The people who showed up believe that attitudes like the shooter's in Los Angeles will not be tolerated. ... It was important for both the Los Angeles Jewish community and our community to be there and (it relays) an important message in terms of being connected."
Tami Schultz, director of the Phoenix federation's Jewish Community Relation's Council, said the Phoenix contingent was the only one to attend the rally from outside the Los Angeles area.
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