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August 20, 1999/8 Elul 5759, Vol. 51, No.46
U.S. Jewish sites far less secure than Europe's
RUTH E. GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
ROME - Armed police stand guard 24 hours a day outside the main synagogues in Rome and Vienna. Worshipers in Rome and Milan must have their bags searched before entering synagogue for High Holiday services.
Visitors to Budapest's main synagogue and Jewish museum - and also to Jewish community offices in the Hungarian capital - have to pass through metal detectors as well as have their bags searched. Visitors to Jewish communal offices have to exchange their passports or other ID for a visitor's pass.
The recent attack by a white supremacist on a Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles has raised concern among American Jews about security at synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the United States. In many places in Europe and the rest of the world, however, such security considerations have been well-entrenched elements of Jewish institutional infrastructure for decades.
"How could Americans not think of such things?" asked Annie Sacerdoti, editor of Il Bollettino, the magazine of the Jewish community of Milan, Italy.
Terrorist attacks by right-wing groups and individuals as well as by Arab and far-left factions dating back to the 1970s have forced many European Jewish communities to take expensive and sometimes elaborate security measures.
In Rome and Milan, for example, cars are not allowed to park outside synagogues. Police mount an extra guard on the High Holidays and sometimes block off the street. Worshipers have their bags searched, and private security guards stand by with walkie-talkies. Jewish communal institutions feature double security doors and, sometimes, bulletproof glass.
"I have to say that I feel uneasy sometimes at synagogues in the United States," said an American Jew in Rome. "No one checks who enters, and cars are allowed to park on the street right outside."
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