The last week has been a stressful one for local Jews. On Tuesday, March 10, a domestic incident in a largely Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore devolved into a standoff and police shooting in which an officer was hit and a suspect killed.
The incident took place on the 6200 block of Park Heights Avenue, near a number of Jewish institutions like Agudath Israel, Tiferes Yisroel and Kedushas Yisroel. The event didn’t involve any members of the Park Heights Jewish community, but was sufficient cause for alarm.
Two days later, a synagogue in the suburbs of Detroit was attacked by a terrorist who rammed his vehicle into the shul and then opened fire before security officers shot and killed him.
While neither issue directly targeted the Baltimore Jewish community, both served as a reminder of how things can change in an instant, especially at a time when antisemitism is rampant and Jews will soon gather for one of their biggest annual holidays.
With Passover just weeks away, Baltimore Jews are preparing to get together — hopefully, safely.
David Folderauer is the director of security for The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, and he said that any time there is a large gathering of people, risk is increased. However, he added there aren’t specific indications that there is a cause for concern at this point.
“Whenever we’re going to have more people gathered together, that creates a concern for us, right? It becomes a bigger target. I will caveat right away with saying we’ve got no indication from law enforcement or from other intel analysis that there’s any concern for threat to the Baltimore area at the moment,” Folderauer said.
Folderauer described himself as technically an “army of one,” although he and The Associated rely on a variety of outside institutions to help keep them alert and up to date to potential threats. That includes Baltimore County Police, the Maryland Coordination Analysis Center, the Secure Community Network, Community Security Initiatives, the FBI and others.
“Do we feel the need to expand? If we do, we will. Right now, we’re just relying on these partnerships, and it’s working very well,” Folderauer said.
While the events in Michigan didn’t directly involve Baltimore Jews, Folderauer said that it always heightens worries in Jewish communities around the nation anytime one of their peer communities is attacked. Beyond that, there is always the threat that what appears to be a single attack is actually just the first of a series of them.
“Your first concern is, was this coordinated? Could this happen in other places at the same time?” he said. “Secondly, am I safe based on how we have security in our community? You go internally to say, ‘OK, how does this impact me? Could this happen to me? It’s a normal response. And even for me in my position, I [think], ‘What can I do more? What can I do better?’”
Even though the shooting in Park Heights didn’t target Jews, it required action. Folderauer said that the JCC campus nearby didn’t go into lockdown, but he alerted security guards and made sure to get information out to the community. Folderauer learned from contacts in local law enforcement that the shooting had nothing to do with the Jewish community within 20 or 30 minutes of the event’s occurrence, which helped deescalate the situation.
“The biggest thing I needed to hear from the police was that it was contained,” he said. “Because sometimes the threat gets out of the containment area, and then that creates another problem.”
While Folderauer and The Associated’s team are always there to act as a network and source of help for Jewish institutions in the area, he said it’s essential that those institutions work on their own behalf, as well.
“I encourage every Jewish organization to audit themselves, review their security practices, practice those security practices, and anyone can certainly reach out to me for advice or counseling,” he said.
