For half an hour, three men dressed in fatigues and armed with semi-automatic rifles stood across the street from the temple. Had they tried to enter, I donât know what I could have done to stop them, but I couldnât take my eyes off them, either. Perhaps the presence of our armed guard deterred them. Perhaps their presence was just a coincidence, and Iâm paranoid. I donât know.
Several times, parades of Nazis passed our building, shouting, âThereâs the synagogue!â followed by chants of âSeig Heilâ and other anti-Semitic language. Some carried flags with swastikas and other Nazi symbols.
Soon, we learned that Nazi websites had posted a call to burn our synagogue. I sat with one of our rabbis and wondered whether we should go back to the temple to protect the building. What could I do if I were there? Fortunately, it was just talk â but we had already deemed such an attack within the realm of possibilities, taking the precautionary step of removing our Torahs, including a Holocaust scroll, from the premises.
Again: This is in America in 2017.
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