BALTIMORE — The amount of investment the Jewish community has to make in security measures is "phenomenal," according to Howard Libit, executive director for the Baltimore Jewish Council. And Wednesday night's deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. serves as further proof of why it continues to be necessary.
WATCH: Jewish leaders react to the shooting
"Most synagogues, in addition to dues, have added a special assessment for security because it's so expensive. If you show up at an event and there's not an armed guard, you're looking around like where are they? Are they just down the hall in the bathroom or did someone forget to order security? I mean that's where we are now," Libit told WMAR-2 News.
"This is the reality of being a Jew in America or really anywhere around the world today. You go to a synagogue and you have to walk through a metal detector, like you're getting on an airplane, right? So there's always security, there's always a a baseline recognition that something could happen," Julie Rayman, managing director of policy and political affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said.
26 year-old Sarah Milgrim and 30 year-old Yaron Lischinsky were leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee when a gunman shot and killed them. Police identified the suspect as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez. He was heard shouting "free, free Palestine," as he was taken into custody.
"I was not there last night," Rayman said. "About 20 of my colleagues were, and I've spent the day talking to them about their experiences and what they saw, whether it was, you know, leaving and seeing sort of the crime scene, or even not knowingly, and then later knowingly, seeing the shooter himself."
Rayman says the sad irony is that the purpose of the event was to focus on bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
"It's an irony that unfortunately and strangely kind of keeps repeating, right? I'm wearing a a yellow ribbon for the hostages who are still in Gaza, and thinking about how so many of the victims on October 7, 2023 were the people who lived in the small communities in the kibbutzes close to Gaza, who were involved in efforts to promote peace, who would drive ill or injured Palestinians to Israeli hospitals and help with agricultural pursuits," she told WMAR-2 News. "So it seems to be happening over and over again that the people who are the most committed to peace are the ones who fall victim."
Rayman has been heartened by the messages of support that have come in from all over the world. "But at the same time, you go on social media and you see people glorifying this murder, you see calls for additional violence and it's normalized," she said. "It's now sort of what we come to expect on social media, because the bar is simply so low, and the bar can't be that low in America. It just can't. This was a horrible, horrible day for the Jewish community. But it was a horrible day for America."
For her, and for Libit here in Baltimore, they refuse to live in fear.
"AJC surveys American Jews every year to understand how they're experiencing anti-Semitism, and year after year over the last five years, more and more American Jews are saying that they're hiding parts of their identity because they're afraid of anti-Semitism," Rayman said. "In this last year, 56% said they changed something. They stopped wearing a Star of David or a yarmulke, didn't want to put a mezuzah on their door front, something like that, because they were afraid. And it reflects a very harsh reality, but it also reminds us that hiding isn't the solution. It can't be the solution. And that's not what's going to make our community strong and proud."
But they'll still double down on the efforts to keep themselves and their communities safe.
"Every time an incident like this happens, we keep rethinking it our director of security says, is there something more we need to do? Is there something more we need to invest in?" Libit said.
Israel's Foreign Minister is calling the shooting a terrorist attack.
Investigators are currently reviewing what appeared to be a manifesto that was posted on social media Wednesday, and has the suspect's name on it. They have not yet determined its authenticity.
