In mid February, when duct tape was suddenly added to the list of items every well-equipped household must have, I took a walk through our building. We all know the old adage “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” As I looked at our glass lined corridors, glass walls, skylights and windows, windows, windows, contemplating how to seal our rooms with plastic and duct tape, a new adage ran in my head “People who expect stones to be thrown at them shouldn’t build glass houses.”
This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen our building as a physical expression of our optimism about our place in the world. Last spring, after I read that the Joint Distribution Committee is helping European communities replace synagogue windows with shatterproof glass, I wondered what it would be like to live in a community where the international Jewish community feels that replacing your windows is a funding priority.
We didn’t build our building with the notion that our community needed a fortress. We built with the idea of welcoming newcomers, of enhancing our spirituality and making light and nature part of our holy space. In the future, will our approach to synagogue architecture seem foolishly naive? I hope not.
In a city containing the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, and numerous cultural institutions of international renown, it is hard to picture someone targeting our medium-size congregation, hidden in the middle of a quiet suburban neighborhood, to make a violent political statement. Still, we’ve all heard that Jewish institutions face a heightened security risk. Community institutions are taking this seriously and are helping congregations take precautions.
Is the talk about terrorist threats a calculated ploy to prime the population for a possible war against Iraq? I don’t have any special insight into the politics of raising and lowering the threat level. My role as president is to think carefully about what logical, appropriate steps might minimize our community’s risk. We are not about to replace all the glass in our building or construct an electronic gate to restrict entry. However, we are tightening security.
If you’ve been to the building in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that only the lobby entrance is now open on Shabbat and that only the administrative entrance is open on Wednesdays and Sundays. When the office is open, you need to be buzzed into the building from the office. Oneg crew-members can help one another deliver food through the social hall entrance but we are not unlocking the doors and are requesting that no one prop doors open.
We are currently revising our evacuation and security plan and training staff —particularly Torah School teachers—to carry them out. If you would like to help with this effort, please let me know. Garry Grossman, chair of our security committee, and I welcome your insights, ideas, and expertise.
Shalom uv’ racha (Peace and Blessing),
Judy Gelman, President