Dear Or Ami Family,

Like many of you, I felt a chill run through me when I heard about the car ramming and shooting outside the synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. For Jews everywhere, incidents like this land close to home. They stir fear and worry. They awaken anger. They remind us that the hatred we read about in headlines is not abstract. It is real.

We are grateful that in West Bloomfield, the synagogue’s security preparations, staff training, and the leadership’s commitment to safety helped protect the community. Their foresight mattered. Their preparation mattered. And we hold that congregation in our prayers.

Still, we cannot ignore the deeper frustration many of us feel about the world we are living in. Antisemitism today is not merely rising. In too many places, it is growing bolder. As Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism has noted, this hatred comes from across the political spectrum, appearing on the far right, the far left, and in places we once assumed were safe.

And as hateful words turn into hateful actions, we must continue to speak out.

This past month alone we have seen threats, vandalism, harassment, and violence directed at Jewish communities. When conspiracy, demonization, and dehumanizing language are tolerated, violence follows. History has taught us this again and again.

So we must name this reality clearly. And we must also ask, even expect, that our non-Jewish friends and neighbors speak up and stand with us. Not quietly and not later, but now. Antisemitism in this country was exploding even when Israel was not at war. Silence cannot be the response. (I was heartened when Father Ross Porter and Captain Dustin Carr reached out.)

At the same time, we want every congregant, parent, and grandparent to know something clearly: our synagogue is vigilant about safety.

Here at Congregation Or Ami, your security remains a top priority.

A recent outside security review praised the work of our Safety and Security Committee for the significant steps taken to strengthen our premises, train our staff, and deepen our preparedness. We continue to train our staff, refine our protocols, and make additional improvements. We are deeply grateful to our security guards for their steady presence and sacred work keeping our community safe.

We remain in close touch with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, whose deputies know our community and regularly come to the synagogue. Our Calabasas city leadership is also attentive to these concerns, including two of our own congregants who serve on the City Council, David Shapiro and Peter Kraut. Peter also serves as vice chair of our Safety and Security Committee.

We have applied for and received grants from the State of California, the federal government, and Jewish Federation to strengthen our security infrastructure. These funds have helped harden our premises.

Unfortunately, they do not currently cover the cost of security guards. While that may change in the future, it has not yet and will not for a while.

If you visit neighboring churches, you will notice that most carry a far lighter security profile than Jewish communities do. We wish that were not the case. Yet it is the reality we face.

And so the antisemitism tax Jewish communities are forced to pay continues to grow, taking a larger and larger portion of our synagogue budget, eating away at needed funds to do our core work: teaching Torah, speaking about holiness and the Holy One, creating mensches, pursuing tikkun olam, and caring for one another in sacred community.

That is why we are turning to you.

We have set a goal of raising $100,000 for our Security Fund: Keeping Us Safe to help defray the rising costs of guards and security.

Please donate to our Security Fund: Keeping Us Safe

And we must do more than respond locally. We must advocate publicly.

That is why I will be going to Sacramento on May 11-12 to lobby alongside Jewish Federation, the broader California Jewish community, and Jewish California, formerly JPCA, to make our needs known and ensure our leaders understand the urgency of Jewish security concerns. Please join me in Sacramento. To learn more or sign up, email Brooke Botwinick at brooke@orami.org and visit our Capitol Summit registration.

At the same time, we will not let fear define us.

A previous antisemitism ambassador taught that one of the strongest antidotes to antisemitism is living a proud and public Jewish life: to know what Judaism is, to understand why it matters, and to pass it down l’dor vador, from generation to generation.

That is exactly what we do at Or Ami.

We gather. We learn. We sing. We pray. We care for one another. We repair the world. We raise mensches (kind, compassionate, committed Jews).

So we ask three things of you: help us sustain our security efforts, raise your voice when antisemitism appears, and keep showing up for Jewish life, here with us, proudly and publicly. And in this moment, may our response be hineini, here I am: present, proud, and ready to stand up for Jewish life.

With gratitude and resolve,

Rabbi Paul Kipnes
Rabbi Elana Rabishaw
President Susie Gruber
VP Dan Germain, Chair, Safety and Security Committee
Peter Kraut, Vice Chair, Safety and Security Committee