Senator visits Royal Oak synagogue to discuss security grants

ROYAL OAK — The Woodward Avenue Shul in Royal Oak received a $150,000 federal grant to make technological upgrades to increase its security.

The shul, located at 25595 Woodward Ave., received the grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The grant came as part of $7.5 million in funding that was awarded to various Michigan nonprofits and faith-based organizations to help secure houses of worship from threats of violences.

This past April, the shul’s building was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Since then, the shul has been able to install a new alarm system that not only contacts the police immediately upon activation, it also is connected to other Jewish institutions in the city to alarm them as well, Rabbi Mendel Polter said.

The shul underwent a risk assessment from Jewish Community Security Inc. to figure out where it felt vulnerable and what could be helped. Polter stated that the results were significant, as the costs were beyond the Shul’s annual income budget, but the Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding came at the right time.

Polter said future security improvements that will be done with the funding include video camera system upgrades, window fortification, new locks and bulletproof doors.

“The risk assessment is very exhausting and thorough in discussing these measures, and we look forward to, over the next year or two, to actually enact all this,” he said.

The announcement of the funding coincided with a visit on Oct. 12 from Sen. Gary Peters, who is the chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and who helped secure the funding. It also happened days after deadly terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas.

Peters said attacks on Jewish places of worship is a concern in the United States and it’s built not just on what’s happening in Israel now, but an increase in antisemitism to levels not seen in decades.

“This has been a trend, which is a primary reason why it was important for us and for me to work to provide these grants to make sure that people, when they head to their sanctuary to worship and to pray, that they should feel secure,” he said. “This should be a place where people are always secure, but with the heightened tensions related to the rise of antisemitism and domestic terrorism … we have to be able to deal with that issue on a variety of fronts, but after the attacks that we’ve seen, not only in synagogues but churches and mosques, it was important for us to make sure that we’re protecting these institutions.”

Peters said that many of the houses of worship like the shul are not large institutions and have small, limited resources.

Steven Ingber, the chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, stated that Jewish people are around 2.9% of the American population, but 57% of all hate crimes in the country are directed at Jewish people.

“It’s a staggering number,” he said. “The fact that we’re dealing with that in today’s day and age is unbelievable. And I want to thank the senator for helping us with that and securing these faith-based institutions. We’re here today in a building that is clearly, noticeably Jewish. There’s Jewish writing outside the wall. People walk here on Shabbat; they should be free to do it. And it’s not just a synagogue. It’s a mosque. It’s a Hindu temple. It’s a church. Wherever you want to practice your religion, you should be able to.”

Amid what’s happening overseas, Polter was asked about tension between the Jewish and Palestinian population in the local area and what can be done about it. He said it’s time to arrive at the perspective that everyone can recognize that they all need some sort of belief system in their life, but it doesn’t have to contradict other people’s belief systems.

“Every nation is respected and supposed to live up to their best and their mission and their calling. The Jewish people have theirs and other people have theirs, and we respect that. We’re not trying to pull anyone in, we’re not trying to prosecute anyone for their beliefs,” he said. “However, at the same time, I would just say that the response for such hate … is really the absolute conviction and steadfast commitment not to falter. We’re not going to bend, we’re not going to give up. We’re going to absolutely fight for goodness, for kindness, for truth, for good, for positivity in this world. And it will prevail, as it has in every single war and every single time these contradictions came into place.”

Polter also said there are many efforts to bring together the Muslim community and the Jewish community in the area.

“Growing up throughout the years here — I’m a fifth generation Detroiter — I personally never experienced any antisemitism between the Muslim community and our community,” he said. “I’m not saying there hasn’t ever been, but personally, on a personal level, there never has been. I hope that continues. I’ve heard about some events that took place in various communities around the area, but we hope that that’s the minority and it’s just words. Everyone’s entitled to speak, but that action is and violence is never condoned and never enacted.”

Peters and other senators recently asked the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $500 million for the fiscal year 2024. According to a press release from Peters, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program distributed $305 million last year, but not not every organization that applied received funding.