Jewish Americans have seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism across the country and are taking precautions to protect themselves during the back-to-school season as the High Holidays approach.
Community Security Services (CSS) CEO Richard Priem told Fox News Digital that the organization has worked with about 500 synagogues and trained an additional 15,000 community members across the country on how to keep their houses of worship safe in an increasingly threat-ridden environment.
Priem said that 11 months after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, coupled with rising anti-Semitism in the country, CSS has seen a “significant increase in demand for its services” as the organization offers a sense of “empowerment” to Jewish Americans seeking a way to “take responsibility for their own safety.”
“When we talk about self-defense, we're not just looking at it in terms of being able to physically protect ourselves. It's also important for the Jewish community to have some control over their own safety. It's not a replacement for the police, it's not a replacement for paid security, but it adds to the security of the community that we have,” Priem told Fox News Digital. “Our mission is to protect Jewish life and the Jewish way of life. On the one hand, we want to increase security at Jewish institutions and events and protect the people who are there. But we also want to preserve the Jewish way of life, which is to continue to live without fear as Jewish Americans and as Jews who participate in all aspects of American life.”
Priem said the organization provides “professional-level security training” to members of the Jewish community and receives inquiries from “dozens of new volunteers” every day.
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Ruam Pham holds up a Bi-Luna launcher during a demonstration for Fox News Digital. (Fox News Digital)
Jewish Americans across the country, especially in areas with strict gun laws, are considering arming themselves with non-lethal weapons called Barna Launchers.
Luan Pham, chief sales and marketing officer for Byrne Technologies, told Fox News Digital that Byrne's launchers fire high-performance polymer kinetic energy rounds that can shatter car side windows from up to 30 feet away. Pham said the non-lethal weapon delivers a painful blunt impact that can thwart an attack or de-escalate an attacker “without taking a life.” Upon impact, Byrne's round creates a six-foot-long diffuse cloud of a chemical irritant that attacks the attacker's central nervous system, making the skin feel like it's burning for about 30 to 40 minutes, but does not cause death.
“This changes the focus from the victim to the aggressor. And our product is very unique in that it's very accessible,” Pham said. “So the Burna launcher does not require a background check. You don't need a permit to own it. We can ship it right to your doorstep. It's very easy to use because there is no recoil, unlike firearms that have very violent recoil. The Burna doesn't shake in your hand when you fire it. And you don't need a gun because the registered blast can be tolerated outdoors.”
Pham said the company has sold more than 500,000 units in the past five years. After the Oct. 7 attacks, he said, he saw a flood of purchases from members of the Jewish community across the country. At an event in Las Vegas after the Black Saturday massacre, Pham met a Jewish leader who had driven up from Los Angeles and wanted to buy several Barna launchers as soon as possible. Pham said the man told him that a rabbi with no firearms training had come to his temple wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a .45-caliber gun, and he wanted a way to protect his house of worship without being reckless.
“What makes this product so unique is that it allows you to train inexperienced people on the sacred ground of their own land,” Pham said, adding that people can train “on church grounds, on temple grounds or indoors.”
“We've coached dozens of churches over the years on how to protect themselves and their congregations,” he added, “and what's interesting is that after that first call from the temple on Oct. 7, word got out and churches all came together and placed huge six-figure orders to ensure they could protect themselves the right way while mitigating the risks.”
“We believe in the Second Amendment, but we're also gun owners with common sense,” Pham said. “Our mission is to reduce gun deaths, and you can imagine how many lives could be saved if 100 million gun owners who find themselves in a dangerous situation would reach for their gun first.”
A small group of pro-Israel demonstrators and counter-protesters gathered in front of Columbia University for a “Debunking Campus Hate” protest as the new semester began in New York City on August 27, 2024. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
According to the NYPD's hate crimes dashboard, of the 329 total hate crimes recorded since the start of the year through June 25, 200 were targeted at Jewish people.
Between 2018 and 2023, hate crimes against Jewish residents in New York increased by 89% statewide, according to a report released last week by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
“I'm not surprised by these numbers,” Priem told Fox News Digital in response to the report. “They correlate with what we're seeing on the ground every week.”
A total of 1,089 hate crimes were reported across New York state in 2023, a 69% increase since 2019, DiNapoli wrote.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased by about 400% in the weeks following the October 7 terror attacks in southern Israel.
Priem said CSS, which has been in existence for more than 50 years, has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of facilities it serves and trained volunteers over the past 11 months.
In 2020, the organization responded to an average of 100 to 200 incidents per year. Now, that number is closer to 400, with the majority of incidents occurring since Oct. 7.
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Prime cited other examples this year of anti-Israel agitators descending on a synagogue in Teaneck, New Jersey, and attacking worshippers, as well as anti-Israel motorcades honking their horns through Jewish neighborhoods and insulting and harassing passersby who identified themselves as Jewish “simply because they were wearing a kippah.”
He drew a distinction between anti-Israel agitators targeting Israeli embassies and protesters targeting Jewish sites and synagogues, which he said are anti-Semitic but not necessarily illegal, and called on law enforcement to enforce existing laws banning the wearing of masks in public and loud noises in residential areas in order to maintain a “more aggressive, zero-tolerance approach” to targeted harassment of Jews.
On April 1, 2024, anti-Israel activists gathered at a synagogue in Teaneck, New Jersey to protest a rally organized by the Israeli volunteer community emergency response team, ZAKA, prompting a police response. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“They're trying to hold Jews responsible for what foreign countries are doing,” Priem told Fox News Digital about anti-Israel agitators, “and sadly, we now have to prepare our teams on how to deal with peaceful protesters, how to de-escalate so that rally participants and Jewish participants don't get drawn into confrontations, and how to deal with demonstrations that directly harass or intimidate Jewish people, or even that lead to assaults or acts of violence against members of the Jewish community.”
So, before October 7, the specific security best practices that CSS communicates to teams preparing for protests weren't as important as they are now, Priem argued.
His organization also sends extra volunteers to synagogues and other locations if it learns in advance that anti-Israel demonstrations are planned.
“Since Oct. 7, and in the wake of the rise in anti-Semitism, we've seen more Jews stand up for themselves, defend their organizations, say, 'I want to volunteer so that my kids can continue to go to Jewish summer camp, or so that my kids can continue to go to church services without fear, and not have to be locked up at home worrying about their safety,'” he said. “And we've also been fortunate to get a very constructive response from our local police whenever we've needed it.”
Last semester, anti-Israel protests and encampments – some of which flew Hamas flags and other terrorist propaganda – led to confrontations between students, university officials and police at a number of U.S. universities.
With school back in session and the holidays approaching, Priem said CSS has, for the first time, launched a program to train Jewish students in situational awareness, self-defense and de-escalation, “to help students develop self-confidence and resilience to protect themselves and stay safe in the campus environment.”
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“Every year before the High Holidays we put in place extra precautions, extra guidance, extra training, and this year it's even more important given the environment we're in,” Priem said. “It's not about being counter-intimidating. That's not what we're about. But we want to give students confidence and resilience, so that if they want to speak up, if they want to get involved in campus activities or whatever it is that they want to do, they have more confidence and they have the skills to deal with this hostile environment that has sadly been tolerated on our campuses for too long.”
