The NYPD has mobilized cops to Jewish houses of worship across the city Tuesday after Iran fired more than 100 rockets against Israel, officials said.
The enhanced deployment of police personnel, which has been in place for weeks, is set to extend through the High Holy Days, which will begin with Rosh Hashanah Wednesday and include Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel, which sparked the current Israel-Hamas conflict.
“We were already at a heightened alert,” an NYPD spokesman said. “We have already deployed counter-terror measures around the city.”
City residents are expected to see more heavily armed “Hercules” teams of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit and uniformed officers in marked police vehicles at Jewish institutions, synagogues, foreign consulates and public places, like Times Square and Central Park, the spokesman said.
Chava Lider lives in Israel but traveled to Brooklyn to worship at the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights this week. Due to the holiday and then Sabbath, she will not be able to use her phone or the internet to communicate with family back home for four days. Lider is looking forward to being able to contact them Saturday evening.
“We pray everything will be OK,” Lider said. “It’s a very bad feeling with a war against a very evil enemy.”
She is thankful for the show of support from the NYPD.
“I saw two people from the NYPD and said, ‘God will bless you.’ I saw it’s so important to them that we feel safe. It’s a good feeling to know that they made this effort,” she said.
Chabad member Bruce Hoffinger, 80, is disturbed by what is happening in Israel but isn’t worried about any domestic attacks against Jews in New York.
“I went to public school here, I went to college in Manhattan,” he said. “I’m not terribly concerned.”
The spokesman said the NYPD Intelligence Bureau is also in constant contact with its overseas liaisons, getting real-time information on the attacks, as well as reviewing chatter on social media, to see if any possible attacks are being coordinated here.
Mayor Adams confirmed the mobilization during his weekly address to reporters Tuesday.
“We are closely monitoring the situation,” Adams said. “We’re taking every necessary step to ensure the safety of everyone in this city with the High Holy Days upon us.”
The visible surge in police patrols in the city is intended to be an added protection as well as a deterrent to anyone thinking of committing a bias crime during these turbulent times, police said.
The added officers were put in place long before Tuesday’s missile attack, NYPD officials said.
In addition, Governor Hochul tweeted early Tuesday afternoon that police are also being mobilized around New York State.
“I have been briefed on this ongoing situation and have directed @NYSPolice to increase patrols of at-risk locations across New York,” she posted on X. “There are no reported threats to New Yorkers at this time. We continue to pray for peace and an end to the violence.”
Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson of Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side said the synagogue’s holiday services would reflect the ongoing war in Israel, kicking off with a dedication on Fifth Ave. of an ambulance purchased by the congregation that will be sent to Israel.
“Sadly, it will be very much needed as this war continues,” Davidson said.
Closer to home, the rabbi said they were as prepared as ever.
“Our security is always at the highest level,” Davidson said. “That’s just the nature of synagogue life today, especially in the U.S.”
An employee at one uptown temple said there would be security at the door to check who is coming in during services over the holiday. Yet, despite that and measures put in place by the city, he said it still felt short of reassuring for congregants.
“People are feeling like it’s not enough, despite the community liaison from the police,” he told the Daily News.
More than 100 missiles were fired into Israel Tuesday — a sharp escalation of the months-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militias Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran’s attack follows Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in a targeted bomb strike in Lebanon on Friday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties as Israel ordered residents to head to bomb shelters and as air raid sirens sounded across the country, Israeli officials said.
In light of the attack, New York City cops were preparing for possible assaults against Jewish houses of worship, as well as possible reprisal attacks in the city’s Iranian communities, police sources said.
As part of the NYPD’s High Holy Days protection plan, cops will be upping patrols by city synagogues and in Jewish communities. They will also be in constant contact with Jewish community leaders to hear their concerns.
Mitch Silber is executive director of Community Security Initiative, a program to safeguard Jewish communities and institutions in New York and southwest Connecticut. He gave a pre-High Holidays security briefing along with his colleagues Friday — but the war has radically changed since then.
“We’re basically running 24/7 right now with our intelligence desk,” said Silber, who said they were on the lookout for possible attacks in New York.
“We just heard that NYPD has begun to implement their High Holiday patrol program today a day earlier,” he said. “They’re taking it as seriously as they can.”
Interim NYPD Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon is expected to hold a press conference Wednesday to outline these upgraded security measures during the High Holy Days.