When news broke that an armed man had rammed a vehicle through the doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., one of the largest Reform congregations in the country, on Thursday afternoon, Jewish institutions across suburban Detroit immediately went into lockdown. Those included the local JCC, just over a mile from the synagogue, and Frankel Jewish Academy, a private high school located on the JCC’s campus.  

The gunman was engaged by the synagogue’s private security team and ultimately killed. A member of the security was knocked unconscious during the attack, but no one inside the synagogue or at the preschool housed within it was injured.

Rosa Chessler, who runs the JCC’s “Ageless and Active” program, has lived in Michigan since 1950; she immigrated from Germany as a small child with her parents, both Holocaust survivors. Thursday was “just my normal day of coming and doing my programs,” she told eJewishPhilanthropy. “And then it wasn’t a normal day.”

Like her co-workers and the students at the nearby day school, Chessler spent the afternoon in lockdown, watching the frightening scene at Temple Israel play out on the news. Because of her family history, the experience of hunkering down in a locked office by herself was particularly painful for her, she said.

“I just was grateful that my parents weren’t alive to see what was going on, because I don’t know if they could handle it,” she added. “You hope at some point people get past all of this antisemitism and garbage, but obviously they don’t.” 

Like many synagogues, Temple Israel has an on-site early childhood center, so along with images of police vehicles swarming to the scene and smoke billowing from the top of the synagogue from the wreckage of the attacker’s crashed vehicle, footage captured staff evacuating the premises: Teachers carrying their charges, one child under each arm. Children running in pairs, grasping each other’s hands. 

“Everyone is safe,” Temple Israel later announced in a statement. “All 140 students in our Susan and Harold Loss Early Childhood Center, our amazing staff, our courageous teachers, and our heroic security personnel are all accounted for and safe,” 

The shooting at Temple Israel is the fourth in North America this month, following three shootings at synagogues in Toronto.

“Our hearts are with the injured, heroic security officer, the congregation, and especially the children and educators whose day was pierced by antisemitic violence,” the Union for Reform Judaism said in a statement. “This is the second congregation within our Reform movement that has been targeted by violence in just the last two weeks. Other synagogues and Jewish institutions have faced the same amidst a horrific increase in antisemitism.”

“We are outraged and shaken by the attack on Temple Israel,” the Orthodox Union, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, said in a statement. “The swift actions of those on the scene helped prevent what could have been a far more tragic outcome. This incident is a stark and frightening reminder that Jewish institutions across the United States continue to face serious and persistent threats, and the escalating hateful rhetoric in the public discourse puts a target on the backs of all Jews.” 

“Enough is enough,” it continued. “The time has come for our elected officials and people of good conscience to stand up and demand action, including sufficient funding for security at Jewish institutions. We express gratitude to federal and local authorities and private security guards across the country for standing between us and those that intend to harm us.”

The shooting also comes amid ongoing conversations about funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which Jewish leaders argue has not sufficiently increased to meet the rise in antisemitic incidents. In a statement about the attack in West Bloomfield Township, the Jewish Federations of North America touted LiveSecure and Tepper security grants, which, it says, “helped support hiring security guards,” and “helped harden the temple facilities, which diminished the attacker’s ability to cause harm.” They also called for the government to increase funding. 

“Protecting citizens is the primary responsibility of government,” JFNA said in a statement. “The Jewish community is forced to spend over $765 million a year to simply protect itself, and there is more government should do to ensure every vulnerable Jewish institution has the resources to keep safe.”