Synagogue Threatened By Bomb Plot Is Opening Its Shabbat Services To The Public
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Ari Feldman November 8, 2019
The Colorado synagogue that was targeted by a white supremacist would-be bomber has said that the public is welcome to attend Friday evening services this Sabbath.
Rabbi Birdie Becker, the leader of Temple Emanuel, in Pueblo, also noted that the synagogue will now install external security cameras in response to the bombing threat.
The man arrested for the plot, Richard Holzer, 27, planned the bombing with people he thought were fellow white supremacists and anti-Semites, but were in fact FBI agents. On Friday evening last week, during the supposed final preparations for the bombing, the agents arrested Holzer. We was expected to appear in federal court Friday.
Becker told local news station KRCC that despite the new security measures — the synagogue’s president recently told news media that he encourages the carrying of guns in synagogue — the community wanted the synagogue to remain open and hospitable.
“We’ll still come together as a community,” she said. “Life goes on. Celebrating goes on, rituals go on, this does not change any of that. It never has. Anti-Semitism has been around for a long time.”
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
