Editor's Note: Over the next three days, WOSU’s George Shillcock explores how one Jewish organization in Columbus with national reach has taken steps to protect the community. Some say those steps, which included reporting pro-Palestinian events to police, may have gone too far.
It wasn’t long after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that the ripple effects were felt here in central Ohio.
That same day, a man drove to the parking lot of the Congregation Tifereth Israel synagogue on East Broad Street and told a congregant "they should have killed more of you." The man, Jacob Reidy of Clintonville, was caught by Bexley police after he harassed people at another synagogue and multiple houses flying Israeli flags in Columbus and Bexley.
Columbus and the nation have seen a rise in antisemitism since Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing more than 1,000 Israelis, kidnapping more than 200 and sparking the war in Gaza against Hamas. The war has raged on since and the death toll of Palestinians killed in the crossfire by Israel has risen above 60,000 people.
Tifereth Israel locks its doors and has cameras along its property because of security concerns. Associate Rabbi Alex Braver showed WOSU the east side synagogue and how they protect it.
“This is the new reality, is this debate between we wanna be welcoming, open our doors, be public, share what we have and invite people in, and we need to make sure that people are safe," Braver said.
A sign outside the congregation's parking lot door warns visitors of 24-hour surveillance.
Rabbi Braver said security at synagogues and Jewish organizations increased even before Oct. 7, when a gunman massacred congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
“Tree Of Life changed everything. And Oct. 7 (brought things) to another level,” Braver said.
Tifereth Israel's Executive Director Nancy Gurwin said Reidy's harassment wasn’t the only time the synagogue was targeted. A banner the synagogue flew in its front yard calling for Hamas to release the Israeli hostages was burned in May 2024.
“When we got up there, we could see the grass was burnt and the poles that it had been on were charred.... It was, they had invaded our territory. They had hit us so deep in our hearts," Gurwin said.
The Anti-Defamation League found that in Ohio alone, there were more than 200 reports of antisemitism in 2024. The ADL said antisemitism reports increased by 42% in central Ohio since Oct. 7, 2023.
That increase in antisemitism is being seen nationwide.
It is hard not to encounter a Jewish person who hasn’t faced hate in their life.
Columbus resident Farrel Brody, 88, is a founder of the Columbus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. He said he's faced harassment for being Jewish since he was a child.
"The only time I got into a fight on the grounds of school when I was a little kid was when I was called a dirty Jew," Brody said.
Even Ohio State Representative Beryl Brown Piccolantonio from Gahanna said it’s happened to her too.
"A next door neighbor who we were pretty close with, our kids played together. And in the course of a conversation, one of the members of the household used the term 'Jew someone down,'" Brown Piccolantonio said.
A northeast Ohio man was arrested this earlier this year on allegations that he threatened and spewed antisemitic epithets at Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller while the two were traveling on an interstate highway near Cleveland.
Miller declined an interview request from WOSU.
A WOSU public records request to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office found in the year and a half that followed Oct. 7, an organization called Jewish Columbus documented and alerted police about dozens of threats, harassment and vandalism targeting Jewish people in central Ohio.
The incidents included everything from red paint being smeared across signs supporting Israel; masked neo-Nazis that marched through the Short North in November and two Jewish students who were assaulted on Ohio State University’s campus.
Mike Higgins, the head of security for Jewish Columbus, said his group stepped-up protection including placing guards and cameras at synagogues and other locations. Higgins was hired this year to help implement the security upgrades.
“We have armed security at all our locations. We ensure that they're either off-duty law enforcement officers, or if they're using a private security company," Higgins said.
Jewish Columbus President and CEO Julie Tilson Stanley said the uptick in antisemitism has set the community on edge and that the need to increase security efforts shows it.
“Our community was living in fear and we want Jews to live their lives without fear. And we want them to have meaningful lives and feel proud of their Judaism if they want to,” Tilson Stanley said.
Higgins said their work is an example of the intelligence operation that Jewish Columbus’ umbrella organization, the Jewish Federations of North America, has built.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the Jewish Federation now has more than 100 security teams at its branch organizations across the country, including in Cincinnati and Cleveland. They're able to coordinate with law enforcement to keep track of individuals like the Short North neo-Nazis.
Jewish Columbus built a dossier on one of the Hate Club members who organized the Short North march. Higgins said internet sleuths and open-source information helped Jewish Columbus gather information on suspects.
“There’s an evolution going underway right now in how the Jewish community conducts security. And Columbus, I believe, is leading the way," Higgins said.
Gurwin with Tifereth Israel said many Jews are now taking this more seriously as antisemitic incidents rise.
Stanley and Higgins want Jews to feel more comfortable reporting hate when it happens. Stanley said Jewish Columbus is even launching a tool that lets people self-report antisemitic incidents when they happen.
Jewish Columbus has helped foot the bill for security upgrades to synagogues like Tifereth Israel.
Tifereth Israel has a new banner that states “Bring Them Home” that hangs in front of the synagogue. The banner is fire resistant, but hangs on the same charred metal poles where the last one was burned down.
