Last month, I mused about how we should draw the line between welcoming strangers into our midst and the need to be safe and secure. But now, as I look around and consider the threatening signs and symbols that appear almost daily, the picture beyond our shul doors appears more ominous. The signs are blatant and unmistakable, although at times they seem so subtle they might be overlooked, ignored. That is, until the news splashes across all media platforms.

Then we see the terrible consequences of complacency — what happened in Texas and in Pennsylvania, swastikas and Nazi flags cropping up everywhere with increasing frequency — along the Canadian border in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” to protest vaccination mandates, the same flags spilling over into other cities across the U.S. and Europe. We see them on a bridge over a highway in Florida. We see them during a protest by vaccine mandate opponents in Geneseo. A swastika crafted from syringes flew at an anti-vax protest at the Governor’s mansion in Utah. And close to home, in the Bronx, protesters displayed swastikas and a yellow star outside the office of a Jewish Assemblyman. And the list goes on.

These are the signs and the symbols that foretell unprovoked acts of violence against individuals, the taking of hostages, murders.

Phone calls offering help and support come to us from Suffolk County Homeland Security. Warnings from government agencies. Technical support is offered by Jewish agencies for the daunting tasks that lie ahead.

We are responding. We have formed a Security Committee, chaired by shul member Stephen Meshover, to consider our immediate needs for the shul and the parsonage, and to explore funding support for facility hardening and other security enhancements to promote emergency preparedness and coordination.

We are not complacent. We are on it.

— Judith K. Weiner