When a Synagogue Is Attacked

(PHOTO: Screenshot WNEM News 5)

While this is our weekly Shabbat Shalom email, this Shabbat is not filled with shalom (peace).



Yesterday, police cars and emergency vehicles surrounded Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, after a man drove a vehicle into the synagogue building in what authorities say was a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. The synagogue—one of the largest congregations in the Detroit area—hosts educational programs and children’s activities during the week.



Security personnel responded immediately and shot and killed the Lebanese-born attacker before greater harm could occur. Approximately 140 children and staff members who were inside the building were safely evacuated, but the incident sent shockwaves through the local Jewish community.



The suspect, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali (41), immigrated to the United States in 2011 and became a citizen in 2016. Earlier this month, several of his family members were reportedly killed in Lebanon during Israel’s retaliation against Hezbollah attacks.



The FBI says it is investigating the incident as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” In other words, American Jewish children—who have absolutely nothing to do with Israel’s war against Iran—were nearly murdered simply because they were Jewish.



This was the first thing I saw on the news this morning as I was checking to see if any missiles hit Israel overnight. 



A synagogue is supposed to be a place of prayer, learning, and community. Yet across America today, Jewish congregations increasingly function like fortified buildings. Security guards stand at the doors. Cameras watch every entrance. Emergency procedures are rehearsed. Jewish parents drop their children off at Hebrew school knowing that someone, somewhere, might hate them enough to try to hurt them simply because they are Jewish.



Unsafe in a Place of Worship



Growing up, I went to the synagogue, typically three times a week. Once on Sunday morning and twice during the week. Never did I feel unsafe. The only time there was a police officer was on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah—to direct traffic, because those holidays are the equivalent of Easter and Christmas in terms of people coming to the synagogue who don’t normally come.



What happened in Michigan did not occur in isolation. It is part of a much larger and deeply troubling trend: the explosion of antisemitism around the world. The hostility toward Jews that once lived mostly on the fringes of society has increasingly entered mainstream discourse. Podcasts, social media platforms, online influencers, and even university classrooms have become places where conspiracy theories about Jews circulate freely. The old accusations—that Jews control governments, manipulate media, or secretly run the world—are simply being repackaged in modern language and distributed to millions of listeners and viewers. (Quite frankly, if we are running the world as Jews, we’re obviously not doing a very good job.)



The troubling thing about this phenomenon is how normalized it has become. Sometimes the rhetoric comes from the far right. Sometimes it comes from the far left. Sometimes it is fueled by ideological movements that have imported ancient hatreds into modern political causes. But regardless of where it originates, the pattern is always the same. When people are repeatedly told that Jews are the problem, eventually someone decides to act on that belief.



Canceled for Being Israeli



I recently watched a small but revealing example of this dynamic unfold online involving a friend of mine. Like most Israelis, this person served in the Israel Defense Forces after high school. Military service in Israel is mandatory. It is simply part of life here. Yet this friend is far from what critics might call a hardline Zionist. In fact, they have gone out of their way to raise funds to help Palestinians affected by the war. Their posture toward Palestinians has consistently been one of compassion.



None of that mattered once someone discovered that they had served in the IDF years earlier. That single fact was enough for the person online to attempt to publicly shame and cancel them. The irony is that this person does not even live in Israel anymore. Their supposed offense was simply fulfilling a national obligation as an eighteen-year-old, something that virtually every Israeli does.



This is the environment we are living in. Nuance disappears. Context disappears. People stop seeing individuals and begin seeing symbols. 



History shows us where this kind of thinking leads. Antisemitism rarely begins with violence; it begins with narratives. It begins with rhetoric that slowly dehumanizes an entire people group until hostility toward them seems justified. Many antisemites do not even know any Jews, but have demonized a caricature of what they think a Jewish person is. 



16 Million Out of 8 Billion!



Kenneth L. Mark, an expert on the subject, says, “As an ideology, [antisemitism] provides a way to make sense of the entire world and all of history, not just the relatively small territory occupied by the descendants of Jacob.” In other words, a relatively small ethnic group of around 16 million out of more than 8 billion is controlling history. For some, the conspiracies have become an obsession.



This was Prophesied



For those of us who read the Bible, none of this should completely surprise us. Scripture suggests that hostility toward the Jewish people will intensify as history moves toward its climax. The prophet Zechariah described a time when Jerusalem would become “a heavy stone for all the nations” and the nations of the earth would gather against it (Zechariah 12:3). Throughout history the Jewish people have repeatedly found themselves at the center of global controversy and spiritual conflict.



From Pharaoh in Egypt to Haman in Persia, from Rome to Nazi Germany, the attempt to destroy the Jewish people has resurfaced again and again. And yet the Jewish people remain. Their survival is one of the most remarkable testimonies to the faithfulness of God in human history.



The attack in Michigan is therefore more than an isolated incident. It is another warning sign of the times we are living in. When antisemitic rhetoric spreads unchecked through media, online culture, and political discourse, it inevitably creates an atmosphere where violence becomes possible.



For those who take the Bible seriously, the response should be clear. God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3). Standing against antisemitism is not merely a political stance; it is a moral responsibility.



And increasingly, it may also be a prophetic one. Do something today to show you stand with Jewish people. In doing so, you may fulfill the wishes of God through Paul when he said that salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious (Romans 11:11).