Jewish Communities Increase Security Amid Violent Attacks

I'm Ben Dominic.

I'm Madison Allworth.

I'm Stuart Vonny, and this is the Fox News rundown.

Friday, March 27th, 2026, Antonio J. Powers.

Amid a rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S., law enforcement officials across the country

are increasing security measures for Jewish institutions like synagogues and other organizations.

The timing is not an accident.

It's definitely a sensitive time for us, and we were a little bit worried about violence

coming up when we have holidays to celebrate, such as Passover next week.

This is the Fox News rundown, Operation Epic Fury.

There's been a rise in instances of anti-Semitism in recent years, with the Anti-Defamation

League recording more than 9,300 cases across the U.S. in 2024.

It was the highest number since they started recording those incidents in 1979.

Those stats are backed up by the American Jewish Committee, whose recent survey found that

91 percent of American Jews feel less safe, following high-profile attacks, including

the arson attack at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's home.

The conflict in Iran has only amplified fears of more attacks, which is why the founder

of one grassroots watchdog organization is working to make her voice heard.

So step-and-by-semitism was born out of increased bias that I was seen in the 2015-2017 area.

We officially launched in 2018.

Leora Rez is the founder of Stop Anti-Semitism.

We are grassroots advocacy organization that exposes and fights hatred and bias against

the Jewish people in the state.

Tell me a little bit about your history and why this is so important to you and it feels

like I guess you're calling to do.

It's so, so personal to me.

I am a refugee from the former U.S. S.R. I came here as a small child to the United States

with my family to escape persecution, to escape socialism, to escape anti-Semitism.

Proud, proud American cannot be more thankful for the opportunities, the safety, and just

the overall life my family was able to build in the United States.

And I was personally fortunate to not experience bigotry during my childhood teenage years

into my 20s, very safe environment, you know, the stories that I've heard from my parents

and grandparents about the hate, the bigotry, the physical threats, verbal threats that

they experienced in the U.S.S.R. never really seemed real to me.

Until some type of anti-Semitic grumbling started around 2013-14 that I myself started

seeing and experiencing on social media and with the rise of social media from, you

know, 10, 12 years ago to now, it's sort of a monsovia explosion.

So everything that I was warned about, told about as a child, I am now seeing as an adult

come to fruition.

And if we look at October 7th, myself and probably the vast, vast majority of Jews globally

outside of Israel now say to ourselves, wow, we now understand how the Holocaust happened.

So it is a complete full circle moment for myself.

Let me step back for a second and ask you what is going to seem like a really simple question.

What exactly is anti-Semitism?

And I ask that because there are a lot of people who think, okay, that means you're critical

of Israel in any way or some people may think it's just blatant name calling.

Can you define that where people who are not Jewish and who do not have to deal with this,

where everybody can understand that?

Yeah, no, it's not a silly or stupid question, it's a fantastic question.

So anti-Semitism is hostility prejudice or discrimination directed at Jews as a people

religion or identity.

I always say this, if you ever want to criticize Israel, go no further than Israel.

One Israeli will have 27 different opinions and critiques about the Israeli government

and have at it that is free speech, everyone is entitled to that.

However, when you are using Israel as a proxy for hate and dehumanization of Jews as a

whole that is anti-Semitic.

If you are using conspiracy theories coded as occupiers, colonizers, Zionists, global domination,

those are conspiracy myths.

If you're looking collective blame holding all Jews responsible for the actions of the

state of Israel, that is anti-Semitism.

And then there's the blatant, pretty much everyone can agree, we hope everyone can agree.

And you're denying or minimizing the Holocaust, it's clear distortion of history.

Harassment, vandalism, violence against Jews, synagogue schools, target your targeting

Jewish life, that's anti-Semitism.

But these modern forms, they include coded languages, which often leads to online harassment,

you're singling out Jews or Israel, you're using standards never apply to any other nation

or people, it's blatant anti-Semitism.

Thank you for that.

And I have to tell you, I'm really happy you asked that because it's very, very important

to note that when you are saying, or somebody is saying Zionists are globalists, occupiers,

baby killers, they're collectively blaming Jews as a whole, they're not critiquing, they

are inciting a modern day blood libel, so no, not a silly question at all, I'm so happy

you asked that.

I appreciate the easy to understand definition and explanation, because that is something

I think that gets lost and anti-Semitism as a term gets thrown around a lot.

And so it's helpful for me at least to kind of go back and go, okay, let's define this

and then go from there.

You mentioned it.

Absolutely.

And I have to tell you, we often see pushback, well, I'm not as a symmetric, I'm just

critiquing Israel.

And when you are portraying Jews as a collective, as evil subhuman or a threat to society, again,

be a coded language, Zionists, occupiers, so on and so forth, know what you're doing

is vilifying Jews, you're not trying to make the lives of Palestinians better.

It's not critique of Israel.

It's the dehumanization and hatred of Jews.

We've been speaking with stop anti-Semitism founder Leora Rez, more after this.

We've kind of touched on it a little bit, and I want to go a little bit deeper into the

safety, the threats, the threats to safety of Jews.

This week law enforcement officials said that they are taking more steps to monitor and

counter threats to Jewish and Muslim communities across the U.S. since, of course, the onset

of the war in the Middle East.

The FBI is even doing an investigation, of course, into the incident in West Bloomfield,

Michigan, when earlier this month, where the driver drove a vehicle through the doors

of Temple Israel.

That is just one of the incidents we have seen, especially over the past several years.

Is this getting worse?

Or are we just hearing more about it?

It's getting worse.

What's happening is Iran is helping, we believe, fuel more hatred.

There's politicians out of Michigan that are blaming quote-unquote the APAC lobby, which

are United States-based donors only, for rising gas prices, or seeing stickers all over

the country blaming gas prices on blame the Jews, where literally says blame the Jews.

So this rhetoric, this online rhetoric, leads to in-person physical violence.

As we saw in West Bloomfield, a Hezbollah-aligned terrorist was upset that his terrorist family

were killed in an airstrike and took his frustrations out on 140 preschoolers at a synagogue

in West Bloomfield.

It's absolutely insane that it's happening.

So now we have Passover starting in a few days, and it's a heightened threat environment.

We recall what happened to Josh Shapiro, the governor out of Pennsylvania, last Passover,

won an absolute anti-Semite and lunatic, broke into his home, and in the name of quote-unquote

free Palestine, set the governor's mansion on fire with the governor's family and in-laws

inside, thankfully nobody was hurt.

So it's definitely a sensitive time for us, and we were a little bit worried about violence

coming up when we have holidays to celebrate, such as Passover next week.

I'm glad you mentioned about the run-up to Passover and in light, especially with

a law enforcement official, said that they're monitoring and countering these threats.

What would you like to see done to make sure the Jewish communities are kept safe, especially

in light of the holidays?

I would ask you if you think enough is being done, but I'm going to go ahead and assume

the answer is no, and just ask you what would you like to see done in the name of safety

for these groups?

So law enforcement coordination is critical, and they are doing a phenomenal job.

Proactive engagement with local and federal authorities obviously ensures a rapid response

as we saw in West Bloomfield, but it's physical law enforcement presence at synagogues.

If you see any kind of online incitement, report it right away, don't brush it off as

it's just somebody behind a screen, right?

You never know what you're able to prevent.

So take anything and everything you see seriously reported to organizations like us, stop

anti-Semitism, call 911, call your local law enforcement, call the FBI, public silence

enables threats and violence, and everyone has to be overtly vigilant.

So not just vigilant, but overtly vigilant.

So essentially in summary, preparedness without panic.

I want to ask on a granular level, you mentioned law enforcement at synagogues and places like

that that would obviously help.

Have you experiences, or do you know people who have experienced changing up their daily

life and what they normally would do as they just carry on through their life, changing

things up to make sure that they are a little more aware, a little more a little safer.

Is there are there things that you know of people not doing anymore Jewish people who

are just saying, okay, well, that might put me in a situation I don't want to be in?

Is there anything like that you can think of for examples?

Oh, absolutely.

There are Jewish congregants who will not sit near windows during events inside their

houses of worship, her fears of a God man shooting then through, you know, through windows.

Everyone is identifying where is the nearest exit.

There's rapid response protocols shared amongst multiple, you know, multiple different

houses of worship across the United States were seeing.

There are multiple times when, you know, we're being told Jews ask, will there be a security

or an armed security present at a so and so event?

And if there is not, they will not attend.

So there, the Jewish community is is overtly proactive when it comes to law enforcement

and security in this day and day and age right now in 2026.

What's my final question is, what do you think is getting missed?

I love this.

There's so much going on in the news, there's headlines every five minutes.

There's, you know, all these things to be concerned about worldwide.

What is getting missed with all of the noise?

I think the level of extremism is not focused on enough.

It's not just from one particular group.

This kind of hatred is coming at us from every direction and it does not just stop with

the Jewish people.

It expands to every day American life.

And I do not think that's discussed at a level where it should be.

The Orarez founder of Stop Anti-Semitism.

Thank you for joining the Fox News rundown.

Thanks so much.

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