When an attacker rammed his truck through the doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, staffers in the building defaulted to the training they’d received repeatedly in the face of growing anti-semitism.
“Because of the work of our security team and because of the work of our staff, our children just thought an alarm had gone off,” Rabbi Joshua Bennett said. “They were playing with their family and friends.”
Staffers quickly hustled classrooms full of preschoolers into a lockdown and later out of the building. They were taken across Walnut Lake Road to the Shenandoah Country Club. The club is owned by Metro Detroit’s Chaledean Community and has long partnered with the temple, Bennett said.
“They have, as always, been our closest friends and were there for us in every way today,” he said. “We used their site as a reunification center for our parents and truly owe a debt of gratitude to the Chaldean community at Shenandoah for what they have done, not only today, but in their partnership with our community always.”
Shenandoah Country Club President Pat Kattoo said the club has long enjoyed a good relationship with the Temple.
When the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan bought the club years ago, a rabbi from Temple Israel was among the first to welcome them to the neighborhood, even blessing the facility for them.
“We love our neighbors,” Kattoo said. “Shenandoah’s doors will always be open to Temple Israel no matter what the situation.”
Leah Trosch of Franklin said she marveled at the hospitality of the club and the professionalism of the police. She said she raced out of an online meeting to get to Shenandoah to pick up her 4-year-old granddaughter, Kayla.
By the time Trosch arrived, the children and their teachers were gathered in the club’s ballroom. Some were lying on the floor coloring. Others were watching a movie on a teacher’s phone.
The club brought out chicken nuggets and fries for the kids, who were mostly oblivious to the danger they’d escaped.
“They went above and beyond and I thank them profusely,” Trosch said. “I don’t think (the kids) were traumatized.”
Trosch said she spotted her granddaughter’s curly hair from across the room and she was thrilled to be reunited. Trosch asked Kayla about the experience.
“She told everyone she went on a field trip today and there were policemen there,” Trosch said. “She saw so many police.”
Trosch asked her granddaughter if she’d walked across the street.
“She said, ‘no, they carried me,’” she said. “It was a policeman who carried her across the street. I’ve just got to tell you, I was so impressed.”
The attack hit local parents and families hard as they worried whether their kids were safe.
Others among the 140 babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who were at the synagogue’s Susan and Harold Loss Early Childhood Center could be seen getting escorted by parents and police from a line of West Bloomfield School District buses after being evacuated.
During a press conference after the incident, Rabbi Arianna Gordon lauded the swift work of both law enforcement and teachers at the synagogue’s early childhood center, who she called “the true rockstars of the day.”
“They ensured that all of our children remained safe and calm throughout the entire day and got every single child safely reunited with their parents this afternoon and for that I can’t express my gratitude enough,” Gordon said.
No students were injured in the attack, which was called into police at about 12:20 p.m. Thursday, March 12, officials said. A security guard was injured by the truck but he is expected to recover. The driver of the vehicle died in his truck after security guards fired at him, Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
The entire campus remains an active crime scene so the congregation will not be able to hold services on site this week. Other synagogues have offered their worship space to Temple Israel, Bennett said.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan said her agency would be leading the investigation of what she called “a targeted act of violence at the Jewish community.”
The attack was shocking, but not surprising, said Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit. He thanked law enforcement for holding trainings on a regular basis with Jewish facilities across the region.
“We’ve done this, unfortunately, more often than we’re willing to admit, and we will continue to train,” he said. “So we are ready and thank God for their training and for this is the outcome.”
Ingber said that the Jewish community spends large amounts of time and money on security because of the current climate.
“It is terrible that is the number one thing we have to is to fund security,” he said. “In order to be Jewish, we have to raise dollars just to keep everybody safe so they can be Jewish.”
Bennett and Ingber wouldn’t say how large the security staff at Temple Israel is or how much the larger Jewish community spends on security, though Ingber said the figure is “in the millions.”
“How much nicer would it be if we were able to spend those dollars on teaching, on sending kids to summer camp, on helping people live a better life and yet it has to come right off the top, and that’s the first thing we have to do,” he said.
The children at the temple weren’t the only ones affected.
As children from the synagogue were shuffled to safety, nearby West Bloomfield Schools were under a shelter-in-place order from police. Other Oakland County school districts like Ferndale sent out notifications to parents letting them know about the ongoing situation, even as police lockdown orders didn’t extend to them.
Many West Bloomfield school parents called administrators at their schools to ask if they could pick up their kids from school early after hearing news of the incident. The shelter-in-place meant no staff or kids could exit school buildings and no one, not even parents could enter, said Dania Bazzi, West Bloomfield School District superintendent.
Bazzi said the school district communicated to parents immediately following notification from police that an incident had occurred at Temple Israel.
“We knew from onset there was no activity inside West Bloomfield school buildings, but it was certainly still unsettling,” she said.
Bazzi said this was the first “credible threat” in vicinity of the school district in recent memory, and that she was proud of school staff and the local parents for complying with the shelter-in-place despite heightened anxiety.
At 3 p.m., after the school-wide shelter-in-place was lifted and police notified the district that the threat had been contained. Dismissal at West Bloomfield schools looked different than on regular days. At Doherty Elementary School, Bazzi said there was a sheriff onsite and staff accompanied students to car lines and buses. Buses arriving at the school faced delays due to increased traffic following the incident, she said.
Bazzi said both students and staff in the district would be provided with mental health services to help them process what had occurred.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Temple Israel attack: Kids ‘just thought an alarm had gone off’
Reporting by John Wisely, Dave Boucher and Beki San Martin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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