Would-be attacker caught at the Lincoln Tunnel

Last Friday night, Port Authority police officers arrested a man named Luis Ramirez, who had driven to New Jersey from Utah, just before he could enter the Lincoln Tunnel.

According to his social media posts, he was on his way to attack synagogues and kill Jews in Manhattan.

On the one hand, it’s not clear how much of an immediate threat he posed. He did not have weapons with him — other than his car, but as we have learned from the deadly New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in New Orleans, which killed 14 people and wounded about 30, and the February 13 terrorist attack in Munich, which killed two people and wounded eight, that cars are potent weapons too.

On the very obvious other hand, these attacks, whether thwarted or not, whether conducted by loners, so-called lone wolves, almost exclusively radicalized young men with mental health issues or not, are dangerous both in themselves and as part of a larger pattern.

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Dov Ben-Shimon, who lives locally and recently ended his decade-and-a-bit-long tenure as the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest to become the CEO of the Community Security Service, has an insight about potential terrorists.

“The problem with the lone wolf theory is that there has been wolf after wolf,” he said. “We are starting to see a pack emerging.”

The Ramirez story began when the Community Security Initiative, a local group funded by New York’s UJA-Federation and its Jewish Community Relations Council, learned about what Ramirez had been posting on X.

“They found that this guy had been posting clear threats of an immediate nature and was on his way to New York to open fire at a synagogue or synagogues,” Mr. Ben-Shimon said. “It was an immediate threat. The timeline was in hours.”

The group passed the information on to the New York City police department, to the Port Authority police, to other local officials, to synagogue leaders, and to the CSS. “We immediately sent out an alert and a briefing at our partner agencies and institutions in the greater New York area, including guidelines on behavior awareness and security protocols. We are grateful for our deep collaboration with the New York Community Security Initiative.

Ramirez’s posts last Friday included: “The Jews killed me in my past life. Today in NYC when I pull up to Shabbat I will kill you first.”

Then he added: “That’s not antisemitic or hate speech that’s called self defense.”

Ramirez mentioned one synagogue by name — Central Synagogue. That’s a large, bustling Reform shul on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, housed in a grand, beautiful building. It was the target of the man who took four people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, in January 2022; all four escaped, a result of their calmness, resilience, and the training they’d gotten in how to face such situations. But it’s striking that Central Synagogue was mentioned by both attackers. (Maybe it’s the name?)

Ramirez is 23 years old; he’s said to be a U.S. military veteran. According to his bio on X, he’s a Marine officer candidate. He also appears to have been radicalized by Islamists, at least according to posts like this one, which went up last Thursday: “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is a messenger of God.”

He had been stopped in Kansas City earlier in the week, where he was found to have guns, although he did not have them when he was stopped at the tunnel.

“What happened this weekend underscores two critical lessons for our Jewish community,” Mr. Ben-Shimon said. “First, that no community is immune to Jew-hating terrorism. And second, that proactive security measures save lives.

“We encourage our community synagogues, schools, and other institutions to prioritize security as a communal responsibility, because identifying and training volunteers to act as community protectors creates a powerful first line of defense.

“Our communal leaders must establish constant contact with community networks and security organizations. They must have regular check-ins and emergency plans.

“And we know that heightened vigilance can deter potential threats. So regular training on situational awareness, emergency procedures, and threat identification can make a real difference.”

Despite the threats, which so far have been headed off but cannot possibly always be, there is some reluctance in the community to accept the fact that we’re at greater risk than we had been, Mr. Ben-Shimon said. But “our Jewish community needs much more of an all-hands-on-deck approach to improving our safety and security overall. We really do need to change our worldview when it comes to security, because it has to be a top priority for our institutions. We know we have much work to do.”

He has some practical solutions.

“We at CSS recommend that synagogues, schools, and other community institutions enhance their relationships with local authorities and reinforce their physical security and their plans for emergencies,” he said.

He talked about the agency, which was created in 2008. “The core mission of CSS has consistently focused on protecting Jewish life, defending our Jewish community, and empowering Jews to take responsibility for our security,” he said. “But with that consistency in mission, the way we have understood and approached the mission has changed, in some ways dramatically, and especially since October 7, 2023.

“We have seen an increased commitment to Jewish security, for both positive and negative reasons. CSS exists because no matter how important and how productive our relationship with law enforcement truly is, we are not treating Jewish security and empowerment seriously if we don’t take that commitment to Jewish security upon ourselves as well.”

Mr. Ben-Shimon sees some good things growing out of this renewed focus.

“What has given me a true sense of optimism is visiting our CSS campus programs,” he said. “We work with hundreds and hundreds of young Jewish students, in partnership with Hillel and Chabad and others, to teach self-defense and Jewish community engagement. Having met with many of those students, I am deeply inspired by what I have seen in them — I am inspired by our next generation for their sense of self, their sense of personal security, and their sense of communal and Jewish pride.”