6 Years After the Tree of Life Attack, How Jews Are Training to Protect Themselves

With antisemitism at its highest level since WW2, Jewish houses of worship across the country are on heightened alert. Many are taking special measures to ensure their safety in the event of an attack. 

It's also been six years this month since an armed gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – the worst massacre in the history of the American Jewish community. 

Security Expert Brad Orsini, now with the Secure Community Network, was there that day in Pittsburgh and now trains Jews full-time to know what to do in a worst-case scenario.

"We train the community to survive three to five minutes. And why do we do that? It's that magic time when something's bound to happen and law enforcement is called," Orsini said.

The protocol is simple: "It's run, hide, fight."

As Pittsburgh's first Jewish communal security director, Brad Orsini will never forget Saturday, October 27, 2018.

"It was an unimaginable worst-case scenario for the Jewish community that an individual went in with a high power rifle, an AR-15, and just shot people while they're praying at their most vulnerable. Eleven people lost their lives, nine families. There were two brothers and a husband and wife, and it was a horrific crime scene," Orsini said. 

But Orsini said it could have been even worse had congregants of Tree of Life Synagogue not gone through the training. 

"And so, the Pittsburgh community and the Jewish community trained for this. And we spent from the time the program started in January of 2017, up until the shooting,  we trained over 6,000 people in the Jewish community on basic safety measures, how to save your life," Orsini said. 

Orsini says the #1 rule in a shooting attack is to run!

"It's hard to hit a moving target and if somebody's moving, even a trained professional might have trouble hitting a moving target. That's why active shooters are so successful because people lay on the ground, and they're executed. And we know that because they're paralyzed with fear because their mind can't react because their heart rate is so high. During the Tree of Life (shooting) there was a 90-year-old man who ran up two flights of steps, barricaded in a room, and lived," he said.

Survivor Stephen Weiss credits the training as well as God for saving his life that day. Weiss and many other survivors tell their story in a documentary called "A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting," which Orsini shows to Jews to encourage them that they can survive an attack if they know what to do.

"I ran out the side of the chapel across the bima (raised platform) and out the door that's on that side of the bima, as I was going out the door, shots were starting to happen inside the chapel itself," Weiss recalled. "I look back on it and to me, God has a reason why I'm still here." 

Orsini now trains the Jewish community in security on a national level. He says with the growth of antisemitism, the training is more important than ever.

"We are doing a training module for our Jewish campus students as well, to give them that heightened awareness and those tools that are necessary so they can feel more empowered and resilient because we want them to live their best Jewish life, especially on campus. They should feel free to wear a kippah, wear a star of David... moving throughout the campus. If they don't feel that, we are losing," Orsini said.

As the threat of more widespread violence grows, combined with students back on campus and Jews celebrating the High Holy Days, Orsini says the priority is to be prepared and remain vigilant. 

"We're encouraging the community, we're begging the community, if you see a sign of hate, report it to us and we will make sure we assess it and get it to law enforcement if actionable," he said.

For more information on Jewish safety and training please visit the Secure Community Network's website. 

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