High Holy Days Preparations Incorporate Safeguards : Religion: Anti-Semitic incidents in Granada Hills and Chicago put synagogues on alert. Security cameras and armed guards among stepped-up measures.

Edward Alpert had heard stories of Jewish persecution and knew anti-Semitism persisted. But he had never been afraid of being a target until a 21-year-old white supremacist shot and wounded six Jews just a few miles from Alpert’s synagogue.

As Jews prepare for their most sacred time of year--the High Holy Days, which start Friday at sundown with Rosh Hashana and run through Yom Kippur on Sept. 20--synagogues across the country will be on alert, with armed guards and security cameras.

Jewish leaders say the July attack in Chicago and the August rampage at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills have renewed feelings of vulnerability.

“I felt personally a sense of complacency that some of these issues were behind us,” said Alpert, executive director of Chicago’s Temple Sholom. “Yet the reality is, given recent events, I feel the dangers that were present many years ago.”

Security is being stepped up because the crowds of worshipers during the High Holy Days could create a concentrated target for harassment or violence.

“We have to be on the lookout,” said Rabbi Ivan Wachmann of Temple Shalom in Pompano Beach, Fla.

The Society Hill Synagogue in Philadelphia will hire an armed, off-duty police officer to stand guard during services, and ushers will check visitors for membership cards and watch for suspicious-looking bags, said executive director Evelyn Segal.

“It’s very expensive and we can’t afford it, but we’re taking it out of the budget because we feel that we can’t afford not to,” she said.

Chicago’s Temple Sholom will hire security guards--some armed--for services, and also has surveillance cameras, Alpert said. The temple has banned briefcases, tote bags and backpacks, and worshipers will not be admitted without a ticket.

Other synagogues will assign seats and have doors that open only from the inside during services. Police will increase their presence around many synagogues, and worshipers will be instructed not to gather in large crowds outside.

“I can’t imagine there will be a single temple or synagogue that won’t have some increased security,” said Jonathan Levine, Midwest director of the American Jewish Committee. But he added: “If we imprison ourselves, we help the haters accomplish their goals.”

The white supremacist accused in the Granada Hills attack, Buford O. Furrow Jr., told authorities he wanted to send a “wake-up call to America to kill Jews.” Still, many Jews said they don’t want fear to define the High Holy Days.

“I don’t think violence will ever keep Jews from coming together and celebrating,” said Hanna Dahan, 49, who attended Friday night services at Temple Sholom in Philadelphia. “We are a community here.”

At a temple near the Granada Hills community center where five people, including three children, were wounded, Rabbi Aron Tendler said his congregation decided against heavy security. And he doesn’t plan to discuss the attack during services. But he said he will advise worshipers not to linger in front of the synagogue.

“We’re a community that refuses to be put behind gates,” he said. “We’ll do that which is sensible--we’re not going to walk around with big flags. But people are going to walk to the synagogue with prayer shawls and will continue to do so.”

Other clergy said it was important to acknowledge the renewed fear during the holidays, by tradition a time of introspection and atonement.

Rabbi Chaim Landau of the 1,000-member Greenspring Valley Synagogue near Baltimore said the recent attacks will figure into a prayer that is traditionally recited at this time of year.

“In this prayer, we stand before God and ask who will live and who will die,” he said. “Then we list the specifics of how we might die.”

This year, he said, he intends to add a line: “Who by gunshots and who by bombs?”