Jewish Centers Take ’99 Rampage to Heart

The deliveryman was startled to find the front door locked when he yanked on it Wednesday afternoon at the Westside Jewish Community Center.

“Oh, something new, eh?” he grinned to center director Michelle Labgold after he was buzzed into the center’s terrazzo-floor lobby.

One year after the shooting rampage at a Jewish community center in the San Fernando Valley, operators of the Fairfax district center have reacted to complaints about poor security by installing automatic locks on the front door, surveillance cameras on walls and a roving guard in the interior patio.

Similar safety precautions apparently have been implemented at all six facilities operated by Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles after the wounding of three children, a teenager and an adult last Aug. 10 in Granada Hills.

But parents of some children enrolled this summer at the Westside center say that not enough has been done to protect the 290 youngsters who use its meeting rooms and recreational areas each day.

They grumble that cars dropping off children are being burglarized, that the main playground is accessible to strangers, and that untrained office workers are in charge of monitoring the security television cameras.

Officials contend that the place is safe. But being cautious, they added a second guard this week because of the anniversary of the shooting--carried out by a gunman who allegedly said he targeted the Granada Hills center because security was too tight at two other Jewish facilities he sought to enter.

With its Mid-City location alongside an alley and between a hospital and a motel on busy Olympic Boulevard, the Westside center is potentially an even more inviting target, said parent Amy Raff.

“There’s basically no security there. It should have been taken care off immediately after that horrible incident last year. How many more lives do they want to risk before they wake up and do something?” said Raff, who lives nearby.

Parents complain that an unarmed security guard brought in after the shooting to watch the front door was redeployed to a rear garage area after a series of auto break-ins earlier this year. They worry that newly installed security cameras connected to the front office go unwatched because the only person working nearby is the center’s busy membership coordinator.

The surveillance camera was of no help last Friday morning when parent Karen Benjamin was followed by strangers onto the center’s upper-level parking lot. Two men broke into her car and stole her purse as she walked her daughter into preschool.

Benjamin discovered that a surveillance videotape was too indistinct to be useful without special enhancement for police who are investigating the theft.

Other parents complain that there is no guard near a heavily used side entrance off the alley on the west side of the complex. Nearby, a chain-link fence separates the playground from the alley.

“You don’t even have to come in. You can stick a gun through the fence,” one parent said.

“Every time we bring it up, they say they’re working on it,” said another mother, Fairfax-area resident Christine Benarroch. “It’s a dangerous situation. Anybody can walk into that place. There’s no security.”

Labgold, the center’s director, disagrees. “We believe we have good security measures in place. But we feel it’s best not to discuss them,” she told a Times reporter and photographer who walked unchecked into the lobby Wednesday with a group of children.

Executives of Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles also declined to discuss changes that have been made since Buford O. Furrow Jr. allegedly walked into the North Valley Jewish Community Center lobby, approached 68-year-old receptionist Isabelle Shalometh and started shooting.

Furrow remains in jail awaiting trial in federal court next February on murder, attempted murder and hate crimes charges.

“We’ve always had appropriate security measures in place,” said Nina Lieberman Giladi, associate executive vice president of Jewish Community Centers. “As for specifics, we’ve been asked by our security consultants not to discuss them.”

Enrollment at all centers is up this summer, which is proof parents feel comfortable, Giladi said Wednesday. “I think the response is probably the best and most telling statement there is. We’re very proud of that.”

Although Giladi refused to discuss safety at any of the centers, others said security has improved over the past year, primarily through the use of new surveillance cameras and new entrance doors. They require those entering to punch in a secret code or wait to be buzzed through by someone inside.

At the North Valley center where Furrow allegedly strolled in without problem, an armed guard screens drivers pulling off Rinaldi Street. Visitors must be cleared before they can park.