Visiting Chicago rabbi says he feels safer in Jerusalem

jpost.com ^ | 11/1/10 | GIL HOFFMAN

[Nachum]

Following mail bomb plot, Rabbi Vernon Kurtz says Jewish leaders working with local police to up security.

Rabbi Vernon Kurtz enjoyed a peaceful Shabbat in Jerusalem, blissfully unaware that at his suburban Chicago synagogue, all of his congregants were talking about the packages apparently mailed by al- Qaida to two local congregations.

Kurtz, who is the rabbi of the North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, Illinois, and immediate past president of Merkaz Olami, the Conservative Movement’s worldwide Zionist organization, only heard about the scare when he opened his e-mail Saturday night at his second home in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood.

[goat granny]

I think your probably safer in Iraq than Chicago, and you can shoot back...same goes for Detroit

[BobP]

I think your probably safer in Iraq than Chicago, and you can shoot back...same goes for Detroit

--------------------------

Or Philly, or Baltimore, or DC, or ...

[vetvetdoug]

Try Memphis or Jackson, Mississippi.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[Paved Paradise]

He should feel safer in Jerusalem. At least the Israelis KNOW their enemy and aren’t all PC about it. We are at the mercy of the idiots running this country who are so concerned about being warm and fuzzy that they have let common sense go by the wayside.

[Jewbacca]

Oh, we are plenty PC, alas.

[Paved Paradise]

Well, I still think you guys get it better than we do - generally speaking.

[Eleutheria5]

That makes two of us. I was in the US this summer, and didn’t at all like what I saw. Bad vibes everywhere. Grocery stores that couldn’t stock their shelves, owners stuck with a lease and no way out.

[KeyLargo]

5 Dead, 21 Hurt In Halloween Weekend Shootings

November 1, 2010 7:49 AM

CHICAGO (CBS) - Fear on Halloween is supposed to revolve around skeletons, ghosts and slasher costumes, but this past weekend, a rash of shootings put Chicagoans under a fear of real danger.

At least five people were killed, and at least 21 more were wounded, in shootings over the weekend in every region of the city.

The Englewood, Woodlawn and Uptown neighborhoods were hit particularly hard.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2010/11/01/5-dead-21-hurt-in-halloween-weekend-shootings/#

[SJackson]

That makes two of us. I was in the US this summer, and didn’t at all like what I saw. Bad vibes everywhere. Grocery stores that couldn’t stock their shelves, owners stuck with a lease and no way out.

Rabbi Kurtz's congregation isn't in Chicago, it's in souther Lake county, in a very affluent area. Trust me, not only are the grocery shelves stockes, but the botiques are well stocked as well. He's a good guy, and the JP might have put a slightly innacurate spin on his comments, though maybe not.

A point you miss is that here in America, affluent America, children attending school, Hebrew school, need to be guarded. Not just Beth El, but most Congregations which can afford it. Sabbath services, security, of course. Holidays, in many cases security is in uniform.

Off hours, lots of Synagogues you enter through security, sometimes bullet proof glass entryways.

And this is nothing new, it predates 9/11

Imagine if every Christian Sunday school in America required armed guards, LEOs guarding the doors at Sunday services. The jihadist threat would be history. It's coming

[SJackson]

Left out, the good news in Illinois, a radical like me would be a felon should I wish to be armed.

[Eleutheria5]

But the armed felon who assaulted you would plea bargain out the weapons charge and suffer no consequences, other than the lesser included assault for which he plead guilty.

[Eleutheria5]

We have something similar, though low-key, over here. My son has three teachers in his class. Two females, and one male. On outings, the male teachers packs heat. I think he has it with him always when on school grounds, but whenever they leave the grounds, he’s an armed escort and keeps it on him and in plain view, to act as a deterrent. Bus drivers do the same, and so do many residents of J&S, just on general principle.

[SJackson]

But the armed felon who assaulted you would plea bargain out the weapons charge and suffer no consequences, other than the lesser included assault for which he plead guilty.

Exactlly. In Illinois that's what the enhancement is there for, to make a plea easier. Never a sentencing issue.