Extra Minneapolis police patrols planned for synagogues after Temple Israel gets threats

Minneapolis police are boosting patrols around synagogues and Jewish community centers during the ongoing High Holy Days amid a global rise in antisemitic threats and violence.

“I am concerned with all the hateful rhetoric that is online,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday at a City Hall news conference. “I am concerned that there could be a lone actor out there that could see something online and be inspired to commit an act of violence in our community.”

Already police have arrested a man on suspicion of making terroristic threats for reportedly carrying a gun last week outside Temple Israel in Minneapolis. Authorities said the 21-year-old had previously used a voice-masking app to call in threats to shoot up the synagogue.

The man has not yet been charged in connection with the incident during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that began last week. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, starts Friday and ends Saturday.

O’Hara said a gun has not been recovered and that police didn’t have evidence “to suggest that this incident was antisemitic in nature or motivated by hateful bias.” He said there were no current direct threats to which the increased patrols were responding.

However, he said, “the Police Department has been seeing an enhanced level of threats towards our Jewish community over the last year.” O’Hara said police are especially mindful that Monday is the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people.

Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish, said he was at Temple Israel with his wife during Rosh Hashanah.

“We all have an obligation here not just to act with peace, but to encourage peace from our neighbors, regardless of what happens around the world,” he said.

“It’s not progressive nor inclusive to target any group of people for hate. It is ignorant. And every one of us, regardless of your ideology or background, should be calling that out as problematic, as hateful and as not having a place in our city.”

Temple Israel Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman said she is sending a message to her congregation “to assure them that we truly feel proud to be Jewish, proud to be a Jewish community in Minneapolis, and proud to have a heritage that is strong and vibrant and beautiful.”

“Every religious community should be able to worship without fear, especially on the holiest days of their year,” she said. “A threat to any religious community is a threat to all of us.”

O’Hara said he expects protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza will continue and that those First Amendment activities will be protected.

“However, we absolutely will not tolerate threats of violence against members of our Jewish community,” he said. “We will not tolerate acts of destruction against property in this city, and we want everyone to know that we will ensure that all houses of worship for people of all faiths will be places where they can be safe.”