H eadlines
Aish Chaim Handles Yom
Kippur Service Intruder
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OCTOBER 7, 2021
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
ON THE NIGHT of Sept. 16,
Aish Chaim was wrapping up
Yom Kippur with an evening
service in a congregant’s
backyard. Between 8 and 9 p.m., a
woman walked up and tried to
gain entry, according to Grant
Schmidt, a congregant and
a member of the synagogue’s
contracted security team, the
Protexia Detective and Security
Agency. She was wearing a
Christmas wreath on her head,
yoga pants and a low-cut vest.

The woman tried to gain
entry multiple times but was
stopped by Lewis Padilla, the
armed security officer on duty.

Then, she started yelling.

She said she wasn’t being let
in because she was Black; she
shouted antisemitic obscenities
like “Jewish devils”; and then
she started hollering at Padilla
to shoot her.

Finally, Padilla called
the Lower Merion Police
Department. At least two
police cars quietly drove up and
detained the woman without
conflict. They didn’t arrest her,
but they did call an ambulance
to take her away.

Out back, the service finished
uninterrupted, Rabbi Binyomin
Davis said.

Aish Chaim’s security detail
worked with the local police
department to stop a potential
attack. About 40 synagogue
members were present for the
service. Schmidt was not present. But
he did talk to Padilla and the
Protexia team about the episode
afterward. A Protexia leader
confirmed his account to the
Jewish Exponent. The LMPD
declined to provide an incident
report, citing Pennsylvania’s
Right to Know Law that allows
agencies to exclude non-criminal
JEWISH EXPONENT
investigative materials from the
media. Before being taken away, the
woman threw her Christmas
wreath over the hedges and
into the backyard, Schmidt
said. Some attendees saw it and
wondered if it fit into “suspicious
package territory,” he added.

But in the end, it was just
a wreath. Other than that, the
incident didn’t register inside the
service, Davis said.

The rabbi didn’t even find out
about it until after.

Davis called the security
guards, like Schmidt and
Padilla, who is not a congregant,
“well-trained guys who know
how to handle these situations.”
Davis’ analysis makes the
incident sound almost routine.

That’s because, in a way, it is.

The rabbi took over leader-
ship at Aish Chaim in 2018, the
same year that the Pittsburgh
Tree of Life synagogue complex
shooting that killed 11. After the
shooting, Aish Chaim started
using security at all of its events,
including Shabbat services, a
policy that continues today.

Davis called security “a huge
line item” in the synagogue’s
annual budget. But as the Yom
Kippur episode showed, it’s
worth it, he said.

Antisemitic incidents rose in
the United States in the second
half of the 2010s. And over the
last couple of years, homicides
have been rising in Philadelphia.

This year, the city surpassed
400 homicides in September.

Philadelphia’s record for a single
year is 500.

Davis is paying close atten-
tion to this, too, as Lower
Merion Township is just across
from City Avenue.

“To say we’re not in Philly is
just silly,” the rabbi said.

According to Schmidt, Aish
Chaim congregants do not mind
seeing armed security guards
at religious events. Instead of
scaring them, it makes them feel
Lewis Padilla
Courtesy of Protexia Detective and
Security Agency
safe, he added.

Over the summer, Aish
Chaim even held an open
meeting, involving congregants,
to discuss security.

“It’s important to have a plan,
and not to pretend we’re living in
some kind of utopia,” Davis said.

“That’s naivete.”
Schmidt credited the LMPD
with answering the Sept. 16 call
in a responsible manner. But he
said synagogues need to look out
for themselves.

The congregant/security
guard believes it’s a mistake to
discuss police officers as “first
responders.” They are actually
“second responders,” he said.

The first responders are the
line of defense on site, not the
local officials who only come if
something happens. And this
line of defense is vital.

“If you don’t feel safe to
come to shul, you won’t go,”
Schmidt said. “If you don’t feel
safe sending your kid to Jewish
programming, you won’t send
them.” The Orthodox man even
argued that securing your
property, organization and
community is a mitzvah.

“If you had a cliff on your
property, or some sort of hazard,
to not deal with it would be
immoral,” Schmidt said. “You
would have to take care of it.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM