Our sense of security was shaken in late October on that horrible Shabbat morning when a gunman walked into the Tree of Life Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and took 11 precious lives.

While our sense of security was damaged, we, by and large, remain a safe community. We must remain vigilant, even though the chance that any act of violence will occur at any of our religious services, civic events, or funerals remains extremely low. Unlike our extended community in Israel, we need not fear rockets raining down or terror tunnels popping up. We live our day-to-day lives much as we always have.

Nevertheless, we have legitimate concerns that what occurred in Pittsburgh could happen here. As many of us are aware, our community lived through another horrific October Shabbat 42 years ago during the shooting at the Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel in Richmond Heights. 

As recently as Monday, an Ohio man was charged in U.S. District Court in Toledo with attempting to provide material to support ISIS. He told an undercover FBI agent that he was inspired by the gunman who shot 11 people in the Pittsburgh synagogue and that he wanted to kill a rabbi, according to the Toledo Blade.  

Sadly, we live in a society today where these kinds of atrocities happen so often to make the unacceptable seem almost routine.

In the hours and days that followed the Tree of Life shooting, I talked with many in our community about what we could do to regain our sense of security. We gathered for two meetings at Federation to talk with leaders in our community about their issues and what concerns they were hearing from their members.

At Federation, we know the importance of security. We have made “securing the well-being and safety of individuals within the Jewish community” one of our four core commitments. To that end, last year we hired Scott Biondo to become our first Community Security Director to ensure alevel of consistency and uniformity in the Jewish community in the way security is handled.

We realized immediately that our institutions would require emergency funding to help offset any additional security that would be appropriate in the immediate aftermath of Pittsburgh. Federation made available up to $2,000 to each organization for emergency support grants. 

I’m proud to say that we’ve already reviewed and approved more than $21,000 in grants to 16 organizations that have been used for a wide variety of security measures.

I don’t have enough space to list all of the organizations that benefit from this fund, but some of the recipient congregations will include Bais Abraham Congregation, Congregation Shaare Emeth and Agudas Israel of St. Louis, which used the money for added security personnel and security enhancements. The Jewish Community center will also use the funding to offset costs for security personnel added in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting. Some of the local institutions receiving emergency support grants include the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School, Next Dor, and Hillel at Washington University.

Federation recognizes that we will need to continue to provide strategic and tactical support in the future. We are in the process of creating a community security fund that will help institutions with security enhancements and by developing a coordinated community leadership response through a Community Security Committee.

Our communal Jewish life requires that we provide this sense of security. We all need to feel safe as we work, pray, play, learn, grieve, and celebrate in our Jewish institutions. 

Federation convened the community to discuss the concerns, establish the emergency fund and evaluate the applications. But without the generosity of donors in the past, we would have been unable to immediately respond to these security concerns. Looking forward, your donations to Federation will help provide these vital funds in the future.

Thanks to all of you, we are a vibrant Jewish community that remains vigilant and strong.

Andrew Rehfeld is President and CEO of Jewish Federation of St. Louis.