Israel Police are examining the possibility of arming gabbaim of shuls in Bnei Brak with weapons in the wake of the recent terror attacks in Israel in Chareidi areas.
The murderous terror attack last Friday night in Neve Yaakov, which took the lives of seven victims, reignited the issue of the lack of armed civilians in Chareidi areas and the population’s reduced ability to thwart armed terrorists. Superintendent Sigal Bar-Tzvi, the head of Israel Police’s Operations Department, told the press last week that the police received over 40 warnings of potential terrorist attacks, mostly in Chareidi areas.
The police understand that the terrorists may see Chareidi areas as a weak point, both due to the minimal number of people carrying weapons in addition to the delay in calling the police on Shabbatot and Yamim Tovim since the residents aren’t carrying cell phones.
The issue has been under discussion in recent months and was brought up in a recent meeting of the members of the Chassidish Representatives Forum in Bnei Brak with the chiefs of the police and the municipal police.
According to the police, arming shul gabbaim will be carried out as part of a pilot that will begin in Bnei Brak and soon expand to other cities.
Due to the bureaucracy involved in issuing a firearms license, the local police district is currently examining several options with the aim of speeding up the procedure, including the possibility of Gabbaim who carry weapons doing so as part of a framework of volunteer work for the police, on Shabatot and Yamim Tovim only.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
8 Responses
Gun-free zones=killing zones.
Hopefully when they “arming’ they are also including “weapons training” for these gabboim, most of whom have not served in the military. Otherwise, we will also be reading about yidden who were niftar in BB shuls from “friendly fire’.
& whilst at it, please arm Bibi Netanyahu’s Gaboim as well, following that filthy sedition from some evil leftist judge & attorney
This sounds a bit like wishful thinking on someone’s part. It is really very hard to get a gun license in Israel, only 1.6% of the population have one. First one needs to either be employed in the security business, have been a combat soldier or live in a high risk area which always means Ir Atika, Yehuda, Binyamin or Shomron (I live in the Shomron). Then one needs to get a license which involves hours of classroom training and proving one can actually use the weapon. Maybe the Charedi areas should welcome home their soldiers from Netzach and Tomer, that’s probably the best way to get guns into their neighborhoods.
Finally, talking in shuls might be stopped
How many Gabbaim have combat training? Both in Israel and America, it would be best to rely on those individuals with military or law enforcement training to carry concealed weapons (concealed not only for the sake of ambiance, but so terrorists won’t know who they need to worry about).
“Finally, talking in shuls might be stopped…”
Memo to File:
Reminder that when davening in BB during next trip to EY you are at GREAT risk after hearing two klops on the bimah by the gaabai followed by a loud !!זיי שטיל
Akuperma you are certainly wrong in America, where long experience has shown that relying on those with military or law enforcement training is not needed and is not even an advantage. We know for a fact that the average armed citizen is a far better shot than the average policeman. Police who have to shoot someone very often miss, and it happens quite often that they hit someone else; armed citizens use their weapons to prevent crimes literally hundreds of times a day, and yet when was the last time you ever heard of someone being hit by one of them? It just doesn’t happen, and there’s no reason to suppose it would be different in Eretz Yisrael.
The reason is that normal people who choose to go armed so they can protect themselves and others take it seriously and put in time at the range, whereas most policemen never set foot on the range until it’s time to requalify, and then they do the bare minimum. That’s why they are such terrible shots.