[ED: See update post here.]

Reports and video are coming in of a mass stabbing attack at a Jewish synagogue in Monsey, New York. According to the Jerusalem Post, “…a black male entered the synagogue and pulled out a machete, then removed its cover and started stabbing people.”

3 people reported stabbed just before 10 pm Saturday near synagogue on Forshay Road in Monsey. Police requesting county aviation to launch for lights and search and requesting all K9s in county available to respond. — Steve Lieberman (@LoHudLegal) December 29, 2019

This is what happens to a disarmed populace.

From lohud.com:

The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region said on Twitter, “At 9:50 this eve, a call came in about a mass stabbing at 47 Forshay Road in Monsey (Rockland County; 30 miles North of NYC). It’s the house of a Hasidic Rabbi. 5 patients with stab wounds, all Hasidic, were transported to local hospitals.”

BREAKING NEWS: Another Anti-Semitic attack in New York. Multiple people stabbed inside Rabbi Rottenberg Synagogue in Monsey New York. pic.twitter.com/kdkrRabvn4 — Joel Fischer (@JFNYC1) December 29, 2019

Breaking: Reports of at least three people stabbed inside a synagogue in Monsey, New York. pic.twitter.com/bcpJwtDsff — PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) December 29, 2019

It’s difficult to conceive of a congregation — Jews in particular, but any denomination, really — that wouldn’t provide some form of armed security to protect its congregation at all times.

See our posts on church security here, here and here.

After the attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway, and multiple individual assaults in New York City, no synagogue should be without some form of facility access security and armed defense.

Because of the virtual prohibition on concealed carry permits there, (legal) armed congregants are almost impossible in the city of New York. That means the only choice for armed defense there would be private security or off-duty police. That’s not an inexpensive proposition.

Monsey stabbing Names for Tehillem

Yisroel ben Perel

Shlomo ben Bittel pic.twitter.com/I9gVd0efEc — Jewish Breaking News (@JBN) December 29, 2019