The parking lot begins to fill. Regulars take their usual seats, while others who may only walk through our doors a few times a year make their way inside. Old friends greet each other. Parents try to wrangle the kids. Some arrive early, some inevitably a little late.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiest days of our calendar, are almost upon us, days when we connect with millennia-old prayers that bind us to our past while guiding us toward the future.
Jews across the country, including here in Nashville, will spend the Days of Awe seeking forgiveness, guidance and redemption inside our synagogues, as our people have done in this land since before its founding. And as crowds gather for prayer, police officers will stand guard, security personnel
will monitor the entrances and volunteers will watch every access point, not for the ordinary reasons any large gathering requires a plan, but because failing to prepare could invite catastrophe.
Worship now requires extraordinary security
Our community has had to take extraordinary steps just to gather and worship freely, as antisemitism has reached levels most of us never expected to see in our lifetimes. That is the reality we live in. Every synagogue now spends nearly as much time planning for security as it does planning for meaningful worship. Behind the visible preparations sit months of quieter work: meetings with law enforcement, emergency plan reviews, security assessments, trainings and the hard questions about what happens if something goes wrong.
We have seen what happens when our guard is down. We cannot afford to look away from that. Ours is a people who understands, better than most, that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and we are prepared to do what it takes to keep our community safe.
How Nashville's Jewish community is preparing
As the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, I'm proud of the work underway here. We partner with the Secure Community Network, along with local law enforcement, synagogues and Jewish agencies, to strengthen preparedness across Jewish Nashville. Just this month, we brought community members and law enforcement together for trainings and tabletop exercises, and hosted a town hall with security experts to help our community understand the threats we face.
We are grateful to the officers and first responders who protect us, and to the countless neighbors of every race and faith who stand beside us. And we take real pride in the members of our own community who have taken up the role of shomrim, guardians, for their families and their neighbors.
Why this matters beyond the Jewish community
It is no accident that the founders placed religious liberty first in the Bill of Rights. They understood, many from firsthand experience, that sectarian hatred can damage a society more than almost any other force. Every American, regardless of faith, should be troubled that in 2026, this freedom can only be safely exercised behind a fence and armed guards.
Make no mistake. This is not only a Jewish problem. Antisemitism is a canary in the coal mine for free societies; history shows it again and again as an early warning sign. It may start with us. It rarely stops with us.
We have seen it here in Nashville: Neo-Nazis marching down Broadway,threats against houses of worship, and just this month, the Islamic Center of Nashville tightening its own security after a recent anti-Muslim incident. That should concern all of us.
Religious freedom depends on all of us
We are not helpless. We prepare. We report hate when we see it. We check on our neighbors. And we show up for other communities under threat, even when they are not our own. Security protects our doors today. But refusing to tolerate hatred against any neighbor protects something far bigger, for far longer.
More than two centuries ago, George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, promising that this nation would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,” and that the Jewish people would "sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
He was writing to Jews. His promise was for all Americans, for all time, and it's one worth remembering as we enter the High Holidays.
Judy Alperin is CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville. She joined the federation in 2025 after serving as CEO of the Jewish Federation, Foundation and JCC of Greater New Haven and chief development officer of Hadassah.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why security now shapes worship at Nashville synagogues | Opinion
