Michigan shul is at least the 8th Diaspora synagogue targeted so far this month

The ramming attack against a synagogue near Detroit, Michigan, on Thursday was the latest in a string of violent incidents targeting synagogues in the US and other countries.

An attacker armed with a rifle rammed a truck through the doors of Temple Israel, in West Bloomfield, which says it is the largest Reform congregation in the US.

Armed guards fired on the attacker and he was killed at the scene, police said.

One of the guards was struck by the vehicle and injured, but is expected to recover. The children and staff who were in the synagogue were unscathed and all accounted for, the congregation said.

There have been at least eight incidents targeting Diaspora synagogues this month, including the Michigan attack.

On Friday night, a shooter fired through the glass doors of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in the Thornhill neighborhood. Two maintenance workers were still cleaning up after a Shabbat dinner.

Just 30 minutes later, a shooter approached the Orthodox Shaarei Shomayim congregation in North York, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south, and fired multiple rounds at the entrance. In both cases, only the buildings were damaged, and no injuries were reported.

Another Toronto synagogue was hit with gunfire on March 2, less than two hours after a Purim event there concluded, while the community’s rabbi was still inside. No injuries were reported.

A Toronto Jewish girls’ school has been fired on three times in the past year, and a Montreal synagogue has been firebombed twice since the start of the Gaza war.

Azerbaijan said on Friday it had foiled a series of Iranian terror attacks on its territory, including against the Israeli embassy in Baku, a synagogue and Jewish community leaders.

A synagogue was damaged in a blast on Monday in Liege, eastern Belgium, police said, in an incident denounced by the mayor as an “extremely violent act of antisemitism.”

On Tuesday, antisemitic graffiti was discovered at Congregation Shaare Tefila in Olney, Maryland.

On Friday, the day after the Michigan attack, Dutch police said they had arrested four men on suspicion of setting off an explosion outside a synagogue in Rotterdam that caused a brief blaze and damage to the building.

Also this week, a teenager fired a pellet gun at a Jewish man near a synagogue in Teaneck, New Jersey. The assailant reportedly asked the victim whether they supported Israel or Palestine before firing.

In other recent incidents, in January, an antisemitic arsonist torched a synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi.

In September, another arsonist allegedly set fire to a Chabad synagogue in Punta Garda, Florida.

In October, on Yom Kippur, an attacker killed two and wounded four in a stabbing and shooting attack at a synagogue in Manchester, England.

In January, a man rammed his car repeatedly into the Chabad Hasidic movement’s world headquarters in New York City, although investigators said the suspect appeared to have been attempting to connect with the Jewish community.

Other recent incidents have targeted synagogues with vandalism or arson in France, Germany, Chile, Bulgaria, California, Ukraine, Italy, Texas, the Australian cities of Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, and repeated incidents in Canada.

In addition to physical attacks, synagogues are regularly subject to bomb threats.

Attacks against US Jewish events not held at synagogues have killed attendees in the past year in Washington, DC, and Boulder, Colorado, and an antisemitic arsonist torched the home of Jewish Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Law enforcement in the US has also repeatedly thwarted attempted terror attacks against American Jews at synagogues and other locations in recent years.

The US Jewish community has invested vast sums in security since the killing of 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life congregation in 2018.

That attack was followed by antisemitic murders at a synagogue in Poway, California, a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, and a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey.

In 2022, an armed man took four hostages at a Texas synagogue before being killed by the FBI.

The attacks have come from different ideologies, from white supremacists to far-left anti-Zionists and Islamists, highlighting the array of threats encircling Diaspora Jews.

“The Jewish community is forced to spend over $765 million a year just to protect itself, and there is more the government should do to ensure every vulnerable Jewish institution has the resources to keep safe,” the Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement after Thursday’s attack.

Surveys in recent years by Jewish groups and law enforcement have repeatedly found widespread and increasing antisemitism in the US and other countries.