JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger Responds to Central Synagogue Attack

NEW YORK, NY (08/16/2026) (readMedia)-- Statement from JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger on last night's Central Synagogue attack:

"What happened at Central Synagogue is an assault on the fundamental right of every New Yorker to worship in peace and without fear. JCRC-NY stands firmly behind Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and the entire Central Synagogue community.

Words of support from political leaders matter, but we need to move beyond the familiar cycle of condemnation followed by pledges to devote additional security and more dollars to the problem. We need greater accountability to cure a climate increasingly poisoned by inflammatory rhetoric that gives permission to target and exclude Jews.

This is not normal.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a society in which people need to pass heavily armed security simply to enter a synagogue and pray. Jewish institutions already devote extraordinary resources to security, and New York remains a major recipient of federal nonprofit security funding precisely because the threat is so serious. However, the measure of our success cannot be how many guards we can place outside a house of worship. It must be whether people can enter one without fear.

I am deeply grateful to Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the NYPD, and law enforcement. Security is necessary, particularly with the High Holidays and UN General Assembly approaching. That said, security can only protect a door: leadership must address why that door needs so much protection in the first place."