Editor's note: Federation CEO Judy Alperin reflects on how heightened security has become part of Jewish life and worship, how Nashville’s Jewish community prepares for the High Holidays, and why protecting the ability to gather safely matters to the broader community.
“Every American, regardless of faith, should be troubled that in 2026, this freedom can only be safely exercised behind a fence and armed guards.”
In her latest opinion piece for The Tennessean, Alperin reflects on what it means for Jewish communities to prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at a time when security has become an increasingly visible part of gathering for worship.
She looks back to a promise made more than two centuries ago, when George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport that the United States 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.”
“That promise was for all Americans, for all time,” Alperin writes, “and it’s one worth remembering as we enter the High Holidays.”
Read the full opinion piece in The Tennessean.
Originally published in The Tennessean on August 25, 2026.
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