Every day. Mayor Marcus comes to this synagogue to pray.
He closely follows the most ancient traditions of his
faith, including the religious garments he wears during
a service. I am an orthodox Jew and it's not just a
title, it's a way of life, a way of life. He says makes
him and his community a target. It's why he's always
wearing something else with a quick pull of the shirt.
There's access to a firearm that if it were needed.
It's right there. It's in a hard holster. There's
nothing that it's not just going to float around or pop
out and you carry that all the time all the time.
Professionally. Marcus trains armed guards for a
private security company based in Houston stand by, I'm
not going to sit around and wait for something really
bad to happen in my personal life. And the people
around me that I can take an active approach in
protecting with anti Semitism on the rise. He's now
training those who pray alongside him to protect their
synagogues as a guy that grew up loves this country,
spent a significant portion of my life serving this
country. It's very troubling that we're in this
position in the United States. Anthony Levy is a
retired Department of Homeland Security agent who spent
much of his career securing federal buildings. Las
year, he started the nonprofit Synagogue Securit
Initiative which helps install security measures at
Jewish institutions in Texas, a local law enforcement
officer off duty, depending upo what area in the city
is. About 40 to $60 an hour. Right. And that can be
very prohibitive. If you think about all the hours that
we need coverage for a lot of smaller institutions
can't afford that. Go ahead and load your gun. Marcus
says the training he puts people through totals more
than 90 hours. Five, roughly triple the amount that
many armed security guards go through to be licensed in
Texas. On top of weapons training, people are ta
measures like how to greet strangers who enter a
synagogue, how you stand at the door or how you talk to
someone, those basic skills can be the world of
difference. You just reset someone's plan by just
asking, hey, good morning, everything they had planned
out just got changed if they were looking to do harm
guns in places of worship are part of a larger debate
about guns in America. Last year, New York lawmakers
passed a bill to make carrying a concealed weapon in
place of worship, a felony, a federal judge blocked the
law saying it violated the second amendment. But here
in Texas where it is legal to carry a concealed weap
So here we have writings, biblical writings, ev
you can imagine. Rabbi Aa Walby believes it is
essential to his. And do you regularly carry, I carry
24 hours a day, seven days a week. Do you carry in
front of your Congress 100% The rabbi runs a Jewish
educational center. One of the first things we noticed
was this sign by the front door. If God forbid, we're a
target, we have to be ready to respond. Not just sit
here and plea, oh, please, you know, have mercy on us.
We have to be do whatever measure we can to prot
ourselves. I asked both Levy and Marcus, what they say
to those who are uncomfortable with the idea of an
armed congregation, any security force in today's
threat environment. I will tell you that in my personal
opinion, it has to have an armed security componen
says he sees firearms as a tool in the overall effort
to make where they worship safe with so much on the
line. If an incident were to happen, he and Marcus
stand by the training, they give their students. We
have a much higher responsibility due to the dense
crowd here, the personal responsibility. It's o
families, our wives, our kids and our friends that are
here each week and each day we're trying to make sure
that everyone is protected and if an incident were to
occur, we can't have any collateral damage. Chris
Stewart Sri S News Houston.