Lindsey Liss made a sobering request of her 17-year-old daughter when she sent her on a trip to Europe last summer: Don\u2019t wear a Star of David necklace charm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason to make yourself a target,\u201d said Ms. Liss, a 51-year-old artist and mother of four who lives Chicago and grew up outside Detroit, near where an armed man rammed his truck into a synagogue<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n Diane Rosenthal, 64, who lost two brothers<\/a> in the 2018 shooting rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, said she thinks twice about going to crowded events.<\/p>\n \u201cI look for the exit doors,\u201d she said. \u201cWhich is not a normal sense of what people should be doing for a joyful occasion, like a graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n Rabbi Shimon Dudai of the Congregation B\u2019nai Zion in Key West, Fla., said that since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he delivers services with a nine-millimeter pistol within arm\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to come to a holy space like this, a sanctuary, holding a gun,\u201d said Rabbi Dudai, 84, who keeps the pistol in a traditional Jewish lectern used to prop up religious texts. \u201cI just don\u2019t want to take the risk of my people getting hurt if I\u2019m capable of using a gun properly and capable of defending them to the best of my ability.\u201d<\/p>\n From tempering overt displays of their faith, to being hyper alert, to issuing warnings to fellow congregants, many American Jews say they have changed their behavior in response to increased antisemitic violence in recent years, especially since the Oct. 7 attacks. Jews have faced antisemitism throughout history, but the past few years have made many feel \u201clike it has become normalized and accepted,\u201d Ms. Rosenthal said. Every time a new crime occurs, such as the knife attack last week<\/a> against two Jewish men in London, an episode the police declared a terroristic incident, Jewish leaders and everyday Jews say that ever-present vigilance becomes heightened anew.<\/p>\n There is a \u201cconstant level of concern that something will pop off,\u201d said Joseph Landsberg, 35, the security director for the Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida, whose team planned additional security measures this weekend after the London attack. \u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of if, but when.\u201d<\/p>\n A survey by the American Jewish Committee, a nonprofit, found<\/a> this year that more than half of American Jews said they had changed their behavior out of fear after high-profile attacks in 2025, including the arson attack<\/a> at the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and the killing of two Israeli Embassy aides<\/a> outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n