Jews of city to tell Israel PM: We are happy here in Gujarat

Ahead of the visit of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, security at Gujarat's only synagogue has been beefed up. Interestingly, the Jews of the city, who have been given a dedicated space at Gandhi Ashram, hope to interact with Netanyahu on his visit to the Ashram and express their happiness of living in Gujarat.

Serena Jacob, Vice-President of Magen Abraham Synagogue, said, "We have only been given two minutes to meet him. While we wanted him to visit our synagogue, he won't be visiting due to security reasons. We will not be even allowed to present a memento, again due to security reasons. Hence, we have decided to hold palcards and stand at the dedicated space at Gandhi Ashram."

She said, "Given a chance to interact with him, we will tell him that we are very happy in this state. While we all have at least one relative who has a citizenship of Israel, but we are very happy and at peace here."

In last October, the synagogue was under a suspected terror attack. After the ATS had arrested two IS suspects, it was revealed the hands of a lone wolf attack. The place, which was built in 1934, had become a talking point ever since." Joseph Pingle, fondly called 'Johnny', shares the multi-layered relationship with the place. Pingle said, "When the news of PM's visit floated, a threat message went viral. The message said the roads which Netanyahu's roadshow was scheduled to travel by will be dug up so that he is unable to travel. So, we sought for more security. Since the terror incident, 4 SRP jawans have been deployed permanently but with Netanyahu's visit, more cops have been deployed at the synagogue.