by KYW's Brad Segall
 
Jews in the Philadelphia region are on heightened alert after an attack at a Jewish center in Seattle last week and an Israeli bombing in Lebanon that killed women and children over the weekend.
 
Worried about possible retaliation, synagogues and Jewish community centers are asking local police departments to step up patrols.
 
Nancy Baron-Baer is the associate director of the Philadelphia office of the Anti-Defamation League.  She says the people who work at the synagogues and organizations are the first line of defense:

"If they keep those eyes and ears open for unusual or suspicious goings-on and alert the proper authorities right away, then we can often avert and avoid an incident that we don’t want to happen.”

Baron-Baer says local organizations should be reviewing their security plans, and the ADL has posted a new security handbook on its web site.