wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Neighbors and officials at the two Riverdale synagogues say they were shocked by the news of the alleged bomb plot. WNYC's Lisa Chow reports.

REPORTER: By subway it takes more than an hour to get to Riverdale from downtown Manhattan. But once you're there, it feels like an oasis. It's on a hill. There are lots of leafy trees, and mothers and nannies walking babies in strollers. Rachel Friedberg was one of those mothers, with her six week old.

FRIEDBERG: People are just shocked and terrified. Really terrified.

REPORTER: She lives a block from one of the allegedly targeted synagogues, the Riverdale Temple.

FRIEDBERG: we're glad that they were able to catch them before anything terrible happened, but you never know what could happen next and we hope that they're on their trails, but it's really horrifying.

REPORTER: Friedberg says she moved to Riverdale a few months ago because the neighborhood felt more suburban and a good place to raise kids. Now, she's a little skeptical. Adam Ghermezian is 17. He says he was playing basketball at the other affected synagogue, the Riverdale Jewish Center, when the police convened the late night meeting Wednesday to discuss the arrests with the rabbis and community leaders.

GHERMEZIAN: We didn’t know what was going on. All of a sudden one of the guys went to leave and he comes back and tells us to stop playing cause there’s a bomb threat. We all run upstairs and see security guards, guys in suits, see commissioner Kelly in the social hall, a whole bunch of cops, FBI agents, a bunch of reporters. It was crazy.

REPORTER: The four suspects allegedly planted mock bombs in a car outside. David Winter is executive director of the Riverdale Jewish Center. He says the entire experience has been a bit surreal.

WINTER: It still hasn't really sunk in that terrorism found its way to our doorstep. Regardless of what it was thwarted or not, there are people out there who want to hurt us.

REPORTER: Winter says once things settle down, he and his colleagues will review their security policies. Across the street, students hanging out in front a middle school and high school…say they found out about the alleged plot on Facebook, after reading friends' status updates. But even though some residents seemed concerned by the threat, many also seemed unfazed, and more intrigued by the cameras and police bringing noise to what is usually a very quiet neighborhood. For WNYC, I’m Lisa Chow.