WEST BLOOMFIELD, MICH. — A gunman drove a truck through the preschool at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., in March 2026, in an attack the FBI characterized as a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism. All 110 children and 55 staffers inside the building, the largest synagogue in Michigan, survived.

The attacker filled his truck with 35 gallons of gasoline and stuffed fireworks inside, and was armed with an AR-style rifle, ten magazines and 300 rounds of ammunition. He carried out the attack on a Thursday, one of the two days each month when Temple Israel holds its food pantry, which feeds 250 families across metro Detroit. He had searched online for what time lunch was served at the synagogue food pantry.

In videos sent to his sister, the attacker said: "I have booby-trapped the car. I will forcefully enter and start shooting at them. God willing, I will kill as many of them as I possibly can."

The truck rammed through the preschool doors, traveled 200 feet down a hallway and became wedged. The vehicle struck the director of security, shattering his leg. He dragged himself down the hallway to bolt the doors of a baby room shut before passing out. The attacker set off fireworks from inside the vehicle, and minutes later the vehicle was on fire and the hallway filled with smoke. He exchanged gunfire with security guards before shooting himself in the head.

Elise Otis, the lead teacher in the toddler room caring for children ages 15 to 20 months, was in a classroom ten feet from where the truck blasted through the building. She locked the bulletproof glass doors, pulled the blinds, moved the children behind changing tables and provided Cheerios and an iPad. After 45 minutes, Otis evacuated with the children as police in tactical gear stormed the building.

"The ceiling was falling in. I looked to my left and saw a gun. And heard, 'get in your room,'" Otis said. "The only thing I could think was, I'm going to die. So if he — or they — come in, I'm going to lay on the babies. They were so good. They didn't cry – as long as the Cheerios were flowing," she said.

When the truck ignited, heavy black smoke coated the walls and swallowed up artwork, photographs and hand-painted murals, and some nearby offices and classrooms also filled with smoke. The smoke set off the sprinklers, which led to flooding and left next to nothing salvageable except the Torahs, because sprinklers were not installed over the arks. Two months after the attack, the community remained displaced.

"I think people don't understand how close this was to a massacre. I don't think people understand that every inch of the building has been gutted and is in shambles and needs to be rebuilt," Rabbi Jen Lader said. "We spend $800,000 a year just on our security team."

The first Shabbat service after the attack drew over one thousand attendees, and every teacher returned to work. "The goal was to scare us and keep us away and prevent us from celebrating who we are, and that's not going to stop us," Lader said.