By Zalman Myer-Smith
It’s very rare for the FBI to tweet a security alert regarding a threat of imminent attack. This past Thursday, such a message was distributed on Twitter from the FBI Newark office citing an active threat at an unknown location in New Jersey. Any information or intelligence sharing should be actionable. Meaning those that are communicated to should be able to take action or mitigate the attack before it happens.
Understandably, countless Jewish sites around the USA called or sent messages of concern as to what next steps should be taken to respond to the ominous tweet to “take all security precautions to protect your community and facility”.
What lessons can be learned from what thankfully ended up being a non-terror event? We know that prevention is better than cure and how much more so when dealing with the security and safety of Chabad site operations and the people who work, pray, learn and play there?
Security and law enforcement professionals are used to the slew of calls for training and protective site equipment in the aftermath of an attack or incident. Like most things in life, the interest wanes pretty quickly as we go back to normal. Normal these days does not bode well for the Jewish community. The multitude of Chabad sites and their impact on their respective communities is envied the world over. These visibly Jewish centers are the focal point of local Jewish infrastructure and are on the front line of promoting Jewish pride and practice making them an enticing target.
One can merely glance at social media and view politically engineered depressing news to see we are under attack from media influencers, corporations, organizations and individuals. Little is being done to quell the voices of hate and those who seek to stir up vitriol and violence against the American Jewish community.
With volatile midterm elections upon us, inflation, socio economic instability and tension across the globe, it is a good time to take stock and examine our protective capabilities to ensure our communities can function without fear and with confidence that proven safety and security contingencies are in place.
There has been a very positive shift in Jewish community security in the last five years. However, Jewish communities are still clamoring to have the same volunteer security infrastructures seen in South Africa, the UK and across Europe.
Former NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly wrote in the New York Post in 2018 “one strategy that is quite common in the United Kingdom and France and is worth considering implementing in the US is the use of trained volunteers from within the Jewish community to provide yet another layer of protection for institutions. These volunteers, who undergo training on how to recognize surveillance as well as basic personal defense, are valuable and a cost-effective force multiplier that institutions and communities can organize on their own. These volunteers serve a key role in a layered defense, between police and the institution.”
I started my security career as a security volunteer with the Community Security Trust (CST) in the UK working alongside doctors, lawyers, kosher butchers and taxi drivers protecting shuls, schools and community events.The impact and reach it has had on members of the Jewish community offered camaraderie and a protective shield for all aspects ofJewish life and living. Everyone can & should learn life protecting skills and should embrace training opportunities.
So some practical takeaways from this slightly bizarre FBI alert would be:
No charge security team – Build a volunteer team and start training – contact the Community Security Service (CSS) – sister organization to the Community Security Trust the preeminent organization in the UK with a history going back to 1943 (an organization I am proud to have worked for) who offer excellent no charge training from skilled and experienced instructors and powerful resources. Volunteers made up of your parents at school or members of your shul know the site, know who belongs and will more than likely be onsite during an incident. Use these volunteers as your response team and they can save lives before, during and after an incident. They can augment private security and law enforcement onsite, be insured and well trained for a variety of emergency situations.
Security Assessments – get a security assessment from local law enforcement, it should be available at no charge. Then get one done by a local independent security company. Knowing your site’s weaknesses will allow you to address them before an incident. A great exercise is to walk around your site and think like an attacker. How would you breach or attack? Even better, bring a few potential security volunteers to carry out the same exercise. Once you have identified how you would breach, put on your security hat and start discussing countermeasure responses to mitigate the method of attack.
DHS Security Grants – highly competitive, but worth applying for. Over $400 million of grant application requests were made with only $250 million being appropriated and offered by congress through FEMA. While we hope that this coming NSGP grant season the amount offered will be $360 million, this offering has been a boon to nonprofits seeking to upgrade their physical site security. Contact us for grant writing & management services.
LE Liaison – Invite them to your site, build relationships before, not during or after an incident. Make sure they know it’s a two way relationship. Stop by their offices with treats, awards and so forth. While they might not always be able to help mitigate an attack, relationships are key and it does not take much time.
Security Plan of Action – you, your site and staff need to know preset protocols without thinking about them because you have set them and drilled them.
At Home – On a practical level at home if you hear a noise in the middle of the night at 3am, what’s your plan if it’s an intruder? What would you do? How would you get your kids or loved ones who might not be able to protect themselves into a safe area, who would call 911 while you ascertain who is there and try to assess the threat and appropriate responses. Same applies to a smoke alarm going off, everyone should have a plan to get on the ground if there is smoke and evacuate.
Our joint goal must be to get individuals, families and communities to consider these possibilities and to have a preset practical response to protect and save lives.
Zalman Myer-Smith is the Director Of Chabad Security Department – Florida and focuses on liaising, training, and working with law enforcement agencies and serving hundreds of Jewish community synagogues, schools, and centers. He can be reached at z@chabadsecurityfl.org
