Re-evaluating security at Jewish summer camps.
I
Alina Dain Sharon JNS.org
A
s much as campers (and their
parents from afar) would like to
focus exclusively on fun in the
sun next summer, upticks in anti-Sem-
itism and attacks on Jewish institutions
around the world mean that security at
Jewish camps should be a top concern for
camp administrators, according to Jewish
organizations and security firms.
While "there is no imminent or specific
threat against the American Jewish com-
munity at this time ... there is no doubt
that ... over the last 18 months threaten-
ing activities or suspicious activities [and]
plotting and planning, unfortunately, have
included international Jewish targets:'
said Paul Goldenberg, national director of
the Secure Community Network (SCN),
a nonprofit security organization affili-
ated with the Jewish Federations of North
America and the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish Organizations,
with direct ties to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.
Goldenberg, who had visited the site
of the deadly shootings at the Jewish
Community Center of Greater Kansas City
and the nearby Village Shalom retirement
community in April 2013, said that threats
to American Jewish institutions have come
both from domestically inspired terror-
ists and those influenced by radical Islam.
There has also been an increase in threats
against Jewish institutions from white
supremacists — including Frazier Glenn
Miller Jr., perpetrator of the aforemen-
tioned Kansas shootings.
The Internet, added Goldenberg, plays
an enormous role in transforming mem-
bers of ultra-nationalist and white suprem-
acist movements from merely "inspired"
to "operational"— actually carrying out
attacks.
Goldenberg explained that compared to
48 December 3 2015
JN
other Jewish institutions such as schools or
synagogues, summer camps are open areas
— in many cases without fences or barri-
ers — and often isolated, making them an
easier target for attacks.
"We've seen with [Anders Behring]
Brevik in Norway how quickly one indi-
vidual can cause great harm to many in
an open environment:' Goldenberg said,
referring to the terrorist who killed 69
people at a Workers' Youth League sum-
mer camp in July 2011.
Dr. Joshua Gleis, president of the Gleis
Security Consulting (GSC) firm, raised the
issue of security at summer camps in op-
eds for the Algemeiner and the Huffington
Post, focusing on Jewish camps for the
former website and camps in general for
the latter. He warned that many camps are
"failing to adequately deal with the fact
that summer camps have become an ideal
`soft target."'
GSC specializes in assessing security
risks and the state of security training
for institutions such as summer camps.
Based on GSC's assessments, Gleis believes
that summer camp administrators are
not making the same substantial effort
to improve security as many schools and
synagogues.
"I don't want to say that there's no effort
being made, but I don't see the same
results:' he told JNS.org. "In general, the
Jewish community, just like any other
community, places great value on our
children and our educational system, but I
think that we have to be more proactive in
our security approach.
"It's not everyone; I want to be clear
about that:' added Gleis. "But there are
people that still feel that security is not
something that's needed at a camp, and so
they're not investing the money to do so.
The only way — whether it's a school, a
camp or a synagogue — that things really
get done is with parents putting pressure
on the administration:'
Last spring, the Foundation for Jewish
Camp (FJC) held a webinar on camp
security with the participation of SCN and
more than 300 camp directors, in which
the camp directors were briefed on safety
and security issues applicable to both day
and overnight camps prior to the summer
of 2015.
"We were concerned by the rise of anti-
Semitic activity ... I made a statement
[on the webinar] that I really hold by:
Whatever you've done in the past needs
to be evaluated or re-evaluated in the con-
text of the new reality we confront today
as a global Jewish community:' Jeremy
Fingerman, CEO of FJC, said.
The FJC webinar made four specific
recommendations. First, each camp should
appoint an individual to serve as its key
liaison on security issues; that person
should be someone everyone on the camp's
staff knows.
Second, camps should renew their con-
nection to local law enforcement authori-
ties, even in cases where the connection is
already established, because often officers
and agency leaders change. Local law
enforcement should also be made aware of
the times and dates of camp activities.
Third, camps should refresh their com-
munication plans so that everyone under-
stands where they need to go and what
they are supposed to do in the event of an
incident.
Lastly, camps should renew staff train-
ing so that staffers recognize suspicious
activity and know how and who to notify.
Gleis said that while many camps are
making efforts to improve security, they
should make sure "they're investing their
resources in the widest means possible:'
"When you have a 40-acre property and
you're investing in an electric gate to be
able to control vehicles coming in and out,
I'm not saying that's wrong, but you might
want to have a manual gate and save the
money and use it toward guards for the
summer; said Gleis, who suggested that
camps "get law enforcement or retired
law enforcement" officials as guards and
employ multiple guards.
The only thing more important than
investing in guards, he said, is to train
staffers in emergency procedures and how
"to conduct a proper lockdown of your
facility:' A camp "can't just rely on the
guards," Gleis said.
Paul Reichenbach, the director of
Camping and Israel Programs at the Union
for Reform Judaism (URJ), told JNS.org
that security was "not on everyone's radar
screen" until about five years ago.
"Today ... people are taking [security]
more seriously than they ever have in the
past," he said.
The shift in mindset began at URJ after
the 9-11 attacks, and "recent events, both
in public schools and in the Jewish com-
munity, have heightened people's aware-
ness for good reason:' Reichenbach said.
URJ conducts extensive training of camp
staffers for a variety of possible emergency
situations. All URJ camps have a system
in which individuals are responsible for
guarding the site 24 hours a day.
"We have developed very specific proto-
cols and job descriptions for those involved
in safety and security, and we have devel-
oped in every place where we have a camp
close working relationships with the local
authorities if, God forbid, we ever need to
ask for their support:' Reichenbach said.
He added, "Visitors to camp always need
permission to enter the property. Visitors
should be identified with name tags or
badges; staff should be trained to be aware
of their surroundings and any change in
their surroundings. The most important
thing is training counselors and unit heads
to respond appropriately in an emergency
situation:'
While some camp directors, staffers,
parents and children might be concerned
that heavy-handed security measures could
interfere with the camping experience, a
good security system can be integrated
seamlessly into camp activities, according
to SCN's Goldenberg.
"We don't want barbed wire fences or
walls built around our schools, camps or
synagogues:' Goldenberg said. "We don't
want to wall ourselves off from the rest of
society because of these continued threats:'
Parents who routinely send their chil-
dren to summer camp should not "hesitate
for a moment to do so:' he said, adding that
those who threaten Jewish institutions "will
be successful if we allow ourselves to cease
and desist from our quality of life:' *