8 | MARCH 11 • 2021 

guest column
We Must Join Forces to Ensure 
the Protection of American Jews
O

ver the last several 
years, we have seen 
near-historic increases 
in antisemitic incidents and 
assaults as we have watched a 
surge in online hate from more 
vocal — and vio-
lent — extremist 
groups.
From 
online hate to 
cyber-attacks 
to the Capitol 
insurrection on 
Jan. 6, the danger 
is real. To protect 
America’s Jewish 
community, it 
is critical that 
organizations 
committed to 
addressing hate, 
extremism, 
antisemitism, safety and securi-
ty work together.
Over the last several years 
ADL, a global leader in fight-
ing antisemitism and hatred 
in all forms, and the Secure 
Community Network (SCN), 
the official safety and securi-
ty organization of the Jewish 
community, which works 
under the auspices of the 
Jewish Federations of North 
America and the Conference of 
Presidents of Major American 
Jewish Organizations, have 
worked closely to coordinate 
with one another, as well as 
with Jewish communities and 
law enforcement.
Following the 2017 
white supremacist rally in 
Charlottesville, Va., we began 
to coordinate even more close-
ly to fight the dangerous rise 

in threats against the Jewish 
community.
In the wake of the attack on 
the U.S. Capitol, which included 
antisemitic elements — not to 
mention the violent antisemit-
ic attacks in recent years on 
Jewish communal institutions 
in Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City 
and Monsey — we are once 
again taking our partnership to 
a new level and signing a formal 
partnership agreement for the 
first time.
The protection of the Jewish 
community and our democracy 
requires it.

A GROWING THREAT
In September, the Department 
of Homeland Security (DHS) 
released a threat assessment 
noting that white supremacists 
“remain the most persistent and 
lethal threat in the homeland.
” 
The assessment made specific 
reference to attacks on the Jewish 
community. Only months later, 
DHS publicly recognized that 
the U.S. faced a growing threat 
from “violent domestic extrem-
ists” emboldened by the Capitol 
attack.
Our organizations differ in 
focus and initiatives, but we 
share a commitment to the 
Jewish community. For more 
than 100 years, ADL has worked 
to stop the defamation of the 
Jewish people through educa-
tion and advocacy, as well as by 
monitoring extremism. SCN, 
made up largely of professional 
law enforcement and security 
and military officials, is dedicat-
ed to the physical protection of 
the Jewish community.

Our cooperation will allow 
our respective strengths to 
efficiently address the dramat-
ic rise in hate, antisemitism, 
extremism and violence. Here 
are some of the key aims that 
we hope to achieve through the 
new iteration of our longstand-
ing partnership.
Data, intelligence and infor-
mation sharing are vital to com-
munity security. Last year, the 
American Jewish community 
experienced the highest level 
of antisemitic incidents since 
ADL began collecting such data 
in the early 1970s. We are in an 
age in which criminal elements 
often move faster than intelli-
gence, and it is critically import-
ant to ensure intelligence efforts 
are as efficient as possible. Our 
organizations have strength-
ened our intelligence centers to 
respond to this rise.
We have begun to collaborate 
on all three phases of the intelli-
gence cycle: collection, analysis 
and dissemination. Working 
together, we can better gather 
the latest information, parse it 
to discern trends, identify con-
cerning groups and individuals, 
determine how serious a threat 
may be and share information 
with the community, allowing 
people to be better empowered 
and protected.
But we won’t stop with shar-
ing our findings with the Jewish 
community. ADL and SCN will 
also work together to ensure that 
vital information, research and 
data developed by ADL related 
to extremist threats are dissemi-
nated broadly to security profes-
sionals, law enforcement, federal 

and state legislators, community 
members and others.

RISKS AT SYNAGOGUES
The Jewish community is more 
secure when our congregants 
are well-informed about risks 
and our facilities are secure. 
It is a core principle of SCN 
to provide congregations with 
expert security planning, pre-
paredness, risk assessment and 
trainings on everything from 
active security threats to poten-
tial acts in the planning phase. 
The scope of these operational 
security initiatives will now 
expand in coordination with 
ADL, and incorporate train-
ing offered by ADL related to 
antisemitism and hate.
The threats that face the 
Jewish community today are 
diverse and expanding. In 
2018 alone there were an esti-
mated 4.2 million antisemitic 
tweets shared on Twitter. The 
year 2019 was the deadliest year 
on record for anti-Jewish hate 
crimes. In the beginning of this 
year, we saw a Capitol rioter 
proudly wearing a shirt that 
read “Camp Auschwitz.
” Our 
organizations’ close coordina-
tion will enhance and improve 
our community’s efforts to 
mitigate these many dangers. 
We must ensure that the Jewish 
community is appropriately pre-
pared and resourced to combat 
these threats. 

Michael Masters is National Director 

and CEO of the Secure Community 

Network. Jonathan Greenblatt is CEO 

and National Director of the ADL. This 

was first published in The Forward and 

reprinted with permission.

Jonathan 
Greenblatt

Michael 
Masters

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