By JESSICA ANDERSON
As many of us are keenly aware, on Oct. 27, 2018, a Pittsburgh synagogue housing the congregations of Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, New Light and Dor Hadash was attacked, and 11 worshipers were killed. This event was a frightening wake-up for many Jewish communities who heretofore had only informally addressed security issues in their communities. Portland and many other communities began realizing that they were under-prepared for such an event. This awareness was coupled with an increasing number of bias incidents that organizations were ill equipped to handle. Most Jewish communities had never had a community security director nor an organized, methodological approach to safety and security practices. 
Areas with large and long-time Jewish communities, like those in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Los Angeles (just to name a few) have employed security directors for years. These directors were mostly retired law enforcement professionals and worked directly for individual Federations. That model is still true today, where many of the largest Federations in the US directly employ their security directors. Their functions were largely the same as today – community training, promoting an organized approach to safety practices, and liaising with law enforcement. 
In 2004, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations started a separate non-profit organization, Secure Community Network (SCN), to serve as the central organization dedicated exclusively to the safety and security of the American Jewish community. At the time, SCN was led by former law enforcement professional Paul Goldenberg. Its function was to watch for threat activity, to train community members on how to keep their organizations and members safe, and to serve as a clearinghouse for security sharing information with the broader Jewish community, including security directors at individual Federations. At the time SCN was headquartered in lower Manhattan and Goldenberg led a small team in this effort. This model stayed relatively static until 2017. 
In December of 2017, the current CEO, Michael Masters took the helm from Goldenberg. His vision was that every single Jewish community in the US, no matter how small, would have direct access to a security professional hired and employed by SCN on behalf of a specific community. He imagined a dome across the entire US of networked security professionals, equipped with safety and security best practices, supported by a team of analysts who research and monitor for threat activity. 
The implementation process of this vision was accelerated following the shooting in Pittsburgh. As noted, the event became a catalyst for Federations to think about addressing their security gaps. In 2018, Memphis became the first Federation to partner directly with SCN to identify and hire a security director for its community. This was followed by a few others, including Portland, that partnered with SCN and hired its first director in late 2019. In this model, a Federation works with SCN, which identifies and hires a local former law enforcement officer with knowledge and a network within that community. The hire is vetted both by SCN and the local Federation to ensure a good fit. Communities that are too small to make use of a full-time director have access to Regional Directors who travel to conduct training, address threats, and provide policies and procedure consultations. In our area of the country, I cover all of Oregon, Seattle Federation directly employs an individual who covers King County and Regional Director Gene Moss (my boss and Portland’s first Security Director covers Alaska, Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana). The system has been extremely effective. As of July 2024, there are now 30 SCN-led security programs and 37 independent security programs. All the Security Directors work together as needed and independent security programs have full access to SCN training and security assessment products. 
One of the most effective aspects of the SCN program is its Jewish Security Operations Command Center (JSOCC) also known as the “Duty Desk” – a cadre of analysts with high-tech open-source search capabilities and the clearinghouse for all the threat and incident information that is reported from individual security directors. JSOCC provides timely, credible threat and incident information to both law enforcement and community partners. This team also serves as the community’s formal liaison with federal law enforcement and coordinates closely with state and local law enforcement partners. Since its inception, the Duty Desk has identified thousands of threat leads and shared them with the FBI and other law enforcement partners for investigative action.
When you report an incident to me, I report it up to the Duty Desk (I also share it with the ADL and the Oregon DOJ Bias Incident Hotline). Statistics are collected nationally and reported to Congress and other policy-making entities. If the incident includes potential threat information, we’re researching that and sharing it with local police or FBI. The Duty Desk can link individuals who may be making threats to synagogues in Cleveland as well as Tampa whereas before SCN, those dots may not have been connected.
Success means all the layers of this process, from individuals who report the incidents to security directors up through JSOCC are critical. With any one of these missing, we’re all less effective and sharing the responsibility of safety and security. I personally want to thank everyone who has taken the time to report incidents, and I assure you it matters. Even if it’s not a crime that can be investigated, by reporting the information, you help ensure policymakers at every level of society have a sense of the ubiquity of antisemitic activity. 
As always, incidents can be reported to me at 872-273-9214, janderson@securecommunitynetwork.org or online at the JFGP security page: https://www.jewishportland.org/security.