Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 18 September 2024

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

Synagogues Ramp up Security for First High Holidays Since Oct. 7

Washington Jewish Week reports:

The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s security service, JShield, held two training sessions and Q&As, one on Sept. 8 for the Maryland and Washington, D.C., community and another on Sept. 15 for the Northern Virginia community, to ensure their preparedness for the season.

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“We’re operating under a heightened threat in the Jewish community in general,” said Rusty Rosenthal, the Federation’s executive director of regional security. “We are also approaching the anniversary of Oct. 7 as well as elections coming up. So it’s kind of a confluence of events that we wanted to make sure people were thinking of and aware of security as they continue to engage in their Jewish life.”

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Rosenthal added that a key aspect of the JShield training is preaching constant vigilance and keeping a mind to security at all times, even outside of synagogue or other Jewish spaces.

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Eli Russ, the security director at Kesher Israel: The Georgetown Synagogue, works with Rosenthal. Russ said the D.C. synagogue’s approach to security is “we’re always ready,” which for Kesher Israel means working with partners to communicate about potential threats, implementing physical infrastructure and employing armed guards and professionally security-trained volunteers from the nonprofit Community Security Service.

He added that the need for security is great and “unfortunately constant,” describing Kesher Israel as a “hotspot for antisemitism.”

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He said these statistics indicate an uptick in antisemitism, including one hate crime in which congregants were assaulted and yelled at outside Kesher Israel in December 2023.

“Like every other synagogue, we’ll be raising the bar,” Russ said. “When I’m talking about High Holidays with my security volunteers at Kesher, I call it the ‘Jewish Super Bowl’ in terms of security because the stakes are so high; there’s many, many people from all different ideologies who attack synagogues and Jewish community members, Kesher notwithstanding. We need to be prepared, like we always are, but have it be even more serious.”

At the same time, Russ said “we don’t want to have a synagogue that’s a fortress or a castle.”

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Analyst Comments:

It is important to increase awareness of threats and protection of synagogues during High Holidays. Also, as Rusty Rosenthal stated, the JShield training is preaching constant vigilance and keeping a mind to security at all times, even outside of synagogue or other Jewish spaces.

Eli Russ says his D.C. synagogue’s approach to security is “we’re always ready”.

The hate crime mentioned in the above article was highlighted in FB-ISAO’s 19 December 2023 Daily Awareness Post. ABC 7 News reported that Volunteers help stop attack at Georgetown synagogue using security training skills.

Eli Russ is an FB-ISAO member. Russ promptly shared information with the FB-ISAO team and on FB-ISAO Slack.

Working with Russ, FB-ISAO published a detailed report which included a description of the incident, actions taken, and lessons learned.

3rd Annual FCIA Interfaith Resiliency Conference, Fairfax County, VA

The Faith Communities in Action (FCIA) Interfaith Resiliency Conference will be held tomorrow.

Mayya Saab, Executive Director of FB-ISAO is looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting with members of the community and joining faith leaders, Fairfax County leaders and public safety officials at this important event. The event will underscore the collective dedication to empowering houses of worship and the communities they serve.

The keynote speaker is Nicole Wood, Deputy Director for the Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Suspicious mail containing white powder sent to election offices in at least 16 states

Election offices in New York, Tennessee, Wyoming, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Colorado received the suspicious packages. Similar suspicious mail was addressed to offices in additional states – Arizona, Georgia, Connecticut and Maryland among them – but investigators intercepted them before they reached their destination.

Related Article:

• Suspicious packages sent to election officials in at least 6 states

Analyst Comments:

While these incidents involved election officials, Faith-Based Organizations may be the target of future incidents. In 2023 several Seattle synagogues receive suspicious envelopes.

FBOs should consider developing a suspicious powder/suspicious package procedure or reviewing their current procedures.

FB-ISAO’s 06 November 2023 Daily Awareness Post details procedures for screening mail, recognizing suspicious packages, and responding to suspicious packages.