A security camera hangs across the street from the Park East Synagogue in New York City, March 3, 2017. (Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In the year or so prior to the attack, Jewish community security officials had run dozens of training sessions that reached as many as 5,000 Pittsburgh Jewish residents. Many of the Tree of Life congregants knew not to stay in place during an attack, where to find the exits and to have a cellphone on hand to call 911 \u2014 despite the compromise to traditional Shabbat observance that requires avoiding the use of electronic devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredible model that needs to be replicated,\u201d Michael Masters, the CEO of the Secure Community Network, the security agency for the national Jewish community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cThe loss of life would have been much more significant.\u201d
Communities are paying more attention \u2026<\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019re working much more closely with federations on their security programs,\u201d Masters said.
\u201cThere\u2019s now a general consensus on the importance of security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2026 but are not quick enough on the draw.<\/strong>\u201cWe still have a lot to do to make people understand this is a collective responsibility,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery organization should be training on key elements [of responding to attacks]: situational awareness, threat assessments, stopping the bleeding.\u201d
The normalization of violent anti-Semitism<\/strong>\u201cYou can\u2019t just plug this into a political lens,\u201d Greenblatt said. \u201cThere are no white supremacists and [far-left] activists in Williamsburg.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attacks are also happening everywhere. Masters noted the geographical breadth of a number of foiled mass attacks since Pittsburgh: Washington state, California, Ohio, Georgia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see the diversity of these plots and where they\u2019re taking root,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Protectors are playing nicer<\/strong>\u201cWe cannot go it alone anymore,\u201d Masters said.<\/p>\n
The ADL and the Jewish Federations of North America, SCN\u2019s parent group, have convened a joint security task force co-chaired by two former Homeland Security secretaries, Jeh Johnson and Michael Chertoff. The task force will release its findings at about the time of the Pittsburgh anniversary, Greenblatt told JTA.<\/p>\n
Recognizing white supremacists as the danger<\/strong>But that may have changed last month when the Department of Homeland Security released a new strategy document for confronting terrorism that acknowledged the threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a concerning rise in attacks by individuals motivated by a variety of domestic terrorist ideologies, such as racially- and ethnically-motivated violent extremism, including white supremacist violent extremism, anti-government and anti-authority violent extremism, and other ideological strains that drive terrorist violence,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n
Masters welcomed the shift, saying in a statement that the document \u201crightly recognizes the growing threat of domestic terrorism, and specifically notes recent attacks on the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, the ADL released a report warning of the internationalization of white supremacy, with groups in the U.S., Europe and beyond forging ties and learning from one another.
Meanwhile, federal and state lawmakers are hastening to fund security for nonprofits. The federal program that disburses funds to protect nonprofits, most of them Jewish, now budgets $60 million \u2014 more than double what it did in the years since its 2005 launch, when the average was $15 million to $25 million a year. Florida, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania have also budgeted for nonprofit security grants.<\/p>\n
Broader interfaith cooperation<\/strong>This summer, the FBI convened the first ideas exchange forum with security officials from Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. Masters emphasized the benefits of information sharing with police, while Salam Al-Marayati, the president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said Muslims tended to still be wary of law enforcement because of perceptions that police profiled Muslims after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.<\/p>\n
Social media<\/strong>Greenblatt praised Facebook and YouTube for setting up mechanisms over the last year to quickly take down videos that glorify or promulgate violence, but said more needed to be done. He called on businesses ancillary to the social media giants to take action, saying that some companies now decline to provide extremist sites with security support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ancillary businesses can take affirmative decisions about whether to be part of these ecosystems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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