Synagogue Safety

March 17, 2006

Dear Synagogue Leader:

The world in which we live today is dangerous in many ways, some of them new. Although much of the world around us faces the same risks we do, we in the Jewish community have a particularly strong need to learn to protect our institutions and our communities. The Secure Community Network is part of the Jewish community's response to heightened security concerns.

The Secure Community Network, or SCN, is a nonprofit consortium of Jewish organizations; the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism is one of the ten permanent members of its board of directors. SCN's website, www.scnus.org, features a great deal of useful information, including hundreds of best-practice resources and thousands of pages of material about all aspects of prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The material on the site is culled from scores of governmental, public, and private partners and organized to be useful to synagogues' professional and lay leaders.

The website, geared for Jewish professionals, laypeople, and others who work with, in, or for Jewish institutions, has been praised by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and by other law enforcement organizations. The DHS, in fact, has called the site one of the most comprehensive its officials have reviewed.

Visitors to SCN's website have access to a wide variety of resources and functions, including information sharing, incident reporting, and safety and security information. The site provides up-to-date government alerts and warnings about potential threats and hazards. Best-practices security resources offer information on how to upgrade the ways synagogue leaders can protect such institutions as synagogues, schools, camps, and JCCs, and how they can keep both special events and ongoing activities safe. SCN's best practices archives and model security policies and procedures offer hard-won advice on subjects ranging from hiring a security consultant to handling bomb threats, media relations, and physical security. The site also includes links to scores of government and counterterrorism sites, state homeland security offices, upcoming security events and seminars. Website visitors also can learn about applying for DHS funds and grants; organizers hope to add forums for security managers and on-demand training courses.

To learn more about what SCN's website and other services offer, go to the website, www.scnus.org, and click on some of its many internal and external links.

We urge you to share information about the Secure Community Network website with members of your congregations, and to encourage them to visit it.

For more information, call United Synagogue's director of social action and public policy, Dr. Richard Lederman, at 301 230-0801, call SCN's webmaster, George Dredden, at (212) 352-0274, or email at scandesk@scancsgc.org.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Jerome Epstein
Executive Vice President

Dr. Richard Lederman 
Director,
Social Action and Public Policy Committee

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism