With antisemitic incidents at the highest levels in recent memory, the American Jewish Committee and Secure Community Network have formalized their continued collaboration with a new Memorandum of Agreement, eJewishPhilanthropy has learned. 

Through the new formalized agreement, SCN will provide data, intelligence, security and risk assessment and trainings to AJC, as well as continued partnership in establishing best practices and coordination on hate crimes reporting and security-related policy issues. 

According to AJC’s Survey of American Jewish Opinion, 87% of American Jews think that antisemitism increased in the U.S. after Oct. 7, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement to eJP. “This partnership between SCN and AJC will allow us to better combat this surge and keep the American Jewish community safe, secure, and resilient,” he said.

The two organizations have worked together for several prior initiatives, including AJC’s “Law Enforcement Guide to Countering Antisemitism,” a strategy and best practices guide for law enforcement to implement the U.S. strategy to counter antisemitism. 

“As one of the four organizations that helped initiate and then supported the creation of SCN over 20 years ago, the partnership between us has always been a strong, and special one,” Michael Masters, national director and CEO of SCN told eJP. 

This past year, SCN has also worked with a number of key institutions in the Jewish community —- collaborating with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Orthodox Union, in addition to launching an initiative with Hillel International in August to provide resources to dozens of campuses. They also partnered with the Anti-Defamation League in 2021.

According to an SCN spokesperson, the organization has observed a surge in reported threat incidents and suspicious activity since Oct. 7. Between Jan. and Nov. of this year, SCN tracked over 5,000 threat incidents and suspicious activity reports and referred over 1,200 people to law enforcement. According to FBI’s hate crime statistics, incidents of anti-Jewish hate crimes increased over 60% between 2022 and 2023, a record high since the FBI started recording in 1991. According to these statistics, Anti-Jewish hate crimes comprise 15% of all hate crimes, though only about 2% of the country’s population is Jewish. 

According to Deutch, the data that SCN has collected is specifically valuable to AJC in the context of their policy work. “The partnership is about shaping the way we, as a society, move forward so that there are fewer of these threats and incidents to begin with,” said Deutch. “Good policy relies on good data, which is why improved hate crimes reporting – at all levels of government and law enforcement – is vital.”