The Community Security Service, which trains and oversees volunteer security guards for Jewish institutions, is expanding to dozens more locations across the Southeast United States, the organization told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. Last week, representatives from 37 communities, most of them small, gathered in Atlanta for a one-day workshop to start the process of training them as volunteer security personnel, Richard Priem, chief operating officer of CSS, told eJP. The workshop was funded by the Marcus Family Foundation and received organizational support from the Institute for Southern Jewish Life and the Atlanta Federation, Priem said. The participants came from eight states across the southeast, from Kentucky to northern Florida.

Rising antisemitism: Priem noted the findings of the Anti-Defamation League’s recent survey of antisemitism in the United States, which found that a disproportionately high number of incidents occurred in areas with smaller Jewish populations. “Antisemitism is on the rise in the US and we need to do everything we can to protect our community and our institutions. CSS and other institutions are on the front lines every day offering trainings and real expertise to ensure that our synagogues and its members can live a flourishing life,” Bernie Marcus, founder of the Atlanta-based Home Depot and the Marcus Foundation, said in a statement to eJP.

Skin in the game: Largely based on the Community Security Trust model developed in the United Kingdom, CSS trains local community members to serve as security guards in synagogues and other communal institutions. The rationale behind it is that a paid security guard, no matter how dedicated, will not know the community nearly as well as someone who is a part of it, meaning they might not be able to tell when something in the community is amiss. A member of a synagogue is also more likely to feel personally connected to the other congregants and thus more responsible for their safety, Priem explained. “When you train someone whose friends and family are inside, they’re going to pay attention. They have skin in the game,” he said.

Eyes and ears: According to the ADL study, last year saw the largest number of antisemitic incidents since the organization began tracking them. Based on the first quarter of 2023, Priem said this year is on track to surpass 2022. While this can be addressed by spending large sums of money to increase physical security measures – what experts call “target hardening” – volunteers with basic training can also thwart many potential attacks, noticing things that don’t look quite right, like a suspicious car parked outside the building. “They don’t need a Jewish federation with a big security budget, they can get started with whatever they have,” Priem said. “A lot of it is also about being eyes and ears. Several people got arrested because our people reported it. You didn’t hear about it because they were arrested before they could do anything.”

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“’This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in need come and celebrate Passover.’ One of the most celebrated customs among American Jews, the Seder is a ritual feast that marks the Jews gaining freedom from slavery — and it begins with a reminder to include those who are in need. In that spirit, Passover is an opportune time to shine a light on the persistent ills of poverty,” writes Jon Hornstein, U.S. Jewish community grantmaking lead at The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Foundation focus on Jewish poverty: “The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is dedicated to meeting the basic needs of people who experience poverty in general and, more specifically, within the Jewish community. Throughout my five years of leading the Weinberg Foundation’s work on Jewish poverty, I often get asked: Why focus on Jewish poverty? Shouldn’t we care about everyone who is struggling, regardless of identity?”

Unique community dynamics: “Yes, we should — and we do. In 2022, over 30% of the foundation’s grantmaking supported the Jewish community in Israel and the United States, while the remaining nearly 70% went to nonprofits serving a range of people in need in both countries. Yet poverty in the U.S. Jewish community has unique dynamics that warrant individualized attention.” 

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“I had only known urban or suburban living until I moved to Vermont. Having grown up in Montreal in the suburban shtetl that is ironically called Cote-Saint-Luc, I moved to the West Coast, then New York City, and finally, to Boston for rabbinical school at Hebrew College. Rural living was as foreign to me as a New York bagel,” writes Rabbi David Fainsilber, spiritual leader of the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

New forms of Jewish life: “Those who were born in Vermont or who move here have a certain passion for life. You need to possess that if you are going to endure or, dare I say, even enjoy our cold winters! We call ourselves ‘Jews in the woods.’ Jews in our area have intentionally moved away from the central urban and suburban experience, including its robust Jewish life, in order to be tucked away in the woods, pursuing communion with nature, and a simpler, back-to-the-land lifestyle. In some ways, I see it as a move back in time, especially for Ashkenazi Jews who lived much of recent centuries in Eastern European small communities. At the same time, it’s a forward-looking move, embracing new creative forms of Jewish life, and enabling access for new, often marginalized Jews.”

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