More than 40 Jewish community professionals and volunteer leaders met in the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s boardroom at its temporary offices in Schlitz Park, Wednesday, Aug. 9, for a community security briefing.
Led by Milwaukee Jewish Federation Executive Vice President Richard H. Meyer and Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations Executive Director Paula Simon, the meeting brought David Clarke, Milwaukee County sheriff, and five city and suburban police chiefs and officers together with the representatives of some 27 synagogues, schools, agencies and organizations.
Simon noted that though the local representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not able to attend, she is in regular contact with Simon. The FBI recently advised that, at this time, threats to the local Jewish community are more likely to come from white supremacist and militia groups than from anti-Israel or international terrorism groups, Simon said.
Clarke commended those present on the high degree of organization and involvement of the Milwaukee Jewish community, saying it is “miles and miles ahead” of where he’d like to see every group in the community.
Noting that anything is possible, Clark said law enforcement experts want to deal with the probable. They take threats seriously and assess whether those making the threats have the means and capacity to carry out their threats.
They determine what measures can be taken to thwart threats — surveillance, for example — and assess how damage can be minimized if a threat is carried out. They try to dismantle the organizations making threats and arrest and prosecute their members, he said.
Clark added, “I want you to know that you have my commitment to utilize all of my resources to make sure you can lead the kinds of lives Americans have come to expect.”
Persons and plans
Simon and the other law enforcement officers present emphasized the importance for each agency, organization and synagogue of choosing a point person to handle all security issues and communication. Simon encouraged community representatives to give emergency contact information to local police.
Tom Czaja, chief of Fox Point Police, said that his community has a crime prevention officer. Lt. Michael Brunson and Officer David Scott from Milwaukee’s 5th District, which is responsible for the East Side, said they have carried out assessments of Jewish organizations in their district.
Participants were reminded not only to contact police in the event of a security problem, but also to contact the MJCCR, which keeps records that provide the community with an accurate overall security picture.
Meyer urged every community organization to create or update an emergency plan for man-made and natural disasters, and he said the federation is committed to supporting those plans and will also lead by example with its own plan.
In addition to providing Internet resources for Jewish institutional security, the MJF and the MJCCR collected information about security coordinators and emergency contact people from each organization.
The MJF will use the $25,000 that the executive committee voted to allocate for community security plus additional funds provided by the Helen Bader Foundation and the Daniel M. Soref Trust (see story in last week’s Chronicle) to pay for experts to perform formal security risk assessments. These will include written reports summarizing the findings and recommendations of the security experts.
Those funds will also pay for security training for the staff and other personnel of each community organization.
The MJF will not provide stipends for each organization to purchase its own assessment and training, but rather, will provide these services to the organizations, Meyer said.
Organizations are not required to address all of the recommendations made in the security assessment, Meyer said, as that would likely be more than any organization could afford. “You can try to do the top three on your list,” Meyer said.
The most critical part of any security plan is the training of the people to be very vigilant and aware. Train them not to prop open locked doors, for example, Simon said.
Meyer noted that security was taken into consideration for the community buildings undergoing renovation and some security has been built into them.
Meyer also said that “there isn’t much we can do against a threat that is serious and dedicated and capable, but those make up only 1 percent of the threats. Against the other 99 percent, we can do our due diligence and prevent them from being carried out.”
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