Jewish security network meets with DHS Chief

Leaders of the Secure Community Network met Wednesday in Washington with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. SCN, which coordinates security for North American Jewish institutions, has been working with DHS for a while on security training and assessments, but this was the first meeting with Napolitano since she took office earlier this year.

Representatives of the Conference of Presidents and the United Jewish Communities, the two organizations which created SCN, as well as leaders of some other Jewish umbrella groups were part of the session. They discussed the "concerns the community has over the spike in incidents" directed at the Jewish community in recent months, said SCN national director Paul Goldenberg. "The last six months have been extraordinary months for the Jewish community."

Among the incidents Goldenberg is referring to are the plot to bomb a Riverdale synagogue, the killing of a Wesleyan University student allegedly by a killer carrying anti-Semitic literature, the killing of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a suspect in the shooting at a Little Rock military recruiting center also planning to target Jewish sites.

"We talked about continued cooperation," said Goldenberg. The department "has been working side-by-side with SCN to share intelligence information." [OH I BET. -ed.]

Here's SCN's press release on the meeting, after the jump:

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/08/05/1007065/jewish-security-network-meets-with-dhs-chief