Helping to keep Jewish Cleveland safe –while preserving its open and welcoming spirit – has long been a top priority for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and its security provider JFC Security, LLC. To that end, JFC Security has increased its team of highly trained security officers to support local law enforcement, as well as deployed leading–edge security technology throughout the community.
According to Jim Hartnett, director of community‐wide security for JFC Security, another critical piece of the security efforts in Jewish Cleveland is community training. Since his arrival from the FBI in 2013, Hartnett put a premium on training our community members on how to protect themselves from any harmful situation.
“Training saves lives – plain and simple. ”
–Jim Hartnett.
“When I arrived at Federation, there was a growing concern for community safety in general and school safety in particular given the horror that had taken place at Sandy Hook Elementary just a few months prior,” Hartnett continued. “So, we started training in the schools and then methodically branched out across the community. ”
Over the past five years, JFC Security has trained thousands of community members in safety classes including active shooter training, bomb threat training, and situational awareness training. These free training classes occur year–round at various locations throughout Northeast Ohio and are tailored specifically for that particular synagogue, school, and organization.
In the class ‘The Power of Hello,’ ushers and greeters have been taught basic ways to engage non–congregants quickly and people they don’t recognize by asking simple questions. Recently, JFC Security invited an international training group to hold several training classes called C.A.R.E., which stands for Community Awareness & Resilience Education. The instructors taught ushers, security officers, and community leaders how to keep our community safer.
“No community is completely insulated from crime or antisemitism; we are no different,” said University Heights Police Chief Dustin Rogers. “But JFC Security and the Federation have been invaluable partners of our agency over the many years where we have collaborated to enhance public safety for our community. Our agency will always seek and maintain their partnership during our collective pursuit of enhancing public safety.”
“The whole concept of security and dealing with emergency situations is creating muscle memory,” said Oren Baratz, Federation’s senior vice president of external affairs. “The more you train, the more individuals in the community will be ready for actual emergencies.”
“In real estate, it’s ‘location, location, location.’ In security, it’s ‘training, training, training.’”
–Jim Hartnett.
“Our goal is to allow community members freedom to attend synagogue without worrying,” said Stuart Deicher, executive director at The Park Synagogue. “Through the training by JFC Security, our congregants are able to see real–world observations of what could happen in many situations, and they’ll know what to do in order to save their lives and someone else’s life should something happen.”
If you would like to learn more about the security training programs available through JFC Security, contact Jeff Robertson at jrobertson@jewishcleveland.org or 216–593–2802. For more information on JFC Security, LLC, contact Oren Baratz at obaratz@jewishcleveland.org or 216–593–2788.