The American Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism is partnering with the Community Security Initiative (CSI) to focus on the security needs of the Jewish communities of greater New York City.
The initiative responds to a series of violent attacks in the Jewish communities of Jersey City, Monsey, and Brooklyn last year. The Center on Extremism is the ADL’s research and investigative arm that monitors, exposes, and disrupts extremist threats. It also provides information about extremism and hate of all types.
The UJA-Federation of NY and JCRC-NY formed the Community Security Initiative in 2019 to address antisemitic threats facing the Jewish community in the New York City area.
“In the wake of rising antisemitic violence in the United States and more specifically in greater New York City, it is more important than ever to collaborate with allies and experts in order to achieve our shared goal of safeguarding people and institutions within our community,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “This partnership will allow ADL and CSI to work together to identify threats in the region, specifically those targeting community institutions, and refer them to law enforcement for further investigation and/or action.”
The partnership began in the fall of 2020 with CSI embedding one of its own staff members—a Threat Intelligence Analyst — with ADL’s Center on Extremism team. The partnership has already proven successful.
“We believe that one of the most effective means to safeguard our institutions and community is to collect and analyze threat intelligence, both on the surface web and in the deep and darker parts of the internet where extremists radicalize and plot,” CSI Executive Director Mitchell Silber, the former director of intelligence analysis for the NYPD, said. “Embedding CSI’s Threat Intelligence Analyst in ADL’s Center on Extremism enables CSI to have a broad view of the extremist landscape nation-wide in order to detect, identify and alert law enforcement to threatening individuals and groups for further investigation.”