CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – With antisemitic incidents on the rise, Lowcountry leaders met with a national organization to learn about their work in keeping Jewish communities safe.
Michael Masters is the National Director and CEO of the Secure Community Network. Masters spoke to a room full of area leaders and community members Friday morning at the Mills House, as part of SCN’s partnership with the Charleston Jewish Federation.
Masters described the nonprofit organization as a law enforcement agency for the Jewish community.
“We are working to build a protective shield over the entirety of the Jewish community,” he explained.
SCN provides a variety of security training to Jewish communities and collaborates with law enforcement. According to Masters, the organization also has a command center in Chicago where a team of intelligence analysts works around the clock to track reported threats.
“We took in over 54 threat incident and suspicious activity reports last year. We took those in from communities and from law enforcement around the country. That was a doubling of the number of incident reports we took in from the year prior. And those reports are coming from communities like here in Charleston,” Masters shared.