Chicago — In the Chicago command center of the Secure Community Network, threats to the nation’s Jewish community are mapped from coast to coast.
The command center is overseen by Brad Orsini, a retired FBI agent who helped investigate the 9/11 attacks.
“At its simplest, the Secure Community Network is the Jewish community’s own FBI and Department of Homeland Security,” Orsini told CBS News.
SCN tracked over 5,000 threats last year and sent more than 1,600 tips to law enforcement.
“Who is that person out there who is the next attacker, and that’s really what we’re looking for,” explains Orsini.
Director Michael Masters leads a team of analysts who don’t need warrants to follow leads.
“We can also have tools active in our command center to look at the deep and dark web,” Masters said.
SCN was founded in 2004 and took off after Mass shooting attack 2018 at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history.
The tragedy is now burned into the mind of Tree of Life’s Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who heard 11 of his congregants being shot.
“To some degree, the pain never goes away,” Myers said. “It’s like a nightmare.”
He attributes his own survival to safety training by Orsini.
“I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for that training,” Myers said.
SCN now hosts active shooter training at synagogues and Jewish centers across the country, Orsini says threats have skyrocketed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. In an April reportthe Anti-Defamation League recorded 8,873 anti-Semitic incidents in 2023, which includes harassment, vandalism and assault. That’s the highest number since it began tracking the number in 1979.
For Myers, the threats are a grim reminder.
“There is no such thing as sanctuary anymore. There is no house of worship that is safe.”