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FBI putting 'major assets' into hunting down antisemitic attackers says SCN head
Paul Goldenberg, SCN’s director, says 'They are trying to cause psychological damage to the Jewish community'
February 28, 2017 11:13
Paul Goldenberg, SCN’s director, says 'They are trying to cause psychological damage to the Jewish community'
February 28, 2017 11:13The director of America’s version of CST, the Security Community Network (SCN), says that the country’s FBI is conducting “an aggressive investigation” into the wave of hoax bomb threats currently sweeping Jewish schools, synagogues and community centres.
Paul Goldenberg, SCN’s director, describes himself as “a law enforcement professional”. He was the head of the hate crimes unit in the Attorney General’s office in New Jersey, and before that was for many years an undercover agent.
So he is well placed to assess the level of antisemitism and how seriously to take the bomb threats — which were being reported during our conversation. “We don't yet know who is responsible”, he said, “but the majority of calls appear to be an individual or individuals leveraging modern technology. This includes disguising voices and spoofing calls.”
It was not even certain, he said, that the calls were coming from inside the United States. But he was confident that the FBI was “putting major assets into finding who is responsible” — and, moreover, was just as confident that “the person or persons, once caught, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law”.
As well as the physical intent, he says, the aim is “to cause psychological damage to the Jewish community. But we are resilient. Nevertheless, technology has allowed the few to have an impact on the many.”
SCN was founded relatively recently — it was founded in 2004, modelled on CST — but it is extremely thorough. Every Jewish communal institution has training and emergency plans, and Mr Goldenberg believes that American Jews are “as safe, if not safer, than the general public, because they are trained to be vigilant. We have a very serious approach to [guarding] our buildings and we also have a very good and mature relationship with law enforcement”.
While Mr Goldenberg acknowledged that the latest “uptick in anti-Jewish hate crimes” was partly in response to “rhetoric” in the news, and also to “copycat incidents which keep me awake at night”, he was not prepared to blame this on the change of political administration.
Even though the public rhetoric was “at fever pitch, I see the same level of dedication and commitment from the FBI and US Homeland Security. I don't deal with politics and judge the current situation by how seriously people [such as the police] are responding. In my judgment the commitment, from the law enforcement agencies, is unwavering.”
Mr Goldberg revealed for the first time that SCN has appointed a dedicated full-time official to travel around American university campuses in order to ensure the security of Jewish students. “We are working with three organisations — Hillel, Chabad, and AEPI, the largest Jewish fraternity in the world. We are working very closely with all three bodies for campus security, because Jewish students must feel safe on campus.”
The SCN director, who has travelled extensively in Europe, paid particular tribute to CST’s founder, Gerald Ronson, and its former director, Richard Benson. He said CST’s relations with UK police were “exemplary” and from what he had seen in France and Denmark following major terrorist incidents in the last two years, such relations needed to be cultivated in mainland Europe.
“We in the US have built and sustained remarkable relations with our law enforcement agencies”, Mr Goldenberg said, “and they in turn are very sensitive and remain very concerned when religious communities are under attack. Our relations are very mature and as far as the law enforcement agencies are concerned, synagogues and Jewish buildings are part of the fabric of American society.”
