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In a speech delivered to the American Red Cross Sept. 29, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano touted the Secure Community Network, a four-and-a-half year old organization devoted to Jewish communal security, as a model for other communities.

"We will also be expanding our Secure Community Network," Napolitano said. "That network currently provides members of the Jewish community with security training and rapid information sharing during a crisis. We are expanding that to include other communities as well."

Founded in 2005, SCN focuses on the security of the American Jewish community and whose network includes the 52 member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; the 157 North American Jewish federations represented by United Jewish Communities (UJC); the 350 JCCs, Ys, and camps associated with the Jewish Community Centers Association; and the synagogues, rabbinic institutions, and schools associated with the major denominations.

"The organized Jewish community made a decision that homeland security would be front and center and that there was a need for a consistent and comprehensive plan," Paul Goldenberg, the national director of SCN, told The Jewish State.

Since its creation, SCN has collaborated with Homeland Security in order to develop and implement training and threat assessment programs with Jewish institutions and communities throughout the country.

"Today, four years later, not only do federal and state law enforcement accept it, but they embrace it," Goldenberg, the national director of SCN, said of the organization's model for communal security.

The speech, delivered as part of National Preparedness Month, addressed the importance of emergency preparedness in dealing with matters of homeland security.

"And when families are prepared, when communities stand together and stand tall, so too does our nation," Napolitano said in the speech. "We send a powerful message to those who would seek to do us harm that we are strong, that we are prepared, that we are resilient."

Goldenberg said that "wherever there has been a major incident, SCN has been on the ground with DHS."

"We are able to share in real time the threat information shared with us, which is then disseminated to the Jewish community in a consistent, singular message," said Goldenberg, adding "We are the door to the Jewish community for homeland security."

Goldenberg said that the SCN's ability "to help the community to distinguish fact from fiction" is one of its greatest assets.

"We're very keen on training," he said. "The community needs to understand its risks and vulnerabilities. Information is the lifeblood of the Jewish community."

Goldenberg pointed out that the recent incidences or threats targeted against the Jewish community, deriving alternately from Islamic extremists or white supremacists, demonstrate how real the problem is.

"It is not paranoia that the Jewish community is a target," he said.

The goal of SCN, according to Goldenberg, is to "build a culture of safety and security" in the Jewish community without succumbing to panic or fear.

"We need to stay open and welcoming," he said. "The day we start building walls with turrets would be a very sad day in America."