The Community Security Service (CSS) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have announced a partnership centered around improving the safety of the Jewish community through intelligence, information sharing and security training for Jewish volunteers.

The partnership will connect subject matter experts from ADL’s Center on Extremism with the CSS’s national network of over 5,000 trained security volunteers — who help protect hundreds of Jewish institutions and events across the country — to improve volunteers’ awareness of the latest manifestations of antisemitism and extremism. Additionally, the CSS will share information and reports from its regional volunteers who serve on the frontlines of Jewish security nationally with ADL’s experts so that they can detect trends.

“The recent rise in antisemitic incidents and reported hate crimes bears out the need for partnering in a way that seeks to tangibly improve the security of American Jewish institutions,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Through this partnership, the CSS’s security volunteers will gain increased knowledge of the nature and scope of antisemitism, and ADL’s experts, who monitor these trends, will have an improved understanding about the security situation on the ground.”

The partnership will also be focused on ensuring that all members of the Jewish community are safe, with particular engagement with marginalized groups within and outside of the Jewish community.

The two national organizations, as per a recently-signed Memorandum of Understanding, will provide recurring training for each of its relevant stakeholders. The CSS’s volunteers will receive training from ADL’s experts on national trends and the importance of reporting and defining antisemitic incidents and hate crimes. ADL’s staff and leadership will also have an ongoing opportunity to attend in-person and virtual security training programs and briefings from the CSS’s security experts and staff.