Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh partners with Community Security Service to strengthen security at places of worship

FBI data shows that over 1,500 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents were reported in 2025, and those crimes account for nearly two-thirds of all reported religion-based hate crimes nationwide.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is teaming up with Community Security Service to reduce hate crimes in local neighborhoods.

Together, they're offering a new volunteer security training for local organizations this month specifically for the Jewish population.

Eric Kroll, the Jewish Federation's deputy director of community security, said volunteers learn professional-grade security and best practices with hours of online and in-person training through CSS.

"Rather than be reactive, we want to be proactive and prevent problems from happening inside our places of worship," Kroll said. "I think it's definitely an asset to our community."

So far, with one in-person training last weekend, Kroll said the turnout was positive.

"We're excited, we're excited. We have a lot of willing volunteers."

Those volunteers become an added layer of protection, especially around Jewish places of worship. 

"We are not concerned about people coming in and stealing a laptop or stealing a prayer book. We are concerned about people doing terrorism on the Jewish community," said Richard Priem, CSS' chief executive officer.

Priem said volunteers learn physical skills, professionalizing their security knowledge. 

"It's carefully developed training with the former head of the Secret Service on our advisory council, by the people in staff around the undercover program at NYPD who are responsible for protecting embassies, who are responsible for training within joint terrorism task forces around the country," Priem said.

The volunteers' newfound knowledge does not replace police. Rather, it supports the Federation's established intelligence program and relationships with law enforcement, which helps local law enforcement.

"Their goal is really to add an additional layer, to recognize what is out of place and to be proactive," Priem said.

It's proactive work by volunteers to prevent another attack like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting or any other hate crime against Pittsburgh's Jewish population.

The volunteer security training is free and ongoing.

For more information on the partnership, click here. For more on CSS, click here.