NEW YORK — The black SUV squeezed past a double-parked sedan on a Manhattan street, then rolled slowly past a synagogue, its occupants peering out of the partially open windows.

“There’s a guy sitting right in front of the shul. Is he known to security?” the passenger behind the driver aked, noticing a man sitting on a chair near the synagogue’s entrance.

“I’ll reach out,” the driver said.

The team was part of a new street patrol program from the Community Security Service (CSS), a Jewish nonprofit that trains volunteers to protect synagogues and Jewish events. CSS quietly launched the patrols several months ago, part of an expanding array of measures to protect Jewish communities as antisemitism and threats spike in New York City and around the US.

CSS granted The Times of Israel exclusive access to the patrol program, on the condition that the participants’ identities, specific locations, and some operational procedures remain confidential due to security risks.

The patrols, known as Mobile Protection Units (MPUs), began in January and operate in parts of Manhattan and the Bronx with high concentrations of Jewish residents. CSS plans to expand the program to other cities.

During patrols, CSS vehicles roam the city streets, looking for anything suspicious or out of place that could constitute a threat. Until recently, CSS stationed guards at synagogues and Jewish events, but had not formally operated moving patrols.

The UJA-Federation of New York helped fund the program, which was developed in partnership with the Community Security Initiative, a group that coordinates with law enforcement, tracks threats, and provides security assessments to Jewish institutions in the New York region.

The purpose of the patrols is to “detect, report, deploy and reassure,” said Richard Priem, the head of CSS.

Detecting means providing an extra layer of security by opening a wider perimeter for static guards at events. The patrols can spot approaching threats and report them to law enforcement. CSS reporting of threats has led to arrests in the past, averting potential attacks. For deployment, the patrol members can join guards who are already stationed at Jewish institutions and events if needed.

A central concern is vehicular ramming attacks, and the large SUVs can be parked in strategic locations as an obstacle.

In last month’s attack against a Michigan synagogue, an armed, Hezbollah-inspired attacker sat in the building’s parking lot for hours before smashing his Ford F150 through the doors and into the hallway of an early childhood education area, striking a guard. That incident and other attacks provide lessons to guards elsewhere.

The patrols’ underlying goal is to reassure Jewish community members “that we are proactively looking out for their safety,” Priem said. “Our goal is to be a subtle additional layer of security for the Jewish community in New York.”

“Every single volunteer who’s worked one event can tell you that they have people coming up to them, like, ‘Thank you for being here,’” the driver said. “Or, ‘We heard CSS was going to be here, and that made us feel like it was safe to join,’ so it boosts us.”

To accomplish those goals, the patrols will sometimes be covert and other times make their presence known by attaching labels to the vehicles.

“We’re not there to provoke. We choose when we make it known that we’re there and that will be for tactical reasons,” Priem........

© The Times of Israel