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South Jersey Federation Launches
Regional Security Partnership
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
O n the upstairs fl oor of the
Katz JCC in Cherry Hill, New
Jersey, two retired police
offi cers sit facing computer monitors.

The township’s former police chief,
William “Bud” Monaghan, walks in
and out from his offi ce down the hall.

Above the heads of the offi cers, empty
sockets stand on the wall, waiting
for the television screens that will be
placed there in the coming weeks.

Soon enough, this small room with
no windows will become the headquar-
ters for Jewish security in 11 New
Jersey counties and Delaware.

The ex-cops can already type any
suspicious person’s name into an
intelligence search engine, called
Ontic, to fi nd the information they
need. Once the TVs are on the wall,
they will also be able to look at any
synagogue, Jewish community center
or other organization in the network.

The program, titled JFed Security, is
an agency within the Jewish Federation
of Southern New Jersey. But it also
extends beyond the South Jersey
federation’s territory of Camden,
Burlington and Gloucester counties.

Federations covering counties as far
north as Warren and as far south as
Cape May are partners in this eff ort.

The Jewish Federation of Delaware
has also opted in. Monaghan is the
agency’s executive director, with three
full-time offi cers on his team.

JFed was made possible by the
Jewish Federations of North America’s
$130 million LiveSecure campaign,
announced in 2021 to help secure
Jewish communities during an era
of rising antisemitism. The South
Jersey federation received a grant
worth $250,000. It also had to raise
$500,000 to satisfy the program’s
two-to-one fundraising requirement.

Partner federations will have to match
the cost of the program in years two
and three, according to Monaghan.

The Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia is not a part of this eff ort.

The Philadelphia Federation has
contracted its security to the Secure
Community Network, which describes
itself as “the offi cial safety and security
organization for the Jewish community
in North America.”
“It’s about having the connections
within the community to leverage those
relationships for information sharing,”
said Monaghan of the New Jersey and
Delaware partnership.

Antisemitic incidents have risen in
the United States since 2015, accord-
ing to the Anti-Defamation League.

In 2022, the ADL counted 3,697
antisemitic incidents, a 36% increase
from 2021. In South Jersey less than
two years ago, swastika stickers and
drawings appeared at a synagogue
and a school, respectively.

A regional partnership will take a
proactive approach to fi ghting antisem-
itism, according to Monaghan. It will
be similar to how local police depart-
ments operate. They share resources,
information and manpower. If an
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