By Marissa Bishop
Special to the TJP

As antisemitism continues to rise within American society, it falls upon Jewish leaders to prepare their community for the possibility of attacks. Houston Jewish teen Joshua Danziger took this responsibility upon himself and quickly began organizing events to protect Jewish youth under his program the Jewish Security Alliance (JSA).

JSA began locally in Houston as organized safety exercises. Through these trainings, Jewish teens were given immediate access to active shooter preparedness (ASP) training and the looming threat of antisemitism given by professionals and experts.

When Danziger witnessed JSA’s successes within the broader Houston community, he expanded JSA’s reach. In partnership with Bill Humphrey, the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, he was able to successfully bring JSA’s training initiatives to the Dallas area.

One Dallas-based training session was hosted at the Jewish Community Center in Dallas for those involved in leadership boards of their individual BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) chapters in the North Texas, Oklahoma Region on April 16. Humphrey partnered with JSA to provide 27 teen leaders from eight different BBYO chapters with active shooter and antisemitism training, known as Run, Hide, Fight.

One teen, Madelyn Levy, appreciated JSA programming saying, “I loved Run, Hide, Fight training because it taught me how to be safe in a dangerous scenario. I think everyone would benefit from taking this course because it can ensure our safety in schools and other public areas which is a priority.”

Another one of the Dallas trainings took place on the campus of the University of North Texas (UNT) in collaboration with their Hillel Program on April 27. Jewish students came together as part of their annual Yom HaAtzamaut and Yom HaZikaron commemoration to learn how to stay safe in the face of looming antisemitism.

Sadie Ostrowicki, a participant in this event and a coordinator alongside Danziger and Humphrey, is grateful for the opportunity to learn from JSA. “The active shooter training allows Jews to be more proud in their Judaism because it prepares them on how to defend themselves safely and realistically,” she said.

Danziger now works to plan active shooter preparedness training for Jewish teens from Houston, Austin, Dallas, South Florida, Cincinnati and Hartford, bringing JSA to a national scale. All events are coordinated by teens who wholeheartedly believe in the mission at hand.

JSA is not done growing; it continues to look for teen partners to collaborate with to further work to bring active shooter preparedness to many more cities and communities at no cost.