Chicago —At the Secure Community Network command center in Chicago, threats to the country’s Jewish community are mapped from coast to coast.

The command center is headed by Brad Orsini, a retired FBI agent who helped investigate the September 11 attacks.

“Simply put, the Secure Community Network is the Jewish community’s own FBI and Department of Homeland Security,” Orsini told CBS News.

Last year, SCN registered more than 5,000 threats and sent more than 1,600 tips to the police.

“Who is that person out there who is the next attacker? And that is actually what we are looking for,” Orsini explains.

Director Michael Masters leads a team of analysts who don’t need orders to follow leads.

“We may also have tools that are active in our command center to look at the deep and dark web,” Masters said.

SCN was founded in 2004 and gained popularity after the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

The tragedy is still etched in the memory of Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life, who heard 11 of his congregants being gunned down.

“To some extent, the pain never goes away,” Myers said. “It’s like a nightmare.”

He says he survived thanks to Orsini’s safety training.

“Without that training, I wouldn’t be alive,” Myers said.

SCN now holds active shooter training sessions at synagogues and Jewish centers across the country, and Orsini says threats have increased dramatically since the war between Israel and Hamas began. In an April report, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 8,873 anti-Semitic incidents in 2023, including harassment, vandalism and assault. That’s the highest number since it began keeping track in 1979.

For Myers, the threats are a somber reminder.

“There is no such thing as a sanctuary anymore. There is no house of worship that is safe.”

Nicole Sganga

Nicole Sganga is a reporter for CBS News covering homeland security and justice.

The article How One Group Is Leading the National Effort to Track Anti-Semitic Threats first appeared on CBS News.