By Reporter staff

The Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton will hold a Security Tabletop event on Tuesday, May 21. All local Jewish organizations have been invited to send leadership to represent their institution. “This event will be by invitation only,” said Shelley Hubal, executive director of the Federation. “It is open to organizations affiliated with the Jewish Federation and their public safety partners. Due to space considerations, only one or two people will be invited from each organization.”

According to Pete Owen, protective security advisor, Central New York, Region 2 of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, this discussion-based, tabletop exercise will provide participants with an opportunity to talk about their intelligence and information sharing protocols, response plans, recovery operations and family reunification plans. It will also include a series of scenarios that will give participants the opportunity to discuss how they would respond.

He noted that the exercise objectives include:

• The examination of pre-incident and incident intelligence and information sharing procedures between federal, state and local agencies and faith-based organizations.
• The examination of emergency response plans and procedures for use during a complex coordinated attack with a focus on community coordination, incident response, incident logistics, operational coordination and public messaging protocols.
• The examination of immediate and intermediate response and recovery procedures following a complex coordinated attack.
• “This event will help local Jewish organizations learn how to handle a crisis in better and more efficient and professional ways,” said Hubal. “It is part of the Federation’s continuing work to make our community a safer and more secure place.”