The initiative — intended as a model for Jewish organizations across the nation — will take advantage of free emergency response training offered by the NJ State Police.

About 25 Jewish federation and agency executives from throughout the state attended a briefing on the initiative at State Police headquarters in West Trenton on Oct. 3.

The leaders were enthusiastic about a security initiative that will produce a cadre of Jewish citizens trained in disaster and emergency preparedness. The effort represents the first time the State Police will be providing the training — known as CERT, the Community Emergency Response Team — for a specific community.

“I actually was very impressed with the enthusiasm, the passion, and the knowledge of the State Police,” said Allyson Gall, regional director of the American Jewish Committee. “They gave us a real opportunity for Jews to take charge and be responsible, partly, for our own safety. It’s just time for the Jewish community to step forward.”

CERT, a nationwide program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, provides 20 hours of training in responding to emergencies and disasters. Trainees will learn how to organize assistance at emergency sites and provide critical support to victims and first responders.

The eight-week course focuses on such subjects as disaster preparedness, fire suppression, life-saving techniques, triage, disaster psychology, and terrorism awareness, according to Lt. Joseph Geleta, New Jersey’s CERT coordinator.

“In this day and age, I would rate it very high,” Geleta said. “We’re looking more than ever to having citizens be a part of homeland security. In a disaster, as we saw in Katrina, we can’t always rely on government. We have to be ready on our own.”

The request for the readiness training within the Jewish community came from the Secure Community Network. The New York-based security-consultation agency was established 18 months ago under the auspices of the United Jewish Communities, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the American Jewish Committee.

“This is the first time an organization has asked us to do a training specifically for its group, and we welcome the opportunity,” said Capt. Howard Butt, coordinator of the NJ Citizens Corps in the State’s Office of Emergency Management.

Some 8,600 NJ citizens have already completed the CERT training. “New Jersey has the largest contingent of CERT teams in the nation,” Butt said, “and we continue to grow and build on that strength.”

SCN national director Paul Goldenberg called it a response to the vulnerability of the Jewish community in an age of terrorism. He pointed to the attack on a Jewish community center in Los Angeles in 1999 and last summer’s murderous assault on a Jewish federation in Seattle.

“In the Jewish community, there’s been a tremendous challenge as to how we secure ourselves,” said Goldenberg, who formerly headed up the state office on bias crimes for the attorney general of New Jersey.

“In the aftermath of Seattle, we needed to identify immediately a program that would teach people in Jewish institutions how to become first responders, how to administer first aid, how to identify suspicious people,” he said. “We felt, because of the strength of CERT in New Jersey, this would be an excellent place to start the program.”

The aim of the Oct. 3 briefing was to give New Jersey’s Jewish leaders an overview of the CERT program and to spur them on to enlist volunteers for the training, Goldenberg said.

“The training of a community in crisis management and crisis response is of the utmost importance,” he said. “The goal is that in every synagogue, every Jewish community center, every Jewish facility, there will be trained people who can act as first responders in a crisis.”

Federation leaders who were on hand for the Oct. 3 briefing said they intend to press forward with the recruitment of volunteers for the CERT trainings, which are expected to begin this winter in communities across the state.

Stanley Stone, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, said he hopes to establish ongoing CERT training classes in his region, with a constant flow of volunteers taking the training.

“I think it could be a wonderful opportunity for lots of people to become involved in terms of helping — and not just in helping the Jewish community, but the broader community,” Stone said. “What I’m hoping is that we’ll be able to develop a nucleus of people willing to be trained. We hope this will become part of our communal life.”

Gall said that the AJC would bring an ecumenical perspective to the CERT training initiative. “We’re going to spread the word in our own way to churches and synagogues in hopes that some of them will partner and do it together,” she said. “I think it would be a great thing for neighboring churches and synagogues to do together. There are so many other benefits that will happen.”

Richard Marks, SCN assistant director, also emphasized the community relations benefits that will come to the Jewish community through the CERT training. “First of all, New Jersey is touted as having one of the best CERT programs in the country — one of the most organized and best coordinated,” he said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to get skill sets that people in their everyday lives don’t have.

“The skills taught by this program will enable members of our community to be able to respond within the framework of our own community,” he said. “But of course we are all also citizens, and this will give us a greater foothold in hometown security-response capability.”

The success of the CERT initiative in the Jewish community will rest upon the resolve of federations across the state, Marks added. “The federations of New Jersey, by embracing this initiative, will be taking a leadership role and setting the bar for other federations,” he said. “This will enable other states to model what’s being done here.”