SPRINGFIELD — The Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts committed this month to a three-year, $200,000-a-year partnership with the Secure Community Network (SCN) to strengthen and enhance security measures at congregations, schools and organizations throughout the region.

The federation outlined the partnership earlier this month at a town hall-style meeting on Feb. 11 at Temple Beth El in Springfield that featured Andrew Hoffman, who will serve as deputy regional security adviser and oversee synagogues and Jewish communities that make up the regional federation in Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties.

Hoffman is neither “Captain America” nor a “security guard,” but he will be the region’s “educator, and chief empowerment officer for safety and security for all of your organizations,” said Grant Mendenhall, SCN’s deputy director of operations, to a crowd of about 100 who attended the town hall session either in person or online.

“I’m honored to be here. I’m humbled to be here. I appreciate your support, and I look forward to working with everybody,” said Hoffman, adding that he takes seriously his role of ensuring that the region’s Jewish community is able to “celebrate Jewish life in a safe and secure manner.”

Mendenhall said Hoffman will provide “a perfect balance of security and remaining open and welcoming to the community,” and will be driven by the question of, “How can we ensure safety and security, resilience for our community, without turning our community into a fortress?”

SCN is the official safety and security network for North American Jewish communities, overseeing security for about 44 of the country’s 146 Jewish federations. The nonprofit started with five programs in 2023. Mendenhall said the growth in security is unfortunate because it has been in response to a movement toward violence and antisemitic behavior.

Since October 2023 alone, SCN has logged over 8,000 threats and suspicious activity reports across the United States, he said, adding that “this is not just a statistic — it is a stark reminder of why security must remain a top priority for all of us.”

Hoffman spent 26 years as a special agent in the Drug Enforcement Administration, which he joked he only got into because he spelled FBI wrong on his application papers. When he was facing mandatory retirement age at the DEA, other jobs, including those in insurance or anti-money laundering agencies, “didn’t really inspire me at all.” He landed at SCN after the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023, which he said sparked a flame to want to be on the front lines for the Jewish community.

“I really had the same sickening feeling that day that I had after 9/11,” Hoffman said. “It really sparked an idea in me. I can take the skills that I have developed over the past 26 years as an investigator and help the Jewish community.”

Hoffman’s position will entail communication with law enforcement partners and Jewish community members in the region to provide preemptive protection rather than simply responding in the event of a crisis. A key factor of this work will include education and consultation, keeping community members informed of best practices and determining safety vulnerabilities at gatherings and venues.

One of his first projects to launch will be a community security committee, made up of key people in Jewish organizations in the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts. Informal groups will form the foundation for this program, he explained, “where the conversation around safety will begin and end,” he said, as Hoffman underscored the importance of community involvement.

Hoffman explained that his hiring also introduces the community to a wealth of resources through SCN.

“When you hear the name Secure Community Network — the network is an actual real thing. It’s a network of 120 employees, many former law enforcement professionals with SCN around the country, doing the same job I’m doing. And they’re a resource to me,” he said.

Among those resources, he explained, is access to training and intelligence from around the country. “I have the resources of all these people … I have the resources to get you answers,” he said.

Mendenhall explained that while antisemitic comments and hate speech more generally are typically protected by the First Amendment, such comments often form the “basis for potential acts of violence,” which are things the SCN analysts diligently track in order to “stand in the gaps where our police brothers and sisters can’t.”

Such measures are crucial, Mendenhall explained, because acute threats can flare up out of nowhere.

“Nothing ever happens in Colleyville, nothing ever happens in Squirrel Hill, nothing ever happens at the Fed Ex facility in Indianapolis,” he said, referencing a 2022 hostage crisis in a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, antisemitic messages at Squirrel Hill synagogue in Pittsburgh, and an antisemitic shooting at a Fed Ex in 2021.

“How many mass shootings do we have in this country — we can’t even remember them all. It’s never going to happen here until it does,” said Mendenhall.