The Secure Community Network, the 22-year-old nonprofit that describes itself as the North American Jewish community’s official safety organization, shared a bulletin with JNS that it issued to law enforcement partners on Thursday.
“We are dealing with an unprecedented threat environment for the Jewish community domestically,” Michael Masters, national director and CEO of the network, told JNS.
The bulletin, which the network said could only be referenced broadly due to the sensitivity of some of the materials, states that the Iranian regime has long said that killing its senior officials and attacking its nuclear program are red lines which would trigger retaliation.
Two Iranian leaders issued religious edicts recently calling on Muslims to fulfil an “obligation” of avenging the blood of their martyred leader, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated terror group, has said that its enemies won’t be safe anywhere, including in their homes.
“When someone tells you they’re going to kill you and you’re not safe in your own home, particularly when it’s coming from a regime like this, it’s prudent to listen,” Masters said.
The report states that there are no specific threats against the Jewish community or the United States broadly.
Masters told JNS that specific threats aren’t the barometer for determining the severity of threats. “Find me the last time we had a major terror attack where there was a specific, direct, credible threat related to it,” he told JNS. “Sept. 11, not really. The USS Cole, not so much.”
The shootings at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha congregation in Pittsburgh in 2018 and Chabad of Poway in 2019 and the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. in May 2025 also weren’t preceded by specific threats, according to Masters.
“When we talk about a heightened threat environment, what we are looking at is the means, motive and opportunity for people to undertake attacks,” he said.
“When they’re being openly encouraged to undertake those attacks and to threaten the Jewish community and calling for ‘death to Jews’ and ‘death to the United States’ at a fever pitch,” Masters told JNS. “Absent date, time and location, I would call that a notable threat that we need to pay attention to.”
The network’s bulletin states that there have been 4,322 violent posts on social media targeting Jews since the attacks began on Iran on Feb. 28—about a 95% increase over the 2,211 such posts in the time period preceding the attacks.
Among the posts are references to a recent Jewish holiday and centuries-old antisemitic tropes, according to the bulletin.
Masters told JNS that the network is trying to determine which posts are actual threats to physically harm Jews and is working with law enforcement to identify those who post such materials.
He cited the recent shooting in Austin, Texas, by a gunman who allegedly wore a shirt that said “property of Allah” and who reportedly had praised the Iranian regime, as an “indicator that people are not just engaging in rhetoric or threatening violence.”
“Here we have an instance, potentially, of someone who acted in the aftermath of these attacks,” Masters said.
The bulletin recommends that Jewish communities and individuals learn to identify suspicious behavior more quickly and report it to authorities. It also advises only admitting pre-screened and clearly identified attendees to events and arranging private and police security, as well as enlisting volunteers.
“This community’s been on heightened threat alert for several years and certainly since Oct. 7,” Masters told JNS. “Most of our institutions have implemented security protocols in the wake of Oct. 7 that remain in place.”
“All of our communities across the United States have access to a professional security director that is able to provide resources and support on security matters to the community in a standards-based, best practice way, that is hugely critical and a game-changer from where things had been in the past,” he said.
“Most importantly, it’s ensuring that these things are done so that Jewish life can exist and continue,” he said. “The message to the community is: We’re not going to give in.”
