Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics led their cornerstone "First 7 Minutes" training program during the annual Security Summit held by the Secure Community Network (SCN), the safety and security organization for the Jewish community in North America, last month.
The session marked the first time the organization trained the Security Director Network, a professional body composed of security directors who oversee standards-based security operations and protection efforts on behalf of federations and national organizations across North America.
The training follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed between SCN and American Friends of MDA (AFMDA), formalizing a partnership to bring MDA's emergency response expertise and training to Jewish communities across North America.
'Israelis have learned something the hard way'
The program combined instruction, hands-on practice, and train-the-trainer breakouts focused on critical emergency response skills, including scene assessment, severe bleeding control, triage, and response coordination.
Discussing the lessons learned from decades of security challenges, Catherine Reed, CEO of American Friends of MDA, stated, "Israelis have learned something the hard way: the minutes before the ambulance arrives belong to whoever is already standing there."
Raphael Herbst, Deputy Director of International Relations at MDA, added, "The first minutes of a mass casualty incident can determine what happens next. People already at the scene can preserve life before an ambulance arrives if they have the knowledge and confidence to act."
SCN National Director and CEO Masters told The Jerusalem Post, “We are thrilled to launch this pilot with MDA, whose emergency responders bring decades of frontline experience. Israel has built a culture of readiness, and this partnership lets us bring those lessons to Jewish communities across North America while sharing SCN’s national reach and expertise in return.”
“We introduced the pilot at our recent Annual Security Summit, where community security professionals representing 95% of North American community security programs had the opportunity to train with MDA. SCN and MDA are now working to hold joint trainings for community members in select communities over the coming months. The pilot incorporates MDA’s protocols for scene assessment and severe bleeding control, complementing SCN’s Stop the Bleed® program,” Masters said.
“Our partnership with MDA is an important investment in the safety and resilience of Jewish communities, training community members by pairing Israeli frontline experience with SCN’s national network so the members of our community are empowered and trained to respond when it matters most,” Masters said to the Post.
Learning to respond to mass casualty events
The pilot initiative is designed to prepare North American security directors to deliver the MDA course across more than 550 communities and key centers of Jewish life, ranging from summer camps to university campuses.
Daniel Kochavi, Chief of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at American Friends of MDA, told The Jerusalem Post, “Israel has had to learn how to respond when an ordinary day becomes a mass casualty event in an instant. That experience was earned under circumstances no one would choose, but it can now help protect Jewish communities thousands of miles away.
SCN has built an extraordinary network of security professionals dedicated to protecting Jewish life across America, and we're proud to partner with them to bring MDA's hard-earned experience directly into those communities. Our hope is that they never need to use this training, but if they do, they'll be ready.”
The new training pilot expands upon an existing catalog of security resources maintained by SCN for professionals protecting synagogues, schools, and Jewish institutions nationwide.
The organization's standards-based training offerings include BeAware, an introductory program focused on building situational awareness; Countering Active Threat Training, which teaches individuals how to respond during violent active threat incidents; and Stop The Bleed, a national initiative focused on teaching emergency bleeding control techniques.
The catalog also features advanced situational awareness courses, de-escalation training to defuse hostile encounters before they turn violent, digital safety and cybersecurity instruction to protect institutional networks, and the Guardian program, which trains community members to help protect, identify, and respond to security threats.
The initiative forms part of a broader expansion in protective measures by SCN, which recently launched 'Standing with Strength: Stories of Survival', an oral history initiative preserving firsthand accounts from survivors of targeted antisemitic terror attacks in locations such as Pittsburgh, Poway, Colleyville, Overland Park, and Surfside.
By integrating these survivor testimonies directly into educational programs, the organization continues to scale its protective network across North America, operating alongside its 24/7 Jewish Security Operations Command Center to counter an elevated threat environment and secure Jewish community spaces nationwide.