The Community Security Trust is a British charity established in 1994 to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community in the UK. Its inception followed a history of threats to the Jewish community in Britain, in particular attacks on British Jews and their buildings by British Fascists, commencing in the 1930s.
Structure
The group's chairman is the British businessman Gerald Ronson and its deputy chairman is Lloyd Dorfman CBE. The CST has five offices, 55 members of staff and a network of 3,000 volunteers from all parts of the Jewish community, who are trained by the CST and the Police.
Activities
The organisation's philosophy is that the Jewish community is responsible for its own security. It works closely with Police Services around the country and is recognised by Government and Police as a model of a minority community security organisation. The CST provides security advice and training for Jewish schools, synagogues and communal organisations and gives assistance to those bodies that are affected by antisemitism. The CST also assists and supports individual members of the Jewish community who have been affected by antisemitism and antisemitic incidents. It advises and represents the Jewish community on matters of antisemitism, terrorism and security and works with police, government and international bodies. All this work is provided at no charge. The CST has recorded antisemitic incidents in the UK since 1994 and publishes an annual Antisemitic Incidents Report. The CST also published Terrorist Incidents against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad 1968-2010, a definitive report of terrorist attacks against Jewish communitiesaround the world. In 2008, CST published its first Antisemitic Discourse Report, an annual study of antisemitic discourse in mainstream media and politics in the UK. From 2008 to 2012, it published advisory reports on voting tactics in British elections to minimise the impact of far-right groups such as the British National Party. In 2012, the CST provided the model for a new anti-Islamophobia project, Tell MAMA, with which it now works closely.
Funding
The Home Office has provided 'The Jewish Community Protective Security Grant' for the security of synagogues, schools and other Jewish centres, with the CST as the Grant Recipient. It was introduced in 2015 and Home Secretary, Sajid Javid pledged to increase funding, bringing the total amount allocated from 2015 to 2019 to £65.2 million.
Criticism
In 2011, a number of articles appeared in the British weekly newspaper The Jewish Chronicle that sought to question the work and functioning of the CST. Dr Gilbert Kahn, of Kean University in the USA, took the view that British Jewry did not need a CST because British Jews paid taxes to the state for their physical protection and could therefore depend on the police. On 15 April, the newspaper's columnist, Professor Geoffrey Alderman, argued against the CST on the grounds that its leadership and funding were neither transparent nor accountable. Alderman returned to the subject on 10 June, when he speculated that his doubts about the CST and its work were more widely shared. In May 2014, it was revealed that the chief executive of the CST is the highest paid of all charity leaders within the British Jewish community, earning between £170,000-£190,000 per annum. In July 2015, Professor Alderman devoted his column to the retirement of the CST's Director of Security, Carol Laser. He speculated as to the reason for her retirement and questioned whether it was wise that she had agreed to have her identity revealed.
