What We Do

Protecting Our Community From Within®

MAGEN Chicago Shomrim is a volunteer public safety organization committed to helping protect Chicago’s Jewish community. Since 2016, our trained volunteers have worked alongside community institutions, law enforcement, and other emergency service organizations to strengthen security, improve preparedness, and respond when our neighbors need assistance.

Our work is built around four core areas:

Shul Security Training

We train and support SSOs/SSGs (Shul Safety Officers and Shul Safety Greeters), who serve as an important part of their congregations’ security teams. Volunteers receive ongoing professional training in situational awareness, pre-attack indicators, emergency communications, active-threat response, medical response, and other essential security skills.

Our Shul Guard radio network connects volunteers at more than 45 local shuls, allowing important safety information to be shared quickly across the community.

Response and Search and Rescue

Our 24/7 emergency hotline and trained dispatchers coordinate MAGEN’s response to missing persons, suspicious activity, community emergencies, and other safety-related incidents.

Our Community Safety Observers respond in marked MAGEN vehicles to observe, report, assist, and provide additional information to law enforcement. MAGEN volunteers also help with search-and-rescue operations, large community events, and other situations requiring trained personnel and coordinated resources.

For all emergencies, call 911 first, followed by our 24/7 hotline at 1-844-MAGEN-CHI.

Community Safety and Education

A prepared community is a safer community. MAGEN provides free safety and emergency-preparedness programs throughout the year, including:

Situational awareness and shul-security seminars
CPR, AED, Stop the Bleed, and Narcan training
Self-defense and Krav Maga programs
Active-threat preparedness
Emergency planning for shuls, schools, and community organizations

Over the past several years, MAGEN has provided more than 650 free training programs to community members.

SkyWatch Aerial Safety

SkyWatch is MAGEN’s innovative DSR—Drones-as-a-Safety-Responder—program. Strategically located drone stations allow FAA-licensed pilots to launch quickly and provide live aerial situational awareness during missing-person searches, suspicious activity, emergencies, and major community events.

Live video can be shared with MAGEN dispatchers and response teams, helping decision-makers understand what is happening and direct resources more effectively—often before ground units arrive.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

MAGEN Chicago Shomrim is powered by more than 70 trained volunteers who live, work, daven, and raise their families in the community we serve. We are not a replacement for law enforcement or emergency medical services. We are neighbors helping neighbors—working together to build a safer, more prepared, and more resilient community.

Community safety is a team effort.