New Group Seeks To Bring Shomrim Patrols To Gravesend

Source: FSSP via Twitter

Source: FSSP via Twitter

A new group has launched with the goal of expanding the services of shomrim, or Jewish civilian patrol, into a broad swath of Gravesend.

Community Safety & Security (CSS) is an affiliate of the Sephardic Community Federation, and is working on a recruitment drive to bring volunteers to the well-established Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol, which could begin patroling the area.

The borders of the area under consideration are Avenue I to the north, Avenue Y to the south, Coney Island Avenue to the east and McDonald Avenue to the west.

“CSS is a new organization that will work to keep our communities safe by establishing initiatives to help reduce crime and increase public safety. We hope to work with the public, law enforcement and community watch groups to achieve these goals,” said Avi Spitzer, executive director of the Sephardic Community Federation.

Spitzer said they already have a core group of volunteers, and hope to build up operations and activities over time. Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz has offered to help the group identify potential sources of funds for their project. CSS is headed by Jack Cayre, the scion of developer and real estate magnate Joseph Cayre.

CSS is not formally affiliated with Flatbush Shomrim.

Flatbush Shomrim Executive Coordinator Bob Moskowitz said that they have not started patrolling the new area, nor have they made a decision on whether or not they will.

“It’s under consideration right now. It’s not a done deal. There’s a lot of logistics involved,” Moskowitz said. “I’d like to help them out, but we have to look at it and see if we can do it. But we can’t help every community that asks us to. Right now it’s still up in the air. If it’s something that’s doable, we’d love to.”

Spitzer said the goal of CSS’s effort right now is to bolster shomrim’s manpower with volunteers from the proposed coverage area, which would provide the resources needed for patrols.

Flatbush Shomrim was founded in 1991 by now-Councilman Chaim Deutsch. Shomrim volunteers patrol the neighborhoods in marked and unmarked vehicles, calling 911 when they see an emergency, monitoring the activities of people they believe to be suspicious, and calling for other volunteers if they feel the need. They can often be the first to respond to a scene of a low-level incident, where they can make a citizen’s arrest if necessary.

Community shomrim patrols have also been the source of controversy. Critics say they can sometimes be overzealous in their duties, inflame ethnic tensions and, at times, an obstacle to police investigations within the Jewish community. Some patrols receive taxpayer funds and resources through the offices of elected officials.

If you’d like to volunteer for shomrim patrols, contact CSS at (347) 781-4679 or by email at

  • disgusted

    Great. More pretend cops. We don’t need more would be “heroes” roaming the streets ” monitoring the activities of people they believe to be suspicious” which is code for people outside of their own ethnic group.

    I don’t know if the councilman is still involved in the group, and he may have founded it with the best intentions, but now as a councilman, if he believes that the area needs increased “security,” he’s in a position to influence the local police precincts to respond.

  • Brightonresident

    More vigilantes!!! Not good!!! If Assemblymember Cymbrowitz is able to find funds, then they should go to the NYPD to do the job they are supposed to do, not some wanna be rent-a-cops!

  • a good neighbor

    but the police never respond quick enough either because they are too busy or they don’t care as much. for instance, a simple traffic accident with no injury can take up to 3 hours for any police to response just to file a report. if your house alarm goes off and in fact someone attempted to break in whether successful or not, it could take more than half an hour before any police shows up. so if these volunteers can help to keep the neighborhood safe without taking money from our pockets, then why not? aren’t they similar to the auxiliary cops at the local precincts?

    • Alex C

      How are these fake cops will speed up the process of a police reporting to an accident? Last thing we need is private, un-diverse group run around playing cops.Who do they report to?
      And contrary to popular belief these groups do receive money from NYPD, hence taking money from our pockets.

    • disgusted

      So this group of vigilantes are able to file a police report? What good does a group of “volunteers” do standing around an accident provide? It’s just more would be tough guys riding around, thinking they’re tough shit and intimidating people that they think don’t belong in the neighborhood.

      And if someone breaks into your house? What are they going to do? Enter it? Disturb a crime scene and make it harder for the police to find evidence to catch the criminals?

      Or God forbid, they come while you’re being robbed. Which one of these heroes is going to lay down his life to stop the crook? Or cause an innocent to be hurt because of their grandstanding?

      Nothing good can come from this.

  • EndofDaze

    Crime, Thank G-d is low in our wonderful community, to begin with! Do we really need this watchful, sort of vigilante force? Additionally, the Arab Syrian Jews, already have a private seurity force, which I’ve seen quite often, patrolling in cars along their blocks, in our bordering, Gravesend! Oy! I gotta tell you, I saw this type of stuff coming, with Deutsch and his ilk in power, even though on meeting him, he told me he would work for ALL of us, in the community! While it could be worse, if Hikind and his ilk, came our way, we do not need more balkanization, and suspicion of the other manifesting itself on our, relatively very safe streets! What is happening to E Pluibus Unum?!!!

    • newpalestine

      Those are just FBI and IRS agents observing all of the local poverty and matching it with IRS filings.

  • a good neighbor

    regardless. i’m definitely signing up. who doesn’t want to have lights and sirens installed and be able to speed through any traffic? even if the cop stops you, say you are responding an emergency and just got cancelled since you got stopped.

  • a good neighbor

    or i will start a group that welcomes everyone to join regardless of your ethnic background. how does that sound? :)

  • Brett Allen

    I was always wondered what would happen if similar non diverse groups like this popped up, would they be tolerated? These bozo’s used to harass my brother ALL the time. He lived in Midwood with our grandmother who was a non practicing Jew and they would demand that he show them ID all the time (he never did). They also pulled this stunt on some of my friends when we were much younger in Manhattan beach, demanding they be shown ID’s. Why have the largest Police Dept in America why do we need these phoney vigilantes who are ONLY looking out for the interests of their very specific ethnic group?

    • Ned Berke

      Shomrim does not patrol Manhattan Beach. That’s Beachside – it’s a private patrol paid for by homeowners.

      • Broghtonresident

        Regardless of the name of the group – vigilantes are vigilantes and should not be permitted. They always overstep their bounds and think they are better than others. We do NOT need George Zimmerman in New York!

      • WRONG.

        Shomrim DOES patrol Manhattan Beach. They have a couple members that live there. AND their BIG bus, same as the one pictured in your article – is often parked in Manhattan Beach.

        Where does Shomrim patrol ?

        If they don’t patrol Manhattan Beach and neighboring communities, why did Nelson throw so much money at them ? All while Chaim was working for him, furthermore… While Chaim was a board member of Shomrim?

        • Ned Berke

          After some anti-Semitic graffiti was found at Holocaust Park some months back, they announced they’d be occasionally stationed there. I wasn’t aware they were still in the area.

          As for the rest, Nelson’s district extended northward into established Shomrim territory – so it was in his district. As for his choice to allocate, and Chaim’s role there, I have no more information than you, and we’re all free to come to our own conclusions.

    • JS

      You asked, I was always wondered what would happen if similar non diverse groups like this popped up, would they be tolerated?

      They have. The Black Panthers. Their original aim was to protect Black neighborhoods from the police.

  • OhTheIrony

    A Jewish man whose last name literally means German (Chaim Deutsch) starts an organization that seeks to contain undesirables that allegedly interfere with his people’s quality of life.

    Life, why do you imitate art so often?

    • jesusismad

      I understand so much what it must be like to be a Palestinian. The anti-Christian bigots are at critical mass in this part of NY and feel that they can step up the harassment to take the goyim land for pennies.

      Imagine if Christians organized patrols of their most lunatic fringe and “patrolled” areas like this? “Outrage” is only reserved for “antisemitism”….

  • jesusismad

    Just another tactic to reduce the undesirable Goyim population. Does Christian persecution in this area ever end?

    The abject hatred Christians face here is unbelievable.

  • Supporter of LeftHand Rule

    Nothing good can come of this vigilante patrol. Remember how a similar patrol interfered with the search for that little boy up in Boro Park, when they withheld the Video Tape from the police? This patrol is a solution in search of a problem. The 61 Pct is not overrun by crime. Check out the crime stats in this site, The Sheepshead Bites. You can look it up.