On April 1, 2023 starts the Community Awareness Resilience Education (C.A.R.E.) for Europe project (EUCARE), co-funded by the European Union through the Internal Security Fund. It will be carried out over 18 months until September 2024.

Rising antisemitism, radicalism, and terrorist threats in Europe in recent years have distinguished Jewish places of worship as terrorist targets. The project is designed to address this by enhancing the capacity of Jewish communities in Europe to protect the places of worship and build local resilience to threats with focus on the community members. Our ultimate goal is to neutralize the point of gravity of terrorism – the fear factor which empowers radicalism and fuels extremist activity.

The project will build upon the C.A.R.E. program, piloted in Belgium. It focuses on the individual members of society, rather than institutional capacity building, and its main pillars are:

1) Raising awareness and resilience to threats among common people and

2) Physical protection of buildings.

It will be rolled out in at least 12 EU countries – Sweden, Holland, Finland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain, Luxemburg, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia – and other are welcome to join. It will be adapted for each country based on a survey and evaluation of local capacity and needs. The training and management process will be structured in 3 hubs – in Stockholm for Nordic countries, in Brussels for South-West Europe and in Sofia for Central & East Europe, which after the project end will be open for all countries and religions within their geographical scope. Educational materials will be available in a dedicated web platform to support the training and awareness raising campaigns.

 

Cooperation with public and law enforcement authorities is important for addressing local needs and ensuring the sustainability of C.A.R.E. To reinforce communication channels and align action protocols 4 international conferences will be held with key stakeholders. A threat intelligence sharing platform will be developed to be operated by security staff of Jewish communities which will become a source for exchange of good practices and physical and virtual threats.