Crown Heights, NY – Free FBI Event for Jewish Community to Promote Child Safety

Crown Heights, NY – A special event taking place this Sunday will provide a firsthand glimpse at homeland security with an event that will allow Jewish children and adults to interact members of some of the country’s most elite security agencies.

The program, which is being billed by the FBI as “a day of fun and learning at a community event in mutual respect and solidarity”, will take place at the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights and will offer live displays, workshops and more from the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the New York State Police and the FDNY, for both children and adults. It marks the first time that the FBI has ever participated in an event of this kind, geared specifically towards the Jewish community.

“Ninety percent of hate crimes are directed at Jews,” Devorah Halberstam, director of Government Services at the museum, told VIN News. Mrs. Halberstam lost her sixteen year old son Ari in 1994 when Muslim extremists fired at a van full of yeshiva students as it was crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and the Jewish Children’s Museum is dedicated in his memory.

“Our children are growing up with no televisions, no newspapers and they need to be informed both of the threats that exist and that there are people out there who are there to help them,” explained Mrs. Halberstam. “We need to educate our kids in order to protect them. This event is designed to inform our children, who are much better at adults at remembering things, in a way that isn’t scary for them. Lo aleinu, we never know when one day the information that they gain at this event will come to protect them in their lives.”

Admission will be free to the event which will be held at the Jewish Childrens Museum, at 792 Eastern Parkway from 12 to 5 PM. FBI Demonstrations will include a SWAT team, bomb technicians and robots, an evidence response team, a mobile command post and more and children will have a chance to explore a presidential limousine, a coast guard boat and an FDNY emergency response vehicle.

“I want kids to be able to walk away from this event knowing that there are people out there who are willing to help them,” said Mrs. Halberstem. “The key is to empower ourselves before anything happens. After the fact, all you can do is clean up the dead.”