What if it wasn’t …nothing?

An unidentified man dressed differently from the bar mitzvah attendees at a synagogue wants access to the building. Outside the temple, a person in a parked car appears to be more of a potential threat than a law enforcement agent.

To understand more about these potential threats and learn how to better handle them, a security forum hosted by the mayors of Lawrence, Cedarhurst and Atlantic Beach was held at the Lawrence Yacht and Country Club on June 13.

The forum included remarks by County Executive Ed Mangano, County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale, and several others involved in the law enforcement and security fields, including Marty Foncello, a senior intelligence officer from the federal Department of Homeland Security and Paul Goldenberg, the national director of the Secure Community Network. The SCN is the national non-profit homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The previously noted dangers were genuine situations faced by Young Israel of Woodmere, which has 80 trained volunteers, according to Ruben Levine of the Community Security Service. “The man dressed [differently] turned out to be the uncle of the bar mitzvah boy and the man outside in the car was a police officer looking into insurance fraud, but what if it wasn’t,” he said.

The what if it wasn’t question prompted Village of Lawrence Mayor Martin Oliner to organize this forum after holding a smaller meeting in February. “What we want to accomplish is to have better preparation, a better communication network and ensure future funding,” Oliner said.

At the previous security gathering, possible threats from organized global groups and “lone wolf” or individual attackers were mentioned.

However at this time, there is “no current threat” to the U.S., according to Foncello, who applies 40 years of intelligence experience to his present position. A liaison with New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism unit, Foncello said that groups like al-Qaida won’t attack until they are ready and awareness of what targets they could attack such as infrastructure, mass transit, oil and nuclear plants, and government and military facilities is warranted. There is also concern about homegrown terrorists and those who train abroad then return to do harm, Foncello added.

Explaining that what the SCN is “not vigilantism” but empowerment, Goldenberg said that “no one will spook us or scare us from not attending synagogue.” This was in reference to a story he told about being in Berlin and seeing a fortified building that he thought was a military installation, but was a Jewish school.

Pointing out the power of the MTA’s “See something, say something” slogan that helped derail the Times Square bomb threat in May of 2010, Goldenberg said that the Jewish community must “remain vigilant and good partners with law enforcement.”

That partnership includes money for resources. Mangano said that the county “aggressively pursues grants for Homeland security,” through its Office of Emergency Management. During a panel discussion of law enforcement officials, after Oliner asked, “What else can we ask the county executive for,” Dale said that more cameras “go very far making a dent on crime and terrorism.”

After the nearly four-hour event ended a few members of Beth Shalom synagogue spoke with Levine, including Marilyn Press, a Lawrence resident. “To be able to talk to everyone and find out this [the Community Service Network] is available; this was of value,” she said about the forum.