Israeli Police Commander Ofer Ganon met recently with the command staff of the Stamford Police. As Israel’s top ranking law enforcement official for Jerusalem’s holy places, Ganon is in charge of security for the Western Wall, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Sepulchre. He shared best police practices on counter-terrorism, preventing hate crimes and law enforcement’s role in community and ethnic relations. The meeting was arranged by the Anti-Defamation League’s Connecticut office. Ganon’s visit also includes meetings with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New Haven and the Connecticut State Police in Middletown.

“As world and national events make our work more difficult, our dedicated Stamford Police officers need to be trained at the highest levels by experts in handling extremist violence like Commander Ganon,” said Stamford Police Chief Jonathan Fontneau, who earlier this year attended an ADL led counter-terrorism mission to Israel. “Our work with ADL is very important in our efforts to keep our community safe.”

ADL Regional Director Steve Ginsburg said, “We at ADL are proud of our deep relationship with law enforcement. Preventing hate crimes and terror from extremists is a global problem and to keep our local community safe we all need to work together and share best practices with experts like the Israeli police who have been facing these issues for decades.”

CAP: Israeli Police Commander Ofer Ganon (center) with ADL Regional Director Steve Ginsburg and Stamford Police Chief Jonathan Fontneau.