SARINA ROFFÉ
GROWING UP IN THE BEDFORD AREA, TOBY SHACALO WATCHED AS HIS FATHER DAVID CARED DEEPLY ABOUT CONGREGATION KOL ISRAEL. TOBY SAW HIS FATHER’S COMMITMENT TO THE SYNAGOGUE AND ITS OPERATIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, THERE WAS A FIRE IN THE SYNAGOGUE IN JUNE 1994 AND DAVID SHACALO A”H HAD THE ONLY KEY. RUNNING TO THE SYNAGOGUE, HE WOULDN’T LET THE FIREMEN START THEIR HOSES UNTIL ALL THE SEFER TORAHS HAD BEEN SAFELY REMOVED AND COUNTED.
Then, he took two months off from work as the synagogue was rebuilt to get it ready for the High Holidays. David’s commitment to safety and the community deeply impacted Toby, who has been a volunteer for Flatbush Shomrim for 19 years. He grew within the organization and has been a coordinator for the past six years, helping to manage some 90 volunteers, each of whom volunteers about four to eight hours a week.
How did he get involved? “As someone was breaking into my house, a bunch of guys stopped him. I asked who they were and that’s how I found out about Flatbush Shomrim,” said Toby. “I became the first Sephardic member; they all thought I was bananas.”
“Toby is very levelheaded and an asset to the organization. He is very connected to many of the police precincts and that is a huge help. He knows how to reach out to them,” said Executive Coordinator of Flatbush Shomrim Robert Moscovitz. The depth and breadth of the organization’s activities are staggering. They saved hundreds during Covid with their oxygen concentrators. They not only patrol the community and answer calls, but they also take on crime prevention, domestic violence, counter terrorism and a myriad of other tasks related to safety.
Flatbush Shomrim has between eight and 12 volunteers patrolling the community at any one time. Anyone out after midnight is watched carefully. As coordinator, Toby Shacalo said they field about 300 calls a week on their 24/7 hotline at 718.338.9797.
Using a radio communication system, those on and off duty stay in touch with each other. Flatbush Shomrim essentially covers the entire community, from McDonald Avenue to Marine Park and Manhattan Beach. At night, their response time to calls is one to three minutes. They are responsible for hundreds of arrests a year in the Flatbush area.
“We are in our own community; we know it better than anyone else. Our dedicated members will leave their place of business to answer a call. We know who belongs and who doesn’t belong,” he said.
Each volunteer is heavily vetted and must attend the Citizens Police Academy of the New York Police Department. The course is four hours a week for 16 weeks. The training includes things to know about the law, how to deal with and defuse situations, counterterrorism, tactical training and martial arts.
“In addition, Toby provides independent field training to new volunteers, teaching them important tactics and strategies to keep them and the community safe,” said Moskovitz.
Flatbush Shomrim is certified by the Department of Homeland Security and the New York City Office of Emergency Management. In cases of emergency, they also do search and rescue in coordination with local law enforcement.
Toby gave an example of an incident. “One time a guy from Hatzolah saw someone leaving a driveway and called us about a suspicious male. We couldn’t find him and then two minutes later, we heard a scream. The guy had broken into a house and assaulted the husband and wife. When he ran out of the house, we got him and arrested him in front of the location.”
He continued, “We often deal with house break-ins, missing persons — child or adult — and a lot of crazy stuff. There is an autistic child in the community who went missing more than once. We know he liked to ride the trains. So we had to shut down the entire subway system, a few times, to find him. Sometimes it’s an Alzheimer’s patient who wanders off, and we must find him/her. Maybe it is a house fire or a domestic violence case. With domestic violence, we get help for the victim. Right now, teenagers using drugs is a pandemic of sorts in the community. We have a well-trained team who know how to speak to the children and the parents. They have a good approach and advise them on facilities. Essentially when the community needs us, we are there.”
Toby went on, “We work closely with the commanding officers in the local precincts in the community. We have weekly meetings to discuss the high crime areas which we call the hot zones. One time there were about 30 burglaries in a short period of time. We had numerous confirmed break-ins in one night. The victims got in touch with us right away. We spotted the perpetrators and identified them to the police, who arrested them. We also follow up with our contacts in the District Attorney’s office to make sure they don’t get released back to the community and repeat their crimes.”
Security has always been front and center in Toby’s volunteer life. For 10 years he chaired the security committee at Shaare Shalom. With nine synagogues in the immediate area of his home, he has learned a lot about soft and easy targets. “I wanted to make sure people in the synagogue were safe, so we developed a team and started to train. I take the safety of the community personally.”
Hesed has been part of Toby’s life since childhood. He is deeply committed to helping the Special Children’s Center and Sephardic Bikur Holim, due to their amazing work. In addition to his father’s volunteer work at Kol Israel Congregation, he saw his mother Valerie volunteer at his school, Magen David Yeshivah and later Shaare Torah High School. The example was set by his parents and he followed it.
Community members are urged to call Flatbush Shomrim’s 24/7 hotline at 718.338.9797, as well as 911 if they see something suspicious.
A journalist, genealogist and historian, Sarina Roffé is the author of Branching Out from Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017), Sarina holds a BA in Journalism.
