(JTA) — The Department of Homeland Security has announced it will award $94 million in security grants to 512 Jewish organizations across the nation.
The agency cited the recent string of violence against Jewish groups, including the attacks in Washington, D.C., and Boulder, Colorado, in its announcement, writing that the funds will “help protect Jewish faith-based institutions from further attacks.”
“DHS is working to put a stop to the deeply disturbing rise in antisemitic attacks across the United States,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Friday in a statement. “That this money is necessary at all is tragic. Antisemitic violence has no place in this country. However, under President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s leadership, we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that Jewish people in the United States can live free of the threat of violence and terrorism.”
The grants mark the release of around half of the funding still tied up in a Trump administration review of federal spending.
The funding, which is distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), had been expected to include the full $220 million that has yet to be released to recipients. The plans for the release of the remaining $126 million aren’t publicly known.
NSGP provides funding for faith-based institutions including synagogues, schools and Jewish community centers to pay for security measures to protect their buildings from attack. In May, FEMA lifted the Trump administration’s two-month freeze on funding reimbursements.
Lauren Wolman, director of federal policy and strategy at the Anti-Defamation League, told Jewish Insider that while the recent funding announcement is welcome, the needs are great.
“We welcome the Administration awarding $94 million in Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) funding to help protect over 500 Jewish institutions amid the historic levels of antisemitic threats that ADL is tracking,” said Wolman. “But the job isn’t done. DHS must urgently release the additional NSGP supplemental funds Congress appropriated to meet overwhelming demand and save lives. ADL will continue working with lawmakers and senior officials to underscore both the urgency of increasing funding and moving previously appropriated funding.”