Security doesn’t come cheap. But at least the Jewish Community Endowment Fund and the Koret Foundation are trying to make it more affordable.
Almost $600,000 was awarded to 10 Bay Area synagogues and Jewish institutions to help them beef up security after a number of anti-Semitic incidents occurred in California last year, among them a year ago at a Los Angeles area Jewish Community Center.
The bulk of the funding — $464,152 in this grant cycle — is coming from the JCEF, with the Koret Foundation providing a matching grant to each institution of 20 percent, for a total of $116,038.
The institutions submitted detailed plans to a committee convened by the Jewish Community Relations Council in February.
The committee included Jewish community lay leaders and agency executives, members of the San Francisco Police Department, and security specialists from the Israeli Consulate and other agencies, said Mark Reisbaum, director of grants for the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
To receive funding, the agencies had to provide plans detailing exactly how the money would be spent.
“It was more than just ‘we need money to do this,'” said Reisbaum. “They had to be making improvements that made sense from a planning and implementation point of view.”
The money will go toward enhancing features like lighting, fences, alarm systems and cameras.
The Marin Jewish Community Center, which shares its San Rafael campus with Brandeis Hillel Day School and Congregation Rodef Sholom, received the largest grant of $172,400 from the JCEF and $43,100 from the Koret Foundation, for a total of $215,500.
“The security and safety of all the participants and members of the Marin Jewish campus is of great importance to all of us,” said Ron Mogel, executive director of the Marin JCC, “and the grant truly enables us to enhance the safety on our campus.”
The Jewish Home in San Francisco received a total of $115,000, the second-largest amount, and the Albert L. Schultz JCC in Palo Alto received a total of $74,600, the third-highest amount.
Other institutions receiving grants include Brandeis Hillel Day School in Marin and San Francisco; Camp Tawonga near Yosemite; the JCC of San Francisco; Congregation Beth Sholom and Or Shalom Jewish community, both in San Francisco; the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Belmont; and South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale.
Reisbaum said that the fund allows for the grants to continue, and institutions that didn’t apply during the last grant cycle have time to do so before the next meeting in December.
“We hope to be able to get a next batch before then, and we’re going to leave the process open indefinitely,” said Reisbaum. “It’s something we want all the agencies to be able to think about, and have the community resources available to help.”