NYC Synagogues Urged To Apply For Security Grants After Attacks

NEW YORK CITY — A spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes spurred Congress to double its budget to protect nonprofits from terrorist attacks, New York lawmakers announced outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

“We have all been horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks over the past few weeks and the rising trend of terrorist attacks on houses of worship,” 10 Congress members said in a joint statement.

Congress allocated $90 million — $50 million of which is designated for cities — to its Nonprofit Security Grant program in December 2019, the lawmakers said.

The grants will be available to high-risk synagogues, mosques, churches and community centers across New York City, the lawmakers said.

Nonprofits must first apply for a security funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but the representatives pledged to host grant workshops to help New Yorkers through the process.

The announcement comes after at surge of at least eight anti-Semitic incidents throughout the city last month and the attack of five people celebrating Hanukkah in a Rockland County rabbi's house.

There was a 55 percent increase in anti-Semitic assaults in New York City last year, the, a 2018 audit of anti-Semitic incidents in New York shows.

Reps. Yvette Clarke, Eliot Engel, Hakeem Jeffries, Nita Lowey, Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Gregory Meeks, Grace Meng, Max Rose and Nydia Velázquez issued the following statement:

“Everyone should be able to worship and pray in peace.”