I. Jewish Groups Get 94% of Homeland Security Grants (July 29, 2014)
Jewish Groups Get 94% of Homeland Security Grants
Security at a Cost: Congregation B’nai Israel of Staten Island installs new windows, paid for by a federal grant. Image by claudio papapietro
By JTA July 29, 2014
The Department of Homeland Security allocated to Jewish institutions $12 million, or 94 percent, of $13 million in funds for securing nonprofits.
The Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office director, William Daroff, said Tuesday that the allocation made sense particularly in light of an intensification of threats on Jewish community targets in the United States and overseas.
“In the current environment there are threats to nonprofits and to Jewish institutions,” he told JTA, noting a swell of attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
“We see it clearly in Europe, but we also see it here in the United States in Kansas City, in Seattle and numerous occasions that are not made public or do not come to fruition,” Daroff said. He referred to attacks in recent years on Jewish community centers in Kansas City and Seattle.
The allocations, announced July 25, are based on applications that are then assessed for threat by local and federal law enforcement officials.
The $13 million disbursed last week brings to $151 million the amount disbursed since the program started in 2005, most of it to Jewish institutions.
Leading the lobbying for the program have been the Jewish Federations of North America, the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of America.
In a statement, the JFNA thanked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson as well as lawmakers for championing the funds, among them Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.), and Reps. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), John Carter (R-Texas) and David Price (D-N.C.).
II. Jewish groups get most Homeland Security grants
By Erin Clare – September 4, 2013
Jewish Groups Get Most of Homeland Security Grants
Nearly 90 percent of the $10 million in grants announced last week by the Department of Homeland Security to help nonprofit organizations improve their security is going to Jewish institutions.
The department announced the federal security grants last week, noting that $9 million of the total went to Jewish institutions. The allocation is down slightly from last year’s award of $9.7 million.
“The Department of Homeland Security has demonstrated a great commitment to protecting at-risk communities,” said Michael Siegal, chair of The Jewish Federations of North America’s board of trustees.
“Since Sept. 11, nonprofits generally, and Jewish communal institutions specifically, have been the victim of an alarming number of threats and attacks,” said William Daroff, vice president for public policy and director of JFNA’s Washington office.
The money to help fight terrorism comes from Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
Both the JFNA and the Orthodox Union worked to obtain the grants.
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Since Congress established the program in 2005, $138 million has been distributed across the country to help at-risk nonprofits acquire and install physical security enhancements and undertake preparedness training.
— Suzanne Pollak
III. Jewish Groups Secure Major Funding from Department of Homeland Security
October 3, 2007 4:00 am
Jewish Groups Secure Major Funding From Department of Homeland Security
Jewish institutions will receive the majority of U.S. federal funds designated this year to help secure non-profit organizations.
Of the 308 grants awarded through the Urban Areas Security Initiative Non-Profit Security Grant Program, 251 are being allocated to Jewish groups, totaling $19.6 million.
The $24 million in total grants announced by the Department of Homeland Security last week vary in amounts, with $100,000 the maximum. The funds are used to provide everything from roadblocks to security cameras to blast-proof doors and windows at locations that could be terrorist targets.
The grants were announced a few days after representatives of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives toured the Jewish community’s national security alert organization in Manhattan.
A presidential order created the center in March 2006 in response to the lack of coordination between the Federal Emergency Planning Agency and faith and community-based groups that volunteered on the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Center director John Kim Cook, who took over six weeks ago, is meeting with community organizations across the country to understand how his agency can best help them take care of their own.
“Our objective is to get right in the middle of [Department of Homeland Security] policy to really work with the programs of DHS to make sure there’s not discrimination, and secondly to provide outreach to faith-based community organizations,” Cook told JTA. “We want to foster an environment that welcomes participation of these organizations. With our preparedness programs, if we touch congregations throughout the land, we would touch the majority of the people in the U.S.”
Cook’s deputy, Greg DiNapoli, joined him Sept. 25 in touring the Secure Community Network facility. Representatives from the DHS bomb prevention squad and members of the New York Police Department were on hand as well to meet with the SCN advisory board, which is comprised of representatives from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, United Jewish Communities, the New York Board of Rabbis and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.
SCN director Paul Goldenberg said he believes the potential for future attacks against Jews in America cannot be underrated.
“Anywhere where Jews gather is a potential target,” he told JTA. “I think synagogues are particularly susceptible because they’re considered soft targets, but my concern is the lone wolf, the most difficult to investigate. The only real mitigation we have is to make the community aware of these types of individuals and train them about what to look out for.”
The research bears out Goldenberg’s concerns.
“DHS conducted a two-phase assessment based on investment justifications and state, local and national law enforcement review,” United Jewish Communities, the umbrella body for Jewish federations, said in a news release. “The result underscores a troubling fact: The Jewish community is at risk in a way and at a level not shared by other groups.”
After one woman was killed and five were wounded in an attack on the Jewish federation building in Seattle last year, UJC stepped up its involvement this year to ensure that the SCN program was funded and that Jewish organizations were informed how to apply for grants.
That work apparently paid off. The grant program was funded with $25 million in 2005, but had not been funded in 2006. Beyond the $24 million approved for this year, he Senate is now considering approval of $20 million in grants for 2008.
“Since Sept. 11, non-profits and Jewish institutions have been the victims of an alarming number of threats and attacks,” said William Daroff, UJC’s vice president of public policy and the group’s Washington director, who played a major role in securing the funding.
“We just marked the one-year anniversary of the attack in Seattle. One federation staff member was killed in that attack. We hope this recognition will help make it so that attacks like this do not occur in the future.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle received the maximum grant of $100,000 for this year, but had applied with the purpose of helping other groups in Seattle, including the Seattle Hebrew Academy and the Seattle Community School, to install security cameras and doors that can withstand heavy impact.
“Since the shooting we have definitely upgraded the facility, but it’s something we’re constantly working on, we’re constantly upgrading,” said Zack Carstensen, director of government affairs at the Seattle federation. “Security is one of the top priorities here. You’ll find that throughout the Jewish community in Seattle.”
Many of the grants were awarded to organizations in the New York area. Another large concentration was in Maryland, where $900,000 will go to 19 Jewish organizations, including individual congregations and institutions such as the Jewish Museum of Maryland and the Maimonides Academy of Baltimore.
Goldenberg said that despite the high level of security concerns at Jewish institutions, it is important not to “get to the point where we’re building walls around our synagogues and around our federations.”
“We have to do everything that we can to harden our locations and to make them much less appealing to people who want to do harm to our communities,” he said, “but Secure Community Network is not out there to say the sky is falling.”
Cook said he was impressed by the communication and coordination within the community that makes SCN an effective organization, and he pledged to work with SCN to offer disaster response training to the Jewish community.
“It is comprehensive training that teaches citizens how to respond to an act of terrorism, first aid, how to stay alive during a catastrophic event and help others,” Goldenberg said. “We’re formally and officially working at the highest levels to promote that training. It can save lives.”
IV. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America Welcomes $90 Million in Department of Homeland Security Awards to Houses of Worship, Day Schools, Summer Camps, Other Nonprofits Across US
Posted on July 1, 2020 In Press Releases
2020 Nonprofit Security Grant Program Awards Mark Largest Ever Allocation in Program’s History
Today, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America welcomed the awarding of $90 million in federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) security grants by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to nonprofit organizations across the United States.
DHS, which administers the awards, provides up to $100,000 for houses of worship, parochial day schools, community centers, Jewish federations and a variety of other nonprofit institutions deemed to be at risk of terror attacks to help them increase security for their facilities and the people who use them. Over the past 15 years, Congress has apportioned $419 million for the program.
The fiscal year 2020 funding, approved by Congress and signed by the President in December, represents a 50 percent increase over last year’s $60 million funding and came in the wake of the tragic attacks on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the Chabad of Poway six months later and attacks on visibly Jewish people in New York and New Jersey.
The creation of the NSGP was spearheaded by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center in 2005 (in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America and other organizations). The Advocacy Center works closely with legislators each year to increase program funding. Recipients may use the grants to pay for acquiring and installing items ranging from fences, lighting and video surveillance to metal detectors and blast-resistant doors, locks and windows. Funding may also be used to train staff and pay for contracted security personnel.
Of the $90 million for 2020, $50 million are going to nonprofits in 32 major urban areas in 22 states, from New York City and Jersey City/Newark to Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles, Calif. Another $40 million has been awarded to more than 500 institutions in places that are outside the major urban areas. Recipients range from faith-based summer camps and day schools to synagogues, churches, mosques and a wide swath of social welfare organizations and other nonprofits.
Nathan Diament, Executive Director of the OU Advocacy Center, stated:
“We are deeply appreciative that DHS has awarded this year’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program awards. The new $90 million funding level is the highest for this program and we thank the leadership and support of our lawmakers who understood the critical need to increase funding so that more nonprofits can be protected.”
OU President Mark (Moishe) Bane stated:
“We have a responsibility to protect people whether at prayer, at school and in other potentially vulnerable places, and this funding truly helps us to do that. We can, and must, do everything we can to keep our community – and all faith communities – safe.”
V. U.S. Jewish NGOs to Get 97% of Homeland Security’s Defense Grant in 2012
While the budget has shrunk in recent years, the threat to Jewish institutions has not changed; as a result, Jewish non-profits will receive a record percentage of the funds.
VI. Biden nominates Alejandro Mayorkas, a Latino Jew, as Homeland Security secretary
Mayorkas, 60, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, was born in Cuba to a Cuban Jewish father and Romanian Jewish mother.
By Ron Kampeas November 23, 2020, 4:27 pm 0
Alejandro Mayorkas, then deputy secretary of Homeland Security, addresses the Orthodox Union at a conference in Washington, Sept. 21, 2016. (Orthodox Union via JTA)
Alejandro Mayorkas, then deputy secretary of Homeland Security, addresses the Orthodox Union at a conference in Washington, Sept. 21, 2016. (Orthodox Union via JTA)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President-elect Joe Biden announced the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas, a Latino Jew who has emphasized the heightened threat facing American Jews, as his Homeland Security secretary on Monday.
Mayorkas, 60, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, was born in Cuba to a Cuban Jewish father and Romanian Jewish mother. His mother survived the Holocaust.
As deputy secretary, Mayorkas worked closely with Jewish groups and spoke often about the specific threats facing American Jews.
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Speaking in 2016 to the annual Washington conference of the Orthodox Union about nonprofit security grants, Mayorkas said, “The need is most acute in the Jewish community because of the ascension of anti-Semitism and hate crimes we see.”
Mayorkas grounded his concern in his background and his upbringing. Among the things that “keep me up at night,” he said at the time, was the threat to “my community,” the Jewish community.
“I come from a tradition of a lack of security instilled in me as a very young person,” said Mayorkas, whose parents had moved to Cuba after marrying, then the United States following the revolution there.
Mayorkas is a board member of HIAS, the Jewish immigration advocacy group.
“Ali has consistently demonstrated that he is not only a strong and highly respected leader, but an empathetic one who knows the heart of the stranger, as the child of a Holocaust survivor, as a Latino, and as a refugee and immigrant himself,” said Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS, in a statement.
The Biden transition team in its news release naming Mayorkas emphasized the precedent he will set.
“Alejandro Mayorkas is the first Latino and immigrant nominated to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security,” it said. “He has led a distinguished 30-year career as a law enforcement official and a nationally-recognized lawyer in the private sector.” PJC