That some recipients of federation security grants “happen to be Jewish really shouldn’t be a surprise,” said Richard Canas, director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
Photo courtesy NJ Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness
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Jacob Toporek, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations, called the funds “a good stepping stone.”
June 25, 2009
Twenty-six nonprofit agencies in New Jersey — including 17 Jewish institutions — will share more than $1.6 million in federal grants to beef up security.
The funds, which come from the Department of Homeland Security, are now in the process of being disbursed by the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
“That they happen to be Jewish really shouldn’t be a surprise, especially in this area,” said Richard Canas, director of the state office. “It is the high vulnerability and locations of these institutions that fit the criteria.”
The Jewish institutions receiving the grants include day schools, synagogues, community centers, and service agencies.
According to those federal criteria, the grants were awarded to applicants that “make an attractive target,” have “potential vulnerabilities to attack,” or have been attacked or “closely allied with an organization that has been the subject of an attack by a terrorist organization inside or outside the U.S.”
“We react a lot to strategic intelligence, and any time Israel is attacked on the cusp of some political controversy, we all feel it here,” Canas told NJ Jewish News. “We know idiots could decide to take out their wrath on some of these institutions.”
Out of $1,667,289 in security funds, Jewish institutions in nine counties received $1,194, 474 of the money.
“This is a very significant number, and we are very appreciative,” said Jacob Toporek, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations. “It is a good stepping stone, and in the coming year we hope to do even better” in securing homeland security funds.
Nationally, more than 60 percent of the $15 million in the DHS Nonprofit Security Grant Program went to Jewish-affiliated groups, 144 of the 227 recipients.
The funds will enable nonprofit groups in 62 designated high-threat urban areas across the country to hire more security personnel or install such technological upgrades as video surveillance, better lighting systems, and blast-proof windows and doors.
Organizations receiving the grants are required to supply an additional 25 percent to the monies they are being awarded.
New Jersey received the third-highest share of funding this go-round, behind New York and California.
In Washington, a DHS spokesperson declined to identify the institutions receiving funds, saying, “I understand this may be of interest to your readers, but it may also be of interest to people who would do your readers harm.”
A total of $494,762 was allocated to seven organizations in the MetroWest community.
Grant writers at United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ collaborated with security experts and the Prosecutor’s Offices of Essex and Morris counties to assist the institutions that applied for increased protection.
Shelley Labiner, chief marketing officer at UJC MetroWest, said, “We’ve been advised for security purposes not to reveal the names of the organizations receiving funds.”
“There is no doubt that we have throughout the year been sending our legislators and decision-makers copies of articles in which the Jewish community was vulnerable,” said Toporek. “What happened at the U.S. Holocaust Museum could happen in New Jersey. There is still enough anti-Semitism to make us vulnerable, and homeland security offices are aware we are vulnerable.”
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