Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report from Los Angeles on the opening of the Anti-Defamation League’s new Media and Entertainment Institute and interview an Israeli trauma expert who recently spoke at a mental health-focused summit in Ukraine. We feature an opinion piece from Dr. Elhanan Bar-On on the significance of Israeli relief works. Also in this newsletter: Vice President Kamala Harris, Bobby Lapin and Mary Ann Stein. We’ll start with a briefing to Congress on Jewish communities’ security preparations ahead of Rosh Hashanah.
A group of 10 major Jewish organizations brought together a bipartisan group of senators and House members for a briefing on Tuesday afternoon on the security situation in the Jewish community ahead of the High Holy Days. The discussions focused primarily on the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, whose funding the lawmakers said they were working to increase after a significant budget cut was proposed for next year, report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen and Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.
The briefing was organized by Jewish Federations of North America, Secure Community Network (SCN), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Orthodox Union (OU), with the support of six other major Jewish organizations.
JFNA President and CEO Eric Fingerhut, a former congressman, opened the briefing with a call for “full funding of the [NSGP] program at the $360 million level.” Fingerhut pointed to unprecedented spikes in antisemitism and said additional public resources are required.
“It is truly indispensable to the physical security of churches, synagogues, mosques and all other faith-based places of gathering across the country,” Fingerhut said. “There’s not a security camera or security door that isn’t in some way costly and needing the help and support of these resources.”
In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a proposal to cut more than $18 million from the program in 2024, despite worsening funding shortfalls in 2023. (The program, currently funded at $305 million, fulfilled just 42% of applications in 2023.)
In rare public comments on the NSGP, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security, said he is committed to working toward a “big, meaningful increase” for 2024, attributing the reduction to overall funding shortages in the Senate’s homeland security budget for next year.
Michael Masters, SCN national director and CEO, said the Jewish community remains the No. 1 target of religiously motivated hate crimes in the U.S. as they prepare to gather for the High Holy Days this month, noting that his organization has trained more than 7,700 people on security measures ahead of Rosh Hashanah. “We have made much progress, but there is much more work to do,” he said.
Meredith Weisel, who heads the ADL’s Washington office, said funding for the NSGP is critical because “pundits, politicians and platforms have embraced the type of hate and conspiracies that were previously reserved for the fringes of society and are now being amplified in more mainstream spaces.”
“In the face of rising threats towards religious and other nonprofit institutions, funding has enabled congregations to improve their security measures and allowed millions praying in houses of worship, especially during the holiest time of year, to have the peace of mind that their institutions are equipped to deter and protect against these attacks,” Weisel said.
Brandy Flack, executive director of Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis, Tenn., shared her experience when a shooter opened fire outside the school last month. Flack credited security protocols with saving her life.
“A man came to our school poised on committing a mass shooting and thankfully he failed. He failed because he was unable to enter our buildings. Only a few weeks earlier, our doors had been replaced and hardened with deliberate access control. The federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program funded this life-saving security upgrade.”
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