North Jersey religious sites will get $4.8M in security grants, Gottheimer announces

Amid rising reports of antisemitism, Islamophobia and other bias incidents, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer on Friday announced $4.8 million in federal grants to beef up security at religious institutions across his North Jersey district.

The 34 grant recipients − a mix of synagogues, mosques, churches, religious schools and community centers − will use the money to invest in physical protections, training and security technology, the Democrat said at a news conference.

"We must ensure that all people are safe − on college campuses, in our neighborhoods, at our schools, at our churches, mosques and synagogues. That's what nonprofit security grants are all about," Gottheimer said at the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School in Teaneck.New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District, which stretches across northern Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties, has received $10.3 million in total from the federal program in recent years, more than any other district in the state according to Gottheimer.

Reports of bias incidents and hate crimes have been rising in the U.S. and New Jersey for years, but tensions have intensified since Hamas' terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's subsequent military operations in Gaza. Reported bias incidents set a record in New Jersey in 2022 and preliminary data were on track to shatter that mark again last year, the state Attorney General's Office reported in March.

College campuses have been the flashpoint over the last two weeks, with some Jewish students saying they felt unsafe amid demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war.

Ma’ayanot Yeshiva was one of 29 recipients to receive the maximum grant of $150,000. Among the other recipients were the Moriah School in Englewood, a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school that educates 800 students; the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara, a Sikh house of worship, in Glen Rock; and Nida ul-Islam, an Islamic center of worship in Teaneck that offers educational and counseling services for the Muslim community.

C.B. Neugroschl, head of the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva, said she was grateful to Gottheimer for standing by the Jewish community. “Our students, like Jewish students all over the United States, have been on the frontlines of rising antisemitism in their neighborhoods at an alarming rate," she said in a statement released by the congressman's office.

"All Americans, across our country, want their children to be safe and have the security and safety to practice their religion without intimidation or threats of any kind, as an American right enshrined in our Constitution,” she said.

More: How to fight rising antisemitism? Bergen yeshiva and Catholic school started by talking

Reports of antisemitism more than doubled in New Jersey last year, to 830, according to the latest annual report from the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group. Bergen County bore the brunt of the increase, registering the most antisemitic attacks in the state and the sharpest rise, an almost fourfold jump over the prior year, the group said.

That included Teaneck council meetings where protestors reportedly harassed Jewish residents with curses and threats and an Englewood council meeting where demonstrators burned an Israeli flag.

Complaints of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incidents have also been on the rise, according to state data. A New Jersey man was charged with a federal hate crime last month for allegedly breaking into the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University during the Eid-al-Fitr holiday and causing $40,000 in damages,

The latest data from the FBI shows that the United States is experiencing a record-high in hate crimes since the 1990s.

"Here in America, the greatest country in the world, we must ensure that religious freedom endures," Gottheimer said on Friday. "As we are seeing right now on far too many of our neighborhoods, outside religious institutions, and on college campuses, antisemitism is surging, and there’s not even an attempt to hide it."

Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: yellin@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ religious sites getting $4.8M for security, Gottheimer says