NY’s  Jewish Communal Fund endowment, the Special Gifts Fund, has made an emergency grant of $141,500 to UJA-Federation of New York to help secure more than 150 local synagogues, day schools, JCCs and other centers of Jewish life in the wake of the tragedy in Pittsburgh.

The funding will enable these Jewish organizations to conduct the security assessments that are necessary to apply for Department of Homeland Security grants. This grant will potentially leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal security grants, and represents a collaboration between UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Communal Fund, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY), in a program seed funded by the Paul E. Singer Foundation, which has already earmarked $1 million to enhance security at Jewish institutions in New York.

“These security assessments are critical to helping our synagogues, day schools and other communal institutions access government dollars to address the very real security challenges we face,” says Zoya Raynes, President of Jewish Communal Fund and a board member of JCRC-NY.