RESPONDING TO ANTISEMITISM & GLOBAL CRISES

STANDING UP
TO ANTISEMITISM

We'll never stand silent when faced with hate. From Pittsburgh to Colleyville, antisemitism is on the rise in New York and across the United States โ€” and weโ€™re taking action.
Mobilizing our community and other allies to unequivocally denounce anti-Jewish hate. Helping secure 2,400 Jewish organizations and synagogues in the New York area. Forging alliances and building bridges of greater understanding with our neighbors. And educating the Jewish community, particularly college students, about when criticism of Israel crosses the dangerous line into anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
We will never allow hate to stand in the way of living proudly Jewish lives.

UJA and Antisemitism



OUR IMPACT

  • Our Community Security Initiative (CSI), a joint initiative of UJA and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY), helps secure 2,400 Jewish organizations in the New York area. 

  • Mitchell D. Silber, former NYPD director of intelligence analysis, leads CSI and oversees a team of six locally based security directors who are addressing the needs of organizations in the Bronx/Westchester, Brooklyn, Long Island, Manhattan/Staten Island, Queens, and Rockland County.

  • CSI now has a full-time dedicated security expert to help enhance security at summer camps in New York State, specifically north of Westchester and Rockland counties. [Camps in Rockland, Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk and New York City will be covered by the existing CSI Regional Security Directors].

  • Threat Intelligence Analysts based at the ADL's Center on Extremism monitor streams of online antisemitism for New York-based threats.

  • Weโ€™re supporting the Community Security Service (CSS) to help onboard volunteer security teams at local synagogues and other Jewish institutions.

  • We created a $600,000 fund at JCRC-NY to provide security enhancement packages to at least 100 small synagogues โ€” also known as shtiebels โ€” in Brooklyn. The synagogues, in Midwood, Kensington, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Flatbush, have a capacity of fewer than 200 people and little or no staff. 

  • Over the last year alone, CSI helped guide 261 organizations to secure $39 million in federal nonprofit security grants, 31% of the Department of Homeland Securityโ€™s national funds for urban areas.

  • The team completed 132 terrorism vulnerability assessments in the first five months of 2022.

  • Weโ€™re providing loans to nonprofits that received security grants but canโ€™t afford to pay for security enhancements while awaiting government reimbursement.

Q&A WITH MITCHELL SILBER

Mitchell Silber, who heads our Community Security Initiative, shares insights on how Jewish institutions should be thinking about security. 

Read more keyboard_arrow_right
SYNAGOGUE ATTACK THWARTED
UJAโ€™s Community Security Initiative (CSI) played a critical role in thwarting a potentially deadly attack on the New York Jewish community. While monitoring the web, CSIโ€™s threat intelligence analyst discovered a tweet threatening to โ€œshoot up a synagogue.โ€ CSI staff alerted the FBI and local law enforcement, who apprehended two suspects carrying a gun, ammunition, a large hunting knife, and a Nazi armband at Penn Station. What might have been a terrible tragedy was thankfully prevented.
NO HATE. NO FEAR.
On January 5, 2020, we mobilized 25,000 people โ€” Jews and non-Jews โ€” to march across the Brooklyn Bridge under the banner of "No Hate. No Fear." The historic march and the rally were conceived and funded by UJA, and planned along with JCRC-NY. A parallel rally took place in Jerusalem, and nearly 200 organizations participated nationwide โ€” including our senior-most political leaders from the state, city, and Congress.