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 — and we’re taking action.
We will never allow hate to stand in the way of living proudly Jewish lives.
UJA and Antisemitism
Shine A Light
On December 19, 2022, UJA joined the national Shine A Light initiative, lighting a menorah in the heart of New York City to raise awareness about antisemitism.
THE FACTS
The FBI reports
55% of religiously
motivated hate crime targeted the Jewish community.
1 in 4 American Jews
experienced antisemitism in the last year.
40% of hate crimes
in New York City were anti-Jewish.
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 2,000 Jewish organizations in the New York area.
- Mitchell D. Silber, former NYPD director of intelligence analysis, leads CSI and oversees a team of five locally based security directors who are addressing the needs of organizations in the Bronx/Westchester, Brooklyn, Long Island, Manhattan/Staten Island, and Queens.
- A camp security director works with the Secure Community Network (SCN) and the Foundation for Jewish Camp to manage training programs and share best practices for keeping our campgrounds safe.
- A Threat Intelligence Analyst based at the ADL's Center on Extremism monitors streams of online antisemitism for New York-based threats.
- We’re enhancing a community-wide communication system to connect all Jewish institutions in New York, allowing for real-time notifications and alerts as needed.
- We’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 — also known as shtiebels — 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 Security’s national funds for urban areas.
- The team completed 132 terrorism vulnerability assessments in the first five months of 2022.
- We’re providing loans to nonprofits that received security grants but can’t afford to pay for security enhancements while awaiting government reimbursement.
- Our advocacy efforts this year yielded $275 million in nonprofit security grants from federal and state sources.
- We’re strengthening community relations efforts, including building strategic partnerships and coalitions with non-Jewish groups, many of whom are also facing hatred.
For example, we support several initiatives to bring together the Black and Jewish communities around issues of common cause. In the Crown Heights neighborhood, we brought together a Hassidic community organizer and an Afro-Caribbean community organizer, under the auspices of UJA’s nonprofit partner Repair the World, to work on joint programming and leadership development. Now, grassroots leaders from all these communities are coming together for leadership training, which has led to local synagogues and churches having joint dialogues about racism and antisemitism.
- We’re proactively reaching out to our friends in the music industry and hosting company-wide workshops on antisemitism.
- We’re educating New Yorkers about antisemitism — and fighting hate — through both traditional media outlets (billboards and ads) and social media strategies.
- We’re launching a new, large-scale initiative with JCRC-NY and the Institute for Curriculum Studies to educate public and private school teachers about Israel and Judaism.
- We’re partnering with the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and The Jewish Education Project to offer smart, nuanced Israel education to leadership in synagogues, day schools, congregational schools, and camps.
- We’re funding a new effort to nurture independent and influential voices on social media who can speak out in support of Israel.
- We’re leveraging our network at the grassroots level to educate community leaders throughout New York about Israel.
- We’re funding programs to give student and faculty leaders tools to engage in healthy discourse about Israel on campus — and advocate against anti-Zionism.
- In partnership with JCRC-NY, we’re bringing university diversity officers, high-level student-facing faculty, and student leaders of all backgrounds to Israel to gain more nuanced understanding of issues related to Israel.
- We’re enhancing security and resilience. Through our international partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), we’re helping to enhance security at Jewish schools, community centers, and synagogues across Europe, as well as build resilience of local communities to withstand attacks.
- In Halle, Germany, funds from the Jewish Agency’s Security Assistance Fund paid for the synagogue’s fortified door and security cameras, which thwarted a gunman’s attempt to enter the synagogue on Yom Kippur 2019, saving lives.
- We’re training European student leaders. With our support, the European Union of Jewish Students is working to strengthen member unions from 35 countries across Europe, providing leadership training so students can address issues of antisemitism as they arise.
Security
Advocacy
Forging Alliances
Education
On Campus
In Europe
- Our Community Security Initiative (CSI), a joint initiative of UJA and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY), helps secure 2,000 Jewish organizations in the New York area.
- Mitchell D. Silber, former NYPD director of intelligence analysis, leads CSI and oversees a team of five locally based security directors who are addressing the needs of organizations in the Bronx/Westchester, Brooklyn, Long Island, Manhattan/Staten Island, and Queens.
- A camp security director works with the Secure Community Network (SCN) and the Foundation for Jewish Camp to manage training programs and share best practices for keeping our campgrounds safe.
- A Threat Intelligence Analyst based at the ADL's Center on Extremism monitors streams of online antisemitism for New York-based threats.
- We’re enhancing a community-wide communication system to connect all Jewish institutions in New York, allowing for real-time notifications and alerts as needed.
- We’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 — also known as shtiebels — 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 Security’s national funds for urban areas.
- The team completed 132 terrorism vulnerability assessments in the first five months of 2022.
- We’re providing loans to nonprofits that received security grants but can’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.
SYNAGOGUE ATTACK THWARTED
UJA’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, CSI’s threat intelligence analyst discovered a tweet threatening to “shoot up a synagogue.” 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 — Jews and non-Jews — 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 — including our senior-most political leaders from the state, city, and Congress.
Related Work
Proudly part of the fabric of our city.
Helping 2,000 local Jewish institutions stay secure.