[PHOTO LINK BELOW] Just weeks after the thwarted attacks on two Bronx synagogues, Representative Anthony D. Weiner (D – Brooklyn and Queens), a member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, held a press conference Tuesday at Bnos Yisroel Girls School (Flatbush), and announced that 26 high-risk non-profit and religious groups in Brooklyn will receive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants. The Brooklyn Jewish institutions will receive a total of $1.83 million.

Citywide, 61 institutions in New York City will receive a total of $4.1 million from the Department of Homeland Security. The city will receive approximately 3 times more than the amount given to any other locality nationwide. Last year total, 59 non-profits in New York City received a total of $4.1 million. In total, New York State will receive $4.6 million.
In May, federal authorities, working with the New York Police Department, arrested 4 men who were planning to bomb the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx. The men were also planning to attack military planes at an upstate Air National Guard base.

The grants are being made available through the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and will provide significant funding for security measures at the very institutions being singled out as potential targets – including hospitals, synagogues, and universities. Since the program began in 2005, more than 200 New York City non-profits received nearly $17 million in funding.

Institutions that qualified for the current grant program were eligible to receive up to $75,000 – funds that can be used to train security personnel and install security measures such as surveillance cameras, barriers and controlled entry systems. The average award for grant winners is approximately $70,000, and the funds are expected to be delivered within the next 60 days.

Rep. Weiner, “As the planned attacks in the Bronx highlight, non-profit and religious institutions are at-risk – and need protection. Worshipers, museum goers, and hospital visitors expect and deserve a safe environment, and these grants will go a long way towards ensuring their safety.”

The UASI program was created after Weiner offered legislation in the Judiciary Committee in 2004. The Department of Homeland Security does not release the specific list of grant recipients due to security reasons.

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(Eli Gefen – YWN)