Nonprofit Jewish organizations get grants to safeguard against hate crimes

Sep. 3—The Chabad of the Abingtons' Jewish Discovery Center in Waverly will use a $150,000 federal grant to safeguard against potential hate crime threats, Rabbi Benny Rapoport said Friday.

The funding is part of $4.2 million in U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program given to 35 entities throughout Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf announced.

Thirty of the recipients are Jewish organizations including synagogues, youth camps and schools. Four church organizations and a medical college also received grants.

"Look at the world we're in today that we have to harden which facilities? Synagogues, churches and schools. It's absolutely obscene," Rapoport said.

The center will use the funding to enhance security with upgrades that might include secure doors, perimeter fencing, improved lighting and surveillance cameras, he said.

"Hardening our site is necessary," Rapoport sad. "The basic idea is you want to slow down the threat."

This grant was among two in Lackawanna County. Yeshivath Beth Moshe-Milton Eisner Yeshiva High School in Scranton also received $150,000.

In Luzerne County, $150,000 was awarded to the private Jewish school Cheder Menachem located in the former Coughlin High School's annex building on North Washington Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Rabbi Yossi Baumgarten, administrator for Cheder Menachem, said the funding will be used to enhance security around the building at a time when there have been mass shootings across the U.S. that have rattled Jewish communities.

"Anti-semitism is on the rise so we have to take every precaution to protect all of our students and our families and faculty members," Baumgarten said.

Other organizations in Northeast Pennsylvania that each received $150,000 include:

Monroe County: Camp Dina; Camp Dora Golding; Congregation Bais Menachem Inc.; Jewish Resource Center of the Poconos Inc.; and Rose Garden Retreats Inc.

Pike County: Camp Gan Israel Northeast; and Federation of Young Men's Hebrew Association and Young Women's Hebrew Association.

Wayne County: ANPLR; Beber Camp Property Inc.; Camp Ramah in the Poconos; Chevra of Jewish War Heroes; and Federation of Young Men's Hebrew Association and Young Women's Hebrew Association.

Wyoming County: Mesivta Chazak Inc.

"Pennsylvania's diverse bounty of cultures are too often the targets of hate crimes," Wolf said in a news release. "This $4.2 million federal investment builds on the more than $15 million (in NSGP grants) I've invested at the state level to protect our people."

Denise Allabaugh, staff writer, contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter.