New York Democrats, including Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Dan Goldman, called for an increase of $500 million in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
Gillibrand said at a press conference in Midtown Manhattan on Monday that recent antisemitic attacks, including the murder of Israeli embassy staffers in Washington and the firebombing of Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colo., highlight the need to boost funding for the program, which provides certain security funding for synagogues.
“Since Oct. 7, we have seen violence against Jewish people continuing to grow,” she said at the conference. “We have seen antisemitism heighten, and we’ve seen Jewish people forced to live in fear, afraid to go to school, afraid to worship, afraid to go to work—afraid to do anything in their daily lives.”
“No school, no campus, no place should be unsafe for people because of what they believe, because of their faith, because of who they are,” she said.
Schumer said at the event that increased funding for the program is needed to help protect synagogues in New York.
“No one should walk into a synagogue or any other house of worship and feel that they might be shot or feel that they might be a victim of violence,” he said. “You talk to just average New Yorkers, and they’re afraid to go to the places they used to feel safest at, which are their houses of worship.”
Last year, 70% of hate crimes in New York City were committed against Jews, according to Schumer.
“Antisemitism is on a despicable rise, and as the minority leader of the Senate, I will do everything I can, just as I have in the past, to get the funding in the NSP program up from $15 to $25 to $80 to $200 to $315, to $400 and now $500 million,” he said.
Nadler said that he is helping to lead a bipartisan resolution coming to the House floor on Monday to condemn the recent antisemitic attack in Boulder.
“We cannot allow this tragedy to be filed away among the chapters of history without taking action to promote change,” he said.
“That is why I also signed a bipartisan letter last week calling for a $500 million funding level for the nonprofit security grant program, and I echo that call, along with the other people here today,” he said.
‘A tool to be deployed’
Nadler criticized the Trump administration for the way it has handled Jew-hatred, denouncing certain appointments, including Kingsley Wilson, deputy Pentagon press secretary; Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; and Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, who he said are “known antisemites.”
He also called for the withdrawal of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun’s nomination as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, who he said has made “repeated derogatory and disqualifying statements about Democrats’ commitment to fighting antisemitism.”
“The hiring of these officials exposes the motivation behind the Trump playbook on antisemitism,” he said. “To the Trump administration, Jewish safety, like the safety of all minorities in America, does not hold inherent value. Rather, it’s a tool to be deployed in service of a political agenda.”
Goldman said that the program really needs closer to $1 billion in funding, but the $500 million amount is an attempt to “be practical and pragmatic with our Republican colleagues to address the proper need at a level that they can get behind.”
The congressman criticized Republicans for proposing a 2026 budget that allocates $305 million for the program—the same amount as in fiscal year 2023, before the Oct. 7 attacks.
“It is long past time that our Republican colleagues stop talking about so much antisemitism and start doing something about it,” he stated. “That is putting money where it is needed—and it is certainly needed for Jewish houses of worship and Jewish nonprofit entities, but for all other religious organizations and nonprofits around the country, all of whom have seen a rise in hate.”
“The Jewish community will continue to suffer if we do not increase this funding to at least $500 million,” he added.