After a vehicle-ramming and shooting attack at a Michigan synagogue, Jewish advocacy groups are pressing Congress to resolve a funding impasse they say is delaying critical security support for vulnerable nonprofits.
Authorities identified Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, as the suspect accused of driving a truck into Temple Israel, a large Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., before exchanging gunfire with armed security personnel. Ghazali was killed in the exchange, and the synagogue’s director of security was injured by Ghazali’s vehicle. The FBI is investigating the incident as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.
Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, stated that the attack “is just the latest, terrifying reminder that antisemitism is an active threat to American Jews in 2026, and more needs to be done to keep Jewish institutions and their members safe.”
He said funding for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program is currently tied up in a “political stalemate” over a U.S. Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill.
“NSGP makes it possible for Jewish schools and synagogues to harden physical security and hire and train private security guards,” Diament stated. “Press reports indicate that the synagogue’s private security engaged with and disabled the shooter. This kind of security is crucial in this age of rising antisemitism, and the cost should not be borne exclusively by the Jewish community.”
Diament called on Congress and the Trump administration to “act with urgency” to deliver $500 million in NSGP funding, whether through the DHS spending bill or another legislative vehicle.
“It simply needs to get done,” he said.
Sydney Altfield, national director of the Orthodox Union Teach Coalition, stated that the grant program, which she described as “the main funding source protecting institutions” like Temple Israel, has become entangled in “a DHS funding fight in Congress.”
“The government’s first responsibility is to protect its citizens,” Altfield said. “That is why Congress needs to bring NSGP funding levels to $1 billion before the next attack happens. Jewish families have been forced to pay an antisemitism tax for too long.”
The Jewish Federations of North America similarly stressed the financial burden facing Jewish institutions. A Federation spokesman told JNS that the group continues to support full funding for “vital programs” housed within Homeland Security that strengthen the security of Jewish institutions.
“The Jewish community is forced to spend over $765 million a year to simply protect itself, and there is more the government should do to ensure every vulnerable Jewish institution has the resources to keep safe,” the group stated in its public statement.
