After Poway, $15m. designated in California to protect religious facilities
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed budget additions on Thursday, designating $15 million to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), three months after one person was killed and a rabbi maimed in a shooting attack in Poway.
The NSGP assists nonprofits at risk of hate-motivated violence with improving their security. The nonprofits include religious congregations, private and nonprofit schools, LGBTQ organizations, and women’s health groups.
Newsom announced these budgetary additions at the end of April, three days after the Poway synagogue shooting, but only formally approved them at the end of June. “We all must call out hate – against any and all communities – and act to defend those targeted for their religious beliefs, who they love, or how they identify,” Newsom said in a statement released after the budget announcement. “An attack against any community is an attack against our entire state – who we are and what we stand for.”
Following Newsom’s announcement, Senator Ben Allen, who is also the chairman of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, said “with the stark rise in hate-motivated violence, we must do more to secure gathering places to prevent future attacks, and educate people on the dangers of antisemitism and hate of all forms.”
Allen commented again after signing the budget additions, saying that “this has been a successful year for the Jewish Caucus and its work improving quality of life in the Jewish community and for all Californians.”
“In the wake of increases in acts of antisemitism and bigotry of all forms, destruction caused by the state’s wildfires, and the ever-pressing need for health care in our aging Holocaust survivor population, and others who have experienced trauma, we asked more of our state leaders than ever before and they stood with us. We are grateful to Governor Newsom, the legislative leadership, and countless community organizations for supporting our Caucus budget requests,” Allen said.
Besides the money transferred to the NSGP, Newsom also designated $6 million for the expansion of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.