By Morris Malakoff, JTNews Correspondent
Local Jewish organizations will receive more than $446,000 in grants from the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Urban Areas Security Initiative Nonprofit Security Grant Program in the coming year.
Eighth District Congressman Dave Reichert announced the grants on Sept. 28.
“The terrible events of last year were a tragic reminder of the threat we all face. These funds will help the Jewish Federation and other nonprofit groups in the region close their security gaps,” said Reichert, referring to the shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in 2006 that killed one woman and injured five others. “These grants facilitate enhanced security and allow for preventative measures that, unfortunately, are necessary due to the threats that they receive.”
According to Reichert spokesperson Abigail Shilling, the attack on the Jewish Federation offices moved the congressman to write Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, emphasizing the need to act on the grant requests on behalf of entities such as the Federation, and other high-profile targets, such as mosques.
The effect was a nearly five-fold increase in money from that program coming to the Seattle area, mainly to organizations in the Jewish community.
The announced grants include:
$100,000 for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle
$100,000 for Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation
$100,000 for the Stroum Jewish Community Center
$74,944 for the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle
$71,355 for Jewish Family Service of Seattle
The Federation worked closely with organizations in the community throughout the grant application process, submitting an umbrella application that sought program money for five organizations: Seattle Hebrew Academy, The Kline Galland Center and Affiliates, Hillel at the University of Washington, Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, Northwest Yeshiva High School, and Seattle Jewish Community School.
According to Zach Carstensen, the Federation’s director of Government Affairs, the grants are specifically for security and infrastructure upgrades that are related to terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
“Part of applying for the grants is a requirement that each organization has completed a security assessment to identify specific needs,” he said. “For most of the applicants, that is something that had been done many times.”
The grant moneys cannot be used for non-capital expenditures, such as paying for security guards.
Planned uses for the grants include basic security apparatus, such as security fencing across the front facade of the Jewish Day School, additional perimeter fencing, and parking-lot lighting at the Stroum JCC on Mercer Island.
Carstensen said that those types of projects are typical of what is planned for most of the funds.
“Much of it is going to purchase and install fencing, lighting, cameras and for smaller security measures such as intercoms and electronic access controls.”
Nationwide, 308 grants capped at $100,000 each, were made following a long process that included screening at the state level and a final decision made by the Department of Homeland Security. That decision was made using a scoring system that evaluates potential threats as well as the strategic role a facility could play in disaster recovery.
The legislation that created the program specifies that qualifying organizations be nonprofits.
The organizations also have to be located within identified urban areas, which in Washington is limited to the Seattle metropolitan area.
The overwhelming majority of the grants across the nation were awarded to Jewish organizations. In Seattle, the only exception was a $97,695 grant to Food Lifeline. Nationwide, a smattering of grants went to Catholic and not-for-profit hospitals, blood banks, community centers and one to an Islamic association in Miami.
Disbursement of federal funds to faith-based organizations often raises question of separation of church and state. Defining that issue has become skewed in the wake of domestic-terrorism attacks and large-scale natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina.
“There is a similar state program,” said Matt Grogan, associate executive director at the Stroum JCC. “Under that program, we qualify because we serve the broader community. We are not a religious organization, and our services are available to everybody. But that program excludes religious organization such as synagogues. The federal program is less restrictive.”
Most of the local organizations receiving the grants offer their services to both the Jewish and non-Jewish community. But Herzl-Ner Tamid and Sephardic Bikur Holim are religious communities.
Herzl-Ner Tamid president Susan Matt said that while the congregation is a Jewish religious organization, it also plays an active role in the greater Mercer Island community.
“We have been actively working with local officials on issues such as disaster planning,” she said.
According to Carstensen, under the terms of the federal program, religious communities are protected because they are perceived as targets, not because of their beliefs and practices.
“I see this as more about padlocks than prayer books,” he said. “In the case of Herzl-Ner Tamid and Sephardic Bikur Holim, there is a case that they are of a symbolic value and could be available to assist the community in recovery from a disaster.”
As for the large percentage of grants placed into the Jewish community, Carstensen said that the grants are more about vulnerability than religious beliefs.
“The events of last summer certainly more than demonstrated that this is a vulnerable community.”