The state has announced grants totaling $5 million to 113 religious and other nonprofit institutions around the state to increase their security against potential hate crimes.
The grants were awarded in implementation of a 2019 allocation approved by state lawmakers in the wake of the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Eligible institutions were invited to apply.
Those eligible for the grants — which can fund training, improvements to building security and related programs — include any religious or nonprofit group that serves a population that could be targeted for hate crimes under definitions used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Those categories include race, gender, gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation and ethnicity.
The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency administered the grant program.
The grants range from $5,000 to $150,000. Recipients include not only a significant number of synagogues and other Jewish schools and institutions, but also numerous Christian, Muslim and nonprofit nonsectarian groups around the state.
The General Assembly approved the allocation in 2019 in the wake of a gunman’s 2018 attack on the Tree of Life / Or L’Simcha synagogue building in Squirrel Hill, killing 11 worshippers from three congregations worshipping there, Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The man accused in the shooting, Robert Bowers, faces trial on federal hate-crimes charges.
The grant can cover anything from planning and training surrounding security to the physical hardening of buildings using anything from metal detectors to deadbolts to emergency communications systems.
Twenty-five of the grant recipients are in Allegheny County.
They include: Beth El Congregation, $90,000; Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, $35,080; Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, $45,158; Center that CARES, $24,000; The Aleph Institute, $23,385; Locally Grown, $20,000; Gemilas Chesed Synagogue, $20,800; Temple Ohav Shalom of Pittsburgh, $40,916; Yeshivath Achei Tminim of Pittsburgh, $119,341; Lubavitch Center, $25,000; Rodef Shalom Congregation, $24,589; Adat Shalom B’nai Israel Beth Jacob, $97,481; Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church, $71,636; Chabad of Carnegie Mellon University, $25,000; ACHIEVA, $24,419; Pittsburgh Kollel Beth Yitzchok, $25,000; Community Day School, $74,584; Carnegie Library of Homestead, $71,593; Allies for Health & Wellbeing (formerly Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force), $54,053; First Methodist Church of Pittsburgh, $17,500; Temple Emanuel of South Hills, $74,800; The Union Project, $25,000; Calvary Episcopal Church, $25,000; Generations House of Worship, $22,700; and Congregation Dor Hadash $15,100.
Recipients in surrounding counties include, in Butler County, Congregation B’nai Abraham, $20,853; and in Westmoreland County, Living Word Congregational Church, $25,000; and Adelphoi Education, $24,510.
