(JTA) — New York state has awarded $10 million for the protection of “religious-based institutions and non-public schools from hate crimes,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
The money, which marks the second round of funding under New York’s Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes Grant Program, will fund more than 200 projects, the Governor’s Office said in a statement.
Each eligible institution will receive $50,000 for additional security training, cameras, door-hardening, improved lighting, state-of-the-art technology and other related security upgrades.
“With anti-Semitism and hate crimes on the rise,” Cuomo said on Twitter, his administration would “do all we can to protect our communities against the threats we face.”
The announcement comes just over a week after New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said that he intended to establish a new unit focused on hate crimes separate from the existing NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force in response to the recent shooting of four people, including two Hasidic Jews, at a kosher grocery in New Jersey.
In October, the NYPD reported that the number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City had risen significantly over the first nine months of this year, part of a citywide rise in such offenses, with 311 total hate crimes through September, as opposed to 250 reported through the same period in 2018.
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