US synagogues, Jewish groups paying more than $1 billion a year for security

US Jewish security costs top $1 billion per year as antisemitic threats drive spending surge.

By World Israel News Staff

American Jewish institutions are now spending more than $1 billion a year on security, according to new data from the Jewish Federations of North America, highlighting the growing financial burden imposed on Jewish communal life by persistent antisemitic threats and violence.

The organization estimated annual security expenditures at approximately $1.015 billion across more than 4,500 Jewish institutions, including synagogues, schools, Jewish community centers, summer camps and other nonprofit organizations.

That represents an increase of roughly 33% from JFNA’s previous estimate of $765 million in 2024. Average security spending now stands at approximately $225,000 per institution each year.

The estimate does not include privately owned Jewish businesses, meaning the actual amount spent protecting Jewish spaces across the country is likely higher. JFNA noted that its calculation excludes more than 1,600 kosher restaurants, approximately 500 kosher grocery stores and markets, as well as Judaica shops and Jewish bookstores.

The largest portion of the security bill goes toward personnel, including professional guards and security directors. Another roughly $150 million is being spent on security technology and physical improvements to buildings, including surveillance systems, reinforced infrastructure and other protective measures.

The scale of the expenditure has increasingly led Jewish leaders to characterize security as an effective additional tax on Jewish communal life — diverting money that would otherwise support education, welfare programs and religious activities.

“Every dollar our community spends on guards and cameras is a dollar not spent on Jewish education,” JFNA President and CEO Eric Fingerhut said.

JFNA estimated that the money currently being spent annually on security could instead pay Jewish day school tuition for approximately 44,000 children, cover summer camp costs for every Jewish child attending camp, or finance a decade’s worth of Birthright Israel trips.

The new figures come amid continuing concern over antisemitic violence in the United States.

FBI data released in August showed that authorities recorded 10,881 hate crime incidents nationwide in 2025. Anti-Jewish incidents continued to account for nearly two-thirds of all reported religiously motivated hate crimes, despite Jews constituting only about 2% of the US population.

The Anti-Defamation League separately recorded 6,274 antisemitic incidents involving harassment, vandalism or assault in 2025. While that represented a 33% decline from the record 9,354 incidents counted in 2024, it was still the third-highest annual total recorded by the organization since it began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.

Violence also became more severe. The ADL said physical assaults reached a record level in 2025, with 32 antisemitic assaults involving deadly weapons, compared with 23 the previous year.

Three people were killed in antisemitic attacks in the United States during the year.

Among the most prominent incidents were the May 2025 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, where two Israeli Embassy employees were killed, and the June attack in Boulder, Colorado, targeting participants in a demonstration calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Concerns over security have steadily intensified since the October 2018 massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where a gunman killed 11 worshipers in the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.

Subsequent attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals, followed by the surge in antisemitism after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war, have prompted Jewish organizations to dramatically expand security operations.

Security measures that were once unusual have consequently become routine at many American synagogues and Jewish institutions, including armed guards, police patrols, controlled entrances, reinforced doors, surveillance cameras, threat monitoring and emergency-response training.

Jewish organizations are now pressing Congress to provide substantially more federal assistance through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps synagogues, churches, mosques and other at-risk nonprofit organizations pay for security improvements.

Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced the bipartisan Jewish American Security Act in May, which would authorize $1 billion for security resources for vulnerable houses of worship and nonprofit institutions while also establishing additional federal measures to combat antisemitism.

“Jewish Americans are being targeted, attacked, and killed simply because of who they are,” Rosen said when announcing the legislation.

American JewsAntisemitismsynagogue security