The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (the ECAJ), the peak rep­res­ent­at­ive body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, has welcomed the Federal government’s announce­ment of a new $40 million ‘Securing Faith-Based Places’ Grants Program to replace the former Safer Com­munit­ies Fund.

“The ECAJ has been making rep­res­ent­a­tions to the gov­ern­ment since last year about the community’s need for assist­ance with funding for our ever-growing security costs”, said ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim.

“Australia has not been immune from the global surge in antisemitic activity in recent years, so the announce­ment is timely.”

Under the new program all Jewish insti­tu­tions will be eligible for funding not only for security infra­struc­ture but also for the recurrent costs of security guards.  “Funding for recurrent costs was pre­vi­ously only available for Jewish schools, but now syn­agogues, museums and other Jewish communal insti­tu­tions will also be able to apply for this when grant applic­a­tions open in July”, Mr Wertheim said.

“The full details have not yet been finalised and we are hopeful that the gov­ern­ment will accept the rep­res­ent­a­tions that we have made, and continue to make, about the need for oper­a­tion­al security funding to extend to our cent­ral­ised security organ­isa­tions, the National Council for Jewish Community Security and the Community Security Groups. These organ­isa­tions have a “whole of community” mandate to pri­or­it­ise and stream­line security across all communal organ­isa­tions and facil­it­ies.”