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Federal government announcement – $2.2 million for security funding for NSW Jewish community

9 October 2018

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The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry has warm­ly wel­comed the announce­ment by the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment that it has allo­cat­ed $2.2 mil­lion to assist the NSW Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty to secure and pro­tect its peo­ple and insti­tu­tions. The announce­ment was con­veyed to Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers on Tues­day by Dave Shar­ma, the Lib­er­al can­di­date for Went­worth in the upcom­ing by-elec­tion.
“This is a much-need­ed ini­tia­tive to assist the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty to meet its ever- increas­ing secu­ri­ty costs, which the ECAJ has been advo­cat­ing for some time”, said the ECAJ’s co-CEO Peter Wertheim.
“There are two key aspects of the announce­ment which are espe­cial­ly wel­come”.
“First­ly, a large pro­por­tion of the allo­ca­tion, some $1.685 mil­lion, will be ear­marked to upgrade the vital secu­ri­ty infra­struc­ture which is oper­at­ed by the NSW Com­mu­ni­ty Secu­ri­ty Group, and serves the whole of the NSW Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. A fur­ther $515,000 will be allo­cat­ed to spe­cif­ic Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty insti­tu­tions in NSW with the most urgent needs”.
“Sec­ond­ly, the allo­ca­tion will be made by the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty itself through the Coun­cil for Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Secu­ri­ty (CJCS) in NSW. The CJCS (NSW) oper­ates in tan­dem with the NSW Jew­ish Board of Deputies and has an excel­lent track record in ensur­ing that the com­mu­ni­ty gets the opti­mum secu­ri­ty out­come”.
The CJCS is con­sti­tut­ed under the aegis of the ECAJ to assist in the pro­vi­sion of secu­ri­ty and pro­tec­tion for mem­bers and insti­tu­tions of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. This secu­ri­ty is in the main pro­vid­ed by the respec­tive Com­mu­ni­ty Secu­ri­ty Groups which oper­ate in all regions in which there are major Jew­ish com­mu­nal cen­tres.
“Ensur­ing the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of all cit­i­zens is the first duty of any gov­ern­ment”, Wertheim said. “Dave Shar­ma is to be con­grat­u­lat­ed for pur­su­ing this mat­ter so ener­get­i­cal­ly with the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. We thank him and the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment for recog­nis­ing the impor­tance and urgency of this issue for our com­mu­ni­ty.”
Con­tact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au