New York City, N.Y., Jan 6, 2020 / 19:00 pm
During a solidarity march with the Jewish community of New York, which suffered numerous attacks during the week of Hanukkah last month, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state is spending $45 million this year on increased security for religious institutions and schools.
Cuomo made the announcement on Sunday during a speech before walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with tens of thousands of fellow march participants.
Anti-Semitic attacks took place in New York every day of the week of Hannukah last month, including a stabbing during a celebration at a rabbi's home that wounded five people. The money for increased security at religious sites was earmarked last April as part of the state's budget, due to the advocacy of multiple Jewish organizations as well as the New York State Catholic Conference, a spokesman for the conference told CNA.
While the earmarked security funds predated the recent Hannukah attacks, the allocation came after a year of increased violence against Jewish people throughout the United States, including the murder of 11 Jewish worshippers who were shot and killed by a white supremacist at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018.