According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents have soared to over 300% since October 7, 2023. But even prior to that date, Jewish communities throughout Tennessee experienced increasing antisemitic incidents in the form of fliers and Nazi grafitti. For the past several years, the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, along with the Jewish communities of Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Memphis have successfully pushed for increased security funding for houses of worship. The funding has grown from $500,000 to $750,000, and this year, there is a proposal to increase the funding to $1.3 million.
These efforts began in 2018 when Rabbi Mark Schiftan, then head rabbi at The Temple, convened a meeting of Jewish community leaders. “I thought this was the primary issue the Federation should be taking the lead on in our community,” says Schiftan, “The most important issue is keeping Jewish lives safe.” Schiftan says his concerns for the safety of local institutions came in the wake of the Tree of Life mass shooting in Pittsburgh. “That didn’t happen in Los Angeles, or New York, it happened right in the middle of the country. It was a recognition that all these facilities were going to have to arm in a very different way.”
Those early meetings and efforts to provide security funding came before federal homeland security grants and state level house of worship grants. Schiftan says his intention was for the Federation to include the funding in its annual campaign, rather than creating a special security campaign. “This could be a useful tool for the relevance of the Federation, but it shouldn’t be a separate campaign. It should be something the Federation is just doing.”
Following that meeting, Steve Hirsch who was the president of Federation at that time, said the decision was made to follow Schiftan’s proposal. “We made a commitment to the community by saying the first $200,000 of the annual campaign is going to go to local security. And we did it without cutting back too much on other grants, whether it be Israel or overseas.”
From that point, Hirsch says the effort was made to also take advantage of federal security programs. At that time, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program was administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “They were making dollars available for nonprofits for upgrading the security of facilities,” he says. What began as a federal allocation of $90 million was eventually increased to $180 million, and then Hirsch says it peaked at $300 million. He says the increases were due in part to lobbying efforts by the Jewish Federations of North America.
Hirsch created a security committee, with Lori Fishel as the first chair. Fishel says the first order of business was to include the Secure Community Network, an organization created in 2003 to provide security consulting to Jewish Federations around the country. “They visited all the organizations in Nashville, like Akiva, Hillel, JCC, and all the congregations. They just did a deep dive into the needs at each location.”
This type of visit is typical for SCN. The organization has been engaged in Nashville many times to help coordinate with the Federation on security issues, with law enforcement at the state and local level, as well as with federal partners. The idea is to identify areas that need improvement. And since the federal program only provided grants for hardening facilities, it soon became apparent that increases in security personnel were also necessary. Hirsch says eventually the state of Tennessee created the House of Worship grant program to address that need. “We were influential at that time. We used a firm to lobby the state legislature to get money included in the governor’s budget. And we eventually asked to use that grant for security personnel and that was very helpful because you couldn’t pay security guards with NSGP money.”
Mike Masters, CEO and national director of the SCN, says the hope is for the increase of federal funds will continue. “We hope it will continue to be as robust as it has in the past. And we continue to face the highest threat of any religious minority in the country.”
For institutional professionals and lay leaders, the increased focus on security needs is welcome. Debby Wiston is executive director at West End Synagogue. She says this year’s federal homeland security grants have allowed the synagogue to upgrade the camera system throughout the entire building. “I can’t even describe how invaluable it’s been for bringing us into the 21st Century and making things secure. Being able to see every inch of our building.”
The synagogue has also received state house of worship grants twice, helping to cover the cost of security personnel. The impact of the grants was on full display last year when a Nazi group came to Nashville and set up a protest in front of West End. “I think I submitted the house of worship grant to the state three days before they showed up,” says Wiston, “And two hours after they left, we had a group of 100 camp teenagers coming to spend the night in the building.” Thanks to the grant, additional security guards were hired to protect the property.
The community’s collective efforts to beef up security, while successful, does not mean the threats and antisemitic incidents have stopped. “It is unfortunate that these are the times we live in,” says Wiston.
And Masters, from SCN, agrees. “We recognize that while we are under heightened threat, we are not singular in that threat.” As an example, he says the Jewish Federation in Charleston, South Carolina created a security initiative, hired a former chief of police to be their security director, and he works with the Jewish institutions in the community. “The real impetus for that program was the Mother Immanuel AME church shooting.”
Masters says that the church is a mere four or five blocks from KKBE, the oldest Jewish synagogue in the area, “The offender could just as easily have gone to KKBE as he did Mother Immanuel. And now over the years, we have worked to invite other faith-based groups in.” Today, SCN shares best practices and makes resources available. “I think that is a recognition of the shared threat we are all under. It’s also a strong demonstration of our commitment as a community to support and work in partnership with others.”
And while there is still more work to do so local institutions keep pace with technology and personnel upgrades, the current funding streams to a long way toward keeping the community safe. Larry Hyatt is the current chair of the Federation’s security committee. He says, “Thanks to these grants; to the funds raised through security assessments by the synagogues, schools and JCC; and to allocations from Federation; our synagogues, schools and the JCC have made significant progress in hardening their physical infrastructure. While there will always be more work to do in this area, the Federation Security Committee in 2025 will focus on two areas; (1) emergency communications between organizations; and (2) training of employees on how to react during a security emergency.”
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