WASHINGTON, United States | Jewish synagogues, schools, community centers, summer camps, and other nonprofit institutions in the United States are now spending more than $1 billion every year simply to keep their communities safe, according to new data from Jewish Federations of North America.
The organization estimates annual security spending has reached approximately $1.015 billion, or roughly $1.02 billion, across more than 4,500 Jewish communal institutions.
That represents a 33 percent increase from its previous 2024 estimate of $765 million.
The figures offer a striking financial measure of the security burden now embedded in American Jewish life.
On average, Jewish institutions spend about $225,000 each year on protection, according to JFNA.
The largest share goes toward professional security personnel, including guards and security directors.
Another approximately $150 million annually goes to surveillance systems, reinforced entrances, access controls, and other security technology and building hardening, including maintaining systems already installed.
Security Has Become a Permanent Cost of Jewish Life
The spending reaches far beyond occasional police patrols during major holidays.
Many Jewish institutions now maintain year-round security operations involving guards, cameras, controlled access points, hardened doors, emergency protocols, coordination with law enforcement and trained members of their own congregations.
More than 7,100 trained volunteers currently help protect more than 500 synagogues and Jewish events each week through the Community Security Service, according to figures Axios cites.
The result is a security infrastructure that would have been unusual at many American houses of worship only a generation ago.
For growing numbers of Jewish communities, it is now considered essential.
Jewish Federations President and CEO Eric D. Fingerhut said the dramatic increase in costs reflects the threat environment facing American Jews.
“The fact that Jewish communal spending has shot up 33% is a measure of how much more dangerous life has become for Jewish Americans,” Fingerhut said.
Money Diverted From Education and Social Services
The $1 billion figure also represents money that cannot be spent elsewhere.
Jewish institutions operate schools, senior-care programs, food assistance, summer camps, educational initiatives and social services.
Every additional dollar required for security competes with those missions.
“Every dollar our community spends on guards and cameras is a dollar not spent on Jewish education, on caring for our elderly, on taking care of those in need,” Fingerhut said.
JFNA estimates that the money currently devoted to security could otherwise send approximately 44,000 children to Jewish day schools, cover the cost of every Jewish child attending summer camp, or finance Birthright Israel trips for a decade.
That comparison illustrates what Jewish organizations increasingly describe as a security tax on Jewish communal life.
The costs are not optional expenditures designed to improve convenience or appearance.
Institutions incur them because they believe they cannot safely operate without them.
Estimate Does Not Include Jewish-Owned Businesses
The $1.015 billion estimate does not capture the full financial cost of securing Jewish life in the United States.
JFNA’s analysis is limited to nonprofit communal institutions.
It does not include security spending by more than 1,600 kosher restaurants, approximately 500 kosher markets and grocery stores, Judaica shops, Jewish bookstores, or other privately owned Jewish businesses.
Those businesses can also face threats or require additional security because of their visible Jewish identity.
The true national cost of protecting Jewish institutions, businesses and events is therefore likely higher than the billion-dollar estimate.
Hate-Crime Data Provides Broader Context
JFNA connected the rise in security spending to continuing antisemitic threats and violence.
According to FBI hate-crime data cited by the organization, anti-Jewish offenses accounted for 64 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes reported in 2025, despite Jews comprising approximately two percent of the U.S. population.
American Jews were the most frequently targeted religious group in the FBI data.
Security concerns have also intensified around the High Holy Days, when synagogues experience some of their largest attendance of the year.
New York authorities, for example, have increased patrols around synagogues and other Jewish institutions for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, while Jewish communities nationwide have adopted similar heightened security measures.
No indication suggests a single nationwide threat tied to the new JFNA estimate.
Instead, the figures reflect the cumulative cost of maintaining security in a persistent threat environment.
Federations Push Congress for $1 Billion Security Program
JFNA is using the new data to press Congress to expand federal assistance.
The organization is urging lawmakers to pass the Jewish American Security Act, which would authorize up to $1 billion annually for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
That program funds nonprofit institutions considered at elevated risk of terrorist or extremist attack.
Jewish organizations have been among its most frequent applicants, although the program is also available to other vulnerable faith and nonprofit communities.
Federations argue that existing government support has not kept pace with demand.
Earlier this year, 41 U.S. senators called for $750 million in funding for the program, up from a previous request of $500 million. JFNA has continued to advocate for the larger $1 billion level.
Fingerhut called fully funding the program the most important action lawmakers could take to protect Jewish and other faith communities.
Volunteers Increasingly Join Professional Security
Jewish institutions are also increasingly supplementing professional guards with trained congregants.
Community Security Service programs teach volunteers to recognize suspicious behavior, control access, communicate with law enforcement, and respond during emergencies.
More than 7,100 volunteers now participate nationally.
That model reflects a broader shift in Jewish communal security.
Protection is no longer handled solely by outside police or private security companies.
Congregation members are increasingly being trained to watch entrances, assess threats, and help manage emergencies.
For some Jewish communities, attending synagogue now means simultaneously functioning as a worshipper and part of a security network.
The Price of Worshipping Openly
The billion-dollar figure ultimately represents more than an accounting exercise.
It measures the financial cost of making Jewish communal life possible in an environment where synagogues and schools increasingly assume security must be part of their basic operating budget.
A child entering a Jewish school may pass surveillance cameras and reinforced doors.
A family attending Shabbat services may encounter armed security.
A synagogue volunteer may spend part of the service monitoring an entrance rather than sitting entirely with the congregation.
Those measures have become so familiar they can appear routine.
Their cost suggests otherwise.
American Jewish institutions are now spending more than $1 billion every year not to expand Jewish life, but to protect the ability to live it safely.
And because the estimate excludes private Jewish businesses and does not necessarily capture every local security expense, even that figure may understate the full price being paid.
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