'Attack increased awareness'
Photo: Detlev Schilke
Suspect in 2009 plot (archives)
Photo: AP
NY synagogues get increased anti-terrorism funds
Congressman Weiner says need for added protection 'particularly acute in New York, where there's always chatter about threats posed to heavily Jewish communities'
New York City nonprofit and religious groups including more than 25 synagogues will receive nearly $6 million in anti-terrorism grants, up 40 percent from last year, a US congressman said on Monday.
Citing a foiled plot targeting Bronx synagogues in 2009, Representative Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, told Reuters that cultural, nonprofit and religious institutions need extra resources for protection.
The need for added protection is "particularly acute in New York, where there's always chatter about the threats posed to communities, heavily Jewish communities," Weiner said.
The city is to receive nearly one-third of the US Department of Homeland Security's $19 million allotment for nonprofit organizations.
New York has been the target of most of the extremist plots in the United States since the September 11 attacks of 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people.
In May 2009, four men were arrested in an FBI sting operation when they planted what they believed to be explosives in two cars parked outside synagogues in the borough of the Bronx, police said at the time.
"There's no doubt that the synagogue attack increased awareness," Weiner said.
The funds are capped at $75,000 per group and may go toward installing security cameras or other extra security.
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