‘Significant concerns’ state not responding to Jewish schools on security grants, Stefanik tells Hochul

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chairwoman of House Republican Leadership, wrote to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, today about what she said are delays in state funding for Jewish schools to protect themselves from antisemitic attacks.

“I write you regarding significant concerns about the disbursement of state grant funding to keep Jewish institutions, students and community members safe from hate crimes and other attacks,” Stefanik wrote, in a letter that was shared exclusively with JNS.

The congresswoman, who is running for governor, singled out Magen David Yeshivah, a Jewish school in Brooklyn, whose walls and windows were vandalized with several swastikas on Nov. 5, the day after Zohran Mamdani was elected New York City mayor.

The “scourge of antisemitism” since Oct. 7 was reflected in the election of Mamdani, “the candidate you endorsed,” Stefanik wrote to Hochul. She noted that Mamdani has declined to decry the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which calls for violence against Jews, and founded a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and campaigned with an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Mamdani’s election “to lead New York’s largest city has made many members of New York’s Jewish community concerned for their safety,” the congresswoman wrote.

On Nov. 5, the vandal who attacked the Brooklyn yeshiva committed a “threatening act of harassment towards the Jewish community,” Stefanik wrote. “This act has understandably led many students, faculty and other members of the Jewish community to fear for their safety in school buildings.”

Though the governor announced $20 million in funding to protect schools, “delays in state grants to Magen David Yeshivah, specifically zero funding released from fiscal year 2024 onward, to improve school safety, calls into question whether the state government under your leadership is taking the threat of antisemitism seriously,” Stefanik wrote.

Yeshiva officials told Stefanik’s office that they applied for $212,158 in state funding on June 27, 2024, but didn’t hear back for months and “has still received no grant funding from the state,” the congresswoman wrote. The school also told her that the state hasn’t opened funding applications for the 2025 fiscal year, “calling into question whether the state will delay or forgo altogether an entire year of grant funding to keep schools safe.”

“The Jewish community is under attack in New York State under your leadership. It is incumbent upon the governor to take decisive action against antisemitism and hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers,” Stefanik wrote.

Officials at yeshivas told Stefanik’s office that the state’s criminal justice services division told them that New York won’t release the next round of applications for Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes grants until 2025.

“No applications have been released nor funding disbursed under the program in 2025,” the congresswoman wrote. “This calls into question whether the state will forgo an entire year of funding under SCAHC as well, despite the alarming recent rise in antisemitic hate crimes in our state.”

Stefanik said that she contacted the state criminal justice services division on Nov. 6 about the Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes grants, and the state’s religious and independent school support body on Nov. 7 about the state’s Nonpublic School Safety Equipment grants. The state acknowledged the inquiries but hasn’t provided information, Stefanik said.

She added that the government relations team of the state’s education department said that it has “still not finished processing Magen David Yeshivah’s applications for grant funding” and told her staff that “funding was not provided to support the staffing necessary to administer the expanded program.”

“This response further raises questions about whether the state government under your leadership is equipped to honor your stated commitment to fight antisemitism,” the congresswoman wrote.

In the letter, in which Stefanik sought information about the causes of delays and to know whether retroactive funding will be provided, the congresswoman noted that Jew-hatred has surged nationwide since Oct. 7, with New York state having the most antisemitic incidents of any state in 2024. She added that the New York City Police Department recorded that most hate crimes in October 2025 were antisemitic.

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