For Jewish communities right now, security is vital.
In 2024, the Anti-Defamation League tracked 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the United States, a 344% increase over the last five years and an 893% increase over the last 10.
However, it’s only a 5% increase since 2023, as the biggest leap in antisemitic activity came in the months following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.
Seth Katzen, the president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, said that his state has also experienced an increase in antisemitism. Delaware doesn’t have as large of a Jewish community as its neighbors, but those Jews who do reside in the First State have seen more discrimination since Oct. 7, 2023.
Katzen said that the Federation has recorded 16 suspicious incidents, three disturbances, two acts of vandalism and one bias incident since October of that year.
“I believe it really came about after Oct. 7 — that was the sort of catalyst of how the world has changed,” Katzen said. “We have made a concerted effort to make sure our community is safe and secure through training, through [the internet] and with a presence on campuses. The need for security has only increased. The data shows rising hate.”
With that in mind, the Jewish Federation of Delaware has announced a new campaign: to raise $2 million for the increasing security needs in the state’s Jewish communities.
“This growing threat demands our attention, our voices and our commitment to combating in all forms — that was the genesis of this security initiative,” Katzen said. “We are working with a regional security initiative … that covers all of Delaware and 11 counties in New Jersey.”
That security initiative is run with the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. It covers situational awareness training, active threat training, scenarios training, threat and vulnerability risk assessments, access to intelligence briefs and first aid training, called “Stop the Bleed.”
Last year, the Federation of Delaware raised $1.92 million from 954 donors as part of its annual campaign, which will still run this year even as the separate security campaign takes place. As part of the security campaign, the Federation is planning to match the first $100,000 raised.
“We are not the first community to launch a security effort or a campaign specifically for security. Many federations across the country do an annual campaign to address immediate needs, but this is beyond that,” Katzen said. “[That’s why] we’ve decided to launch a separate campaign specifically for security. We hope that our annual donors will continue to contribute to the annual campaign but will also contribute to this. We’ve seen in other communities that get first-time donors, donors who are not Federation donors and donors who believe wholeheartedly in security.”
The campaign kicked off this month and will benefit a number of synagogues in Delaware. While many of those synagogues have already invested in security and partnered with local law enforcement, they need even more protection than that, according to Katzen.
“It’s beyond having a physical presence of security. There’s training; there’s site assessments,” he said.
Katzen is confident that the campaign will be successful.
“Members of our Jewish community and members of the community will believe in and support this initiative because of the importance of it,” he said. “The data shows rising hate, rising antisemitism. [It] shows that antisemitism has become the biggest concern of Jews across every demographic, regardless of location or religious affiliation.”