WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to a bomb threat made against the Katz Jewish Community Center in Chery Hill, Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) is requesting federal security funding to protect South Jersey’s Jewish communities.

“This weekend’s vandalism of Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery and today’s bomb threat against the Katz Jewish Community Center aren’t just attacks on our friends and neighbors in the Jewish community – they’re attacks against all of us. Christians, Muslims and Jews are standing together to take a stand against this hatred – it has no place here or anywhere in America,” Norcross said.

Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides federal funding to the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area to prevent terrorist attacks – but the funds are being used exclusively in Pennsylvania, ignoring threats faced by communities in South Jersey and Delaware. Norcross wrote the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, which administers the area’s Urban Area Security Initiative funding, to request they share the resources with South Jersey to protect all of the Philadelphia area’s Jewish communities. Click here for a full copy of Congressman Norcross’s letter.

“Unfortunately, federal funds to protect our area and Jewish communities from terrorism aren’t being shared with South Jersey. Antisemitism doesn’t stop at the state line – nor should funding to combat these threats. In light of these crimes, I’m urging the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to share security funding with all of the area’s vulnerable communities.”

Congressman Norcross was already working closely with South Jersey synagogues and the New Jersey Jewish Federation to secure greater security funding, before these most recent attacks. Last week, he sent a letter to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security asking them to investigate the rise in antisemitism and threats against JCC’s across the country.

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