State, Federal Lawmakers Vow To Fight Antisemitism At Rockville Legislative Event

By Steve Crane, Maryland Matters

December 4, 2025

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington has a long list of legislative priorities, from fighting antisemitism and poverty to supporting reproductive and immigrant rights, and more.

But you might not have known it from the group’s annual Lox and Legislators breakfast Wednesday in Rockville, where antisemitism and security for houses of worship dominated the conversation by lawmakers, and where an impassioned Gov. Wes Moore pledged millions for security.

“There’s an entire legislative agenda that includes reproductive freedom and the environment and health equity and combating homelessness and immigration and all the things that you see on our paper that … we lobby for every year,” said Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC. “But it was very interesting that the elected officials chose to spend more time focusing on antisemitism.

“But you’ve got to understand, this has become something that has consumed the Jewish community, OK?” said Halber, who added that if you’d told him three years ago that he would be “focusing all my time on Jewish security … I’d have felt like you’re crazy.”

But three years ago was before the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

Since then, hate crimes against Jews have risen sharply, jumping from 77 in Maryland in 2022 to 284 in 2023 and 276 in 2024, according to Maryland State Police data. That report said anti-Jewish hate crimes accounted for 28.5% of all hate crimes in 2024, trailing only attacks against Blacks.

As a result, institutions like B’nai Israel, where Wednesday’s event was held, have had to add security features and police or security officers on what Halber said is “almost like a tax on our own membership.”

For that reason, Halber said, the JCRC is pushing for a doubling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, from the current $500 million to $1 billion next year; an increase in state funding for school-based security from $3 million to $5 million; and a doubling of Montgomery County funds for nonprofit security, from $1.2 million to $2.4 million.

A state fund, the Protecting Against Hate Crimes program for security at houses of worship and nonprofit facilities, was doubled from $5 million last year to $10 million this year. Halber said the JCRC, with an eye toward the state’s looming budget deficit, asked that the fund be kept level at $10 million next year.

Moore announced Wednesday that his budget for next year would include $10 million for that program, part of what he called the state’s “ironclad commitment to stop antisemitism in its tracks” and building a future “where hate as no oxygen.”

“There is no higher goal for any chief executive than ensuring their people feel safe where they live, where they work and where they worship,” Moore said, according a copy of his speech as prepared for delivery. “Last year, we doubled state funding for grants that protect against hate crimes. I am proud to announce that this year, my budget proposal will preserve historic funding of $10 million for hate crime protection grants.

“We are going to preserve funding for hate crime prevention because we talk to Jewish leaders … they tell us that their chief concern is being protected from violent acts of antisemitism,” Moore said.

But the governor’s office also said, in a press release announcing the funding, that the preservation of the funds was also welcomed by the Pride Center of Maryland and by the Islamic Society of Baltimore.

While he welcomed the funding, Halber said it’s unfortunate that it’s needed and the JCRC can’t focus on the other issues in its legislative agenda.

“Like Marc [Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich] has said many times, ‘I’d rather this money go for social services or something else.’ Me too,” Halber said. “I don’t want to have the level of security we have here today, But we have to do it, because this is the crazy world we live in.”