Gov. Cuomo Wants To Spend $25M To Protect NY Religious Schools

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo will ask the New York state legislature to commit $25 million to provide protection to religious schools throughout the state in the wake of an uptick in reported anti-Semitic hate crimes at Jewish community centers.

Cuomo's proposal, made Thursday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan, comes just one day after the Anti-Defamation League's headquarters in New York received an anonymous bomb threat. The threat at the ADL on Wednesday followed nearly 70 similar threats at Jewish centers throughout the U.S. so far this year.

Cuomo promised a crackdown on perpetrators of hate crimes in the state.

"These acts are illegal, and just as this state chases drug dealers and chases robbers and chases down perpetrators of crimes, we're going to chase down the people who are behind these hate crimes," Cuomo said on Thursday.

Cuomo also announced the creation of a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of someone who commits a hate crime, in addition to promising additional resources to the New York State Police to investigate incidents of bias.

Cuomo appeared on Thursday afternoon with multiple Jewish community leaders and other faith leaders.

Cuomo said he was launching the $25 million grant program so that schools and day care centers at risk of hate crimes could purchase additional security measures.

"I don't believe this is a threat that is going away any time soon," he said.

Cuomo described the increase in hate crimes that started last year as an "explosion," saying that the number of hate crimes in recent month had essentially doubled compared to the same time period last year. Cuomo noted that hate crimes against Muslim and LGBT New Yorkers have also increased.j

New York State Police Superintendent George Beach added that the statewide hotline to report bias incidents, launched in November, had received 3,175 calls since its creation.

Cuomo didn't point any fingers at President Donald Trump, whose election preceded the nationwide increase in reports of bias incidents.

"I don't think it's helpful at this time to politicize the activity, but I don't think there's any question that the political tone last year aggravated political extremes on the political spectrum," he said, without mentioning Trump's name.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy/Patch.