By: Fern Sidman

As America’s Jewish community prepared for the High Holidays, the season of reflection and renewal was overshadowed by a sobering reality: a surge of antisemitism and ideologically driven violence across the United States. On Sept. 12, lawmakers and senior leaders of Jewish organizations convened on Capitol Hill in an urgent session to address the challenges of safeguarding synagogues, schools, and communal institutions while also confronting the disturbing wave of politically motivated killings that has rattled the nation.

According to report that appeared on Wednesday at The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), the meeting was convened at a moment of heightened alarm. Just two days earlier, conservative activist Charlie Kirk—the founder of Turning Point USA—was shot dead in Utah in what authorities described as a politically charged act. The killing came only weeks after the horrific stabbing of two children at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. For Jewish leaders, these tragedies are part of a broader pattern of radicalization and violence that demands immediate government action.

Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) delivered one of the starkest warnings, describing the current climate of antisemitism as unprecedented in modern American history.

“This is unlike any rise in antisemitism that we’ve seen in generations,” Hassan said, according to the JNS report. “I don’t care what fringe it comes from—this kind of extremism, hate and violence is unacceptable and needs to be condemned. We can’t grow accustomed to this. We can’t try to accommodate this. Foreign-policy debates are complicated. Condemning antisemitism is not.”

Her remarks drew attention to a point that has become increasingly evident to Jewish organizations: hatred toward Jews now comes from multiple ideological sources—white supremacists, far-left activists, and radicalized individuals influenced by extremist content online.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) went further, drawing a direct line between acts of violence and the unregulated spread of radical ideas on social media platforms. She pledged to work with Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on legislation that would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. That provision currently shields social media companies from liability for content published on their platforms.

“We need to start putting some accountability for these platforms that are making trillions of dollars off of us,” Klobuchar said, in comments cited in the JNS report. “It is not about censorship. It’s just about having responsibility for the products that you are making money off.”

Her bipartisan push reflects growing frustration that technology companies profit from engagement—even when fueled by extremist propaganda—while communities bear the real-world consequences of radicalization.

In parallel to the concern about social media radicalization, Jewish leaders placed renewed emphasis on a program that has become the backbone of communal security: the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). Established to fund physical protection for religious and nonprofit institutions, the program provides money for surveillance systems, reinforced doors, and other security enhancements.

As JNS reported, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the Orthodox Union, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations have all urged Congress to boost funding to $1 billion annually—nearly quadruple the $274.5 million currently budgeted for fiscal year 2025.

Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, told JNS that his meetings with Senators Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) yielded “encouraging” support for expanding the grants. All three senators sit on the powerful Appropriations Committee, which will shape the program’s future funding.

“We are hopeful Congress will come together to increase funding for this badly needed bipartisan program,” Diament told JNS.

Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, placed the issue in even starker terms. He revealed that Jewish communities nationwide already raise roughly $1 billion annually in private donations to meet escalating security needs. That level of philanthropy, he argued, is unsustainable without significant federal backing.

“This is a domestic terror crisis,” Fingerhut declared in comments, as was reported by JNS. “There’s a war of a kind that’s happening domestically, and we need Congress and the administration—they didn’t create the problem, this Congress didn’t create it and this administration didn’t create it—but we need to be on a war footing to respond to the domestic terror threats that our faith communities are experiencing all around the country.”

For Jewish institutions, the urgency is not abstract. The High Holidays—Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—are among the most significant and well-attended events of the Jewish calendar. Synagogues swell with worshippers, often exceeding their regular attendance many times over. Security experts have long warned that these periods represent heightened risk, given the visibility and vulnerability of Jewish gatherings.

The JNS report noted that in recent years, congregations have invested heavily in safety measures: armed guards, reinforced entrances, surveillance cameras, and detailed emergency response protocols. Yet Jewish leaders emphasize that the scale of the threat, combined with the rising cost of protection, demands broader federal involvement.

The ADL’s latest audit found antisemitic incidents in the United States surged to record levels in the past two years. At the same time, the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel reverberated in America, sparking protests, encampments, and in some cases violent confrontations on U.S. campuses. Jewish organizations have repeatedly warned that rhetoric targeting Israel often bleeds into open hostility toward Jewish individuals and institutions domestically.

Against this backdrop, the Capitol Hill meeting sought not only to coordinate immediate responses but also to articulate a long-term strategy for resilience.

One of the meeting’s more striking features, as the JNS report highlighted, was the bipartisan tone. Republicans and Democrats alike expressed alarm over antisemitism and affirmed their commitment to strengthening Jewish communal security. In an era of deep polarization, that unity was notable.

Yet beneath the bipartisan language lies the more complex terrain of policy. Klobuchar’s proposal to dismantle Section 230, for example, is certain to face resistance from civil libertarians and the technology sector, which argues that such reforms could curtail free expression and innovation. Similarly, while there is broad sympathy for expanding the NSGP, budgetary constraints and competing priorities could temper congressional appetite for a fourfold increase.

Still, the consensus that emerged on Sept. 12 reflected a growing recognition that antisemitism is not a niche concern but a bellwether of broader societal health. When Jews are targeted, leaders warned, the entire democratic fabric of America is at risk.

The Jewish leaders in attendance, representing organizations that together form the backbone of American Jewish civic life, pressed Congress to act decisively. For them, the stakes are existential.

“Our community is already mobilizing unprecedented private resources,” Fingerhut emphasized, according to the JNS report. “But philanthropy alone cannot protect every synagogue, every school, every community center. This must be recognized as a national security issue.”

For lawmakers such as Hassan and Klobuchar, the challenge is twofold: to address immediate threats through security measures, and to confront the deeper currents of extremism—whether incubated in online echo chambers or amplified by toxic political rhetoric.

As the Jewish community enters its holiest season, the juxtaposition could not be more stark: prayers for renewal and peace set against fears of violence and hatred. The Capitol Hill meeting on Sept. 12, as chronicled by The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), was both a rallying cry and a sobering reminder that antisemitism and political violence are no longer distant threats but present dangers.

The demands for action—expanding the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, holding social media giants accountable, and mobilizing federal support—are ambitious, but Jewish leaders insist they are commensurate with the gravity of the crisis.

Whether Congress will deliver remains uncertain. But what is clear, as Hassan noted, is that condemning antisemitism is not complicated. The time for rhetorical solidarity has passed; Jewish leaders and lawmakers now confront the harder task of turning consensus into concrete protection for America’s most vulnerable communities.