Keeping our Jewish community safe is one of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s highest priorities. As antisemitism continues to rise, protecting Jewish life requires more than physical security—it requires trusted partnerships, coordinated planning, and a community-wide approach.
Through JShield, Federation’s community security initiative, we work every day to strengthen the safety and resilience of Jewish organizations across Greater Washington. By building strong relationships with local, state, and federal government agencies as well as law enforcement, we help secure the resources, expertise, and public investment our community needs to meet today’s evolving security challenges.
We’re grateful to share that this work recently received an important investment from the State of Maryland. Federation has been awarded nearly $180,000 through Maryland’s Protecting Against Hate Crimes (PAHC) grant program, building on $200,000 awarded in 2026.
This funding helps ensure JShield’s community-wide security trainings and programs remain available free of charge to Jewish organizations across Greater Washington. In 2025 alone, JShield partnered with 134 organizations, delivered 88 security trainings to more than 2,350 participants, and conducted 261 one-on-one consultations to help organizations assess vulnerabilities, strengthen emergency procedures, and build a stronger culture of security.
Beyond delivering training, JShield helps organizations navigate the often-complex process of applying for government security grants, including the PAHC grant program, helping unlock critical public funding that strengthens security across our community.
This latest award will also support security infrastructure enhancements at Federation, JCRC of Greater Washington, Makom, and other Jewish organizations serving thousands of community members each year.
JShield’s impact extends far beyond any one institution. Federation convenes Jewish organizations, security professionals, law enforcement, and government partners to share information, identify trends, coordinate responses, and strengthen preparedness across our region. Together, we’re building a connected, resilient community where no organization has to navigate today’s security challenges alone.
Public investment like this doesn’t replace community philanthropy—it amplifies it. Here in Greater Washington, many Jewish organizations have doubled or even tripled their security budgets, forcing difficulty choices between investing in security and funding the programs that strengthen Jewish life.
Government funding helps offset those costs, while philanthropic support makes it possible for Federation to sustain and expand JShield’s work, respond to emerging threats, and provide expert security services at no cost to Jewish organizations. Together, these investments create a safer, more resilient Jewish community. In 2025 alone, JShield helped local Jewish institutions secure more than $5.25 million in federal and state security funding, and this latest Maryland PAHC award builds on that momentum.
Our goal is to raise $1 million to strengthen the safety and security of Jewish Greater Washington. To help us get there, a group of generous donors are currently matching the first $375,000 in gifts to JShield, doubling your impact. Every gift helps ensure Jewish organizations across Greater Washington continue to receive expert security training, grant assistance, emergency preparedness resources, and coordinated support, at no cost to those who need it most.
Make your gift today and help build a safer, more prepared Jewish community.
A toddler paints a paper menorah in preschool. A congregation gathers for Shabbat morning services. Teenagers laugh together at a local leadership group. Seniors meet for lunch at the JCC. Students learn Hebrew after school.
These moments are what Jewish life looks like across Greater Washington on any given day.
Behind the scenes, long before anyone walks through the doors of a synagogue, preschool, JCC, or Jewish organization, community leaders are working tirelessly to help ensure those spaces remain safe, resilient, and prepared.
That’s why the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is thrilled to welcome Laura Katzif as its full-time Community Security Advisor (CSA) serving Northern Virginia and DC.
For the past two years, Laura has supported JShield, Federation’s community security initiative, in a part-time capacity. Now, in this expanded role, she can continue to increase JShield’s capacity to help Jewish institutions strengthen their security, prepare for emergencies, and build lasting partnerships with local law enforcement.
We all know why this expansion matters right now. The need for robust security is a constant reality we live with as a Jewish community. In a climate of rising antisemitism, we’ve seen devastating reminders right in our own backyard and around the world.
Protecting our community requires much more than just reacting to crises. That’s where JShield’s real value comes in. We don’t believe in “touch-and-go” interventions where someone shows up, checks a box, and leaves. JShield meets our local organizations exactly where they are and helps them build a permanent, proactive culture of security. All free of charge, thanks to our donor community.
Laura brings this exact hands-on mission into her daily work as Community Security Advisor. She works directly with synagogues, schools, and communal spaces throughout Northern Virginia and DC, providing strategic guidance, conducting safety assessments, and delivering training tailored to each space. By also serving as a trusted, everyday liaison with local public safety partners, Laura is helping us build a deeply rooted ecosystem of preparedness and collective resilience.
Laura brings more than two decades of experience in corporate security, emergency management, crisis response, and business continuity to the role.
Before joining JShield, she served for six years as Director of Security at the Pozez Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, overseeing incident response, physical security systems, threat assessments, grant administration, security personnel, and community training. Her career has also included leadership roles with Georgetown University’s Office of Public Safety, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Fairfax County’s Health Department and Office of Emergency Management, and the World Bank Headquarters Security Office. She is also a certified firefighter-paramedic and an active member of both ASIS International and the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.
But for Laura, security is about much more than emergency plans.
“I truly believe that faith organizations can act as anchors of neighborhoods by providing community gathering spaces, social services, childcare, education, and other vital resources,” she says. “The safer, more secure, and resilient they are, the more likely the community surrounding them is too. The faith community is interconnected, and whether some want to admit it or not, what affects one community affects everyone.”
That philosophy reflects JShield’s broader mission, helping Jewish organizations continue doing what they do best, bringing people together.
Building a culture of security isn’t about hardening our spaces or living in fear. It’s about protecting the vibrant community life happening inside them. It’s about making sure our children can learn without worry, our families can celebrate together with peace of mind, and our neighbors can gather freely.
Together, We’re Protecting What Matters Most
Security-focused giving through Federation helps keep Jewish life across Greater Washington safe and resilient. And thanks to a generous $250,000 match, gifts to JShield will unlock up to $750,000 in impact for our community.
Your support helps JShield continue providing the training, coordination, and resources that strengthen the security of Jewish institutions throughout our region.
Please consider making a gift to support this critical work.
I just finished Stained Glass by Flora Cassen, a book that explores antisemitism’s effect on Jewish identity. She puts into words what’s been on my mind lately, which is that this is a challenging time for many to navigate Jewish expression. At times, life as a Jew in the DMV feels pretty great. We have amazing institutions, myriad forms of programming across a variety of interests, and an actively engaged community. And yet, there’s another dynamic afoot. Something that causes us to question whether we should put on a Star of David, wear a shirt with Hebrew writing, or plan a Jewish event in public.
By way of a snapshot, in the same historical moment in which public schools in our area are designating days off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, vandals are spray-painting swastikas on desks. What are we to make of such a juxtaposition?
I don’t want to minimize the way in which our community has become ingrained in the fabric and rhythms of the region and the country more broadly. As others have said, almost any generation in Jewish life would trade their circumstances for ours. What Cassen points out, however, is that we have a lingering sense of insecurity based on centuries of history and, with a rise in antisemitism, a new and justifiable sense of unease.
Our job as a Federation is to recognize and shape our reality to the best of our ability and to build, continuously, toward a better future. That means supporting our communal ecosystem to be able to double down on the good and push back against the bad. We are situated at the epicenter of Jewish life in Greater Washington and can partner with, convene, and mobilize individuals and agencies to help more people live proud Jewish lives, as publicly or privately as they choose, independent of any external factors.
This work includes tackling antisemitism for the sake of current and future generations, in addition to helping more people deepen their ties to the ongoing story of the Jewish people. We don’t have to classify this moment as positive or negative, golden or threatened. What matters is that we move forward as a community in pursuit of a future that we define for ourselves.
We are here to strengthen a Jewish ecosystem capable of spurring Jewish pride and connection while doing what we can to influence the landscape of Jewish life in America, no matter which way the winds might blow.
