Newsom, facing pressure from Jewish lawmakers, signs budget funding nonprofit security grant program

With antisemitic incidents spiking in California, Jewish advocates for increased funding for the state’s nonprofit security grant program were bracing for the worst, given the state’s $30 billion budget deficit. But when Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had cut the program in his original budget proposal, signed the state’s annual budget bill on Monday, Jewish leaders were guardedly optimistic at the outcome.

The 2024 budget commits $20 million to the state’s nonprofit security grant program — nearly $30 million less than last year’s funding level, and far below the $80 million sought by Jewish community activists during their advocacy day in Sacramento in May. 

“Would I have preferred to have $50 million again? Of course I would. But given the real budgetary constraints that we were facing this year, I think this is a good outcome,” California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, an Encino Democrat who chairs the Legislative Jewish Caucus, told Jewish Insider, noting that “a lot of programs were completely zeroed out.”