As tensions continue to rise, houses of worship spend heavily on security

by Mayah Nachman, Maryland Matters
July 15, 2026

Like most synagogues, Congregation Kneseth Israel in Annapolis has a menorah on the wall out front, a mezuzah by the door and stained glass in the sanctuary. And like many synagogues today it has security guards, keycard-restricted entrances and cameras both inside and out of the building.

With hate crimes on the rise and political tensions mounting, houses of worship across the state say they have come to rely on state and local grants to supplement their own congregation’s funds to bolster security.

Stephen Sutton, a member of Congregation Kneseth Israel’s board of governors, said the Annapolis synagogue spends about $90,000 a year on security, which would not be possible without grants.

“We would not have that valuable service without having obtained the grants,” Sutton said. “It really relieves the financial burden.”

Sutton helps write the congregation’s grant applications and manage any projects that are approved. He said houses of worship across all religions are all feeling the need for stronger security measures and turning to federal, state and local grants to help. In Maryland, some of these programs have increased their funding to keep up with the demand.

Religion is the second most common bias motivation for hate crimes in Maryland, behind those motivated by race and ethnicity, according to most recent Maryland State Police data. Religiously motivated crimes accounted for about 32.6% of all hate crime reports in Maryland in 2024. That is down slightly from 2023-2024, but almost double the 2022 rates.

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Maryland’s Protecting Against Hate Crimes Grant program has $10 million in funding available to distribute to nonprofit and faith-based organizations across the state. Gov. Wes Moore (D) doubled funding for the program in from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2026, in response to the uptick in hate incidents, and kept it at the higher level for fiscal 2027.

Counties in Maryland have similar grant programs, including Montgomery, Anne Arundel and Howard counties. In anticipation for an uptick in hate incidents after the war in Iran started in March, Montgomery County added $500,000 to its $1.2 million security grant program to support Muslim and Jewish communities, according to Luke Hodgson, the director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

Under the state program, organizations can receive up to $200,000 toward their security needs based on the size of their annual budgets, according to grant application documents. Justice Schisler, the director of programs and grants within the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention Policy, said her office conducts a “very thorough review” of each application to see if they met the criteria for certain amounts of funding.

She said that qualified organizations that have never received funding ever, or haven’t in the past three years, are typically prioritized to receive the full amount of funding requested.

This year, the program received over $14 million in requests from 116 applicants across the state, according to Schisler. She said the program was able to fulfill requests for about 84 organizations, which were distributed on July 1.

“We realize that there is a great need out there,” Schisler said.

When they have to turn people away, Schisler said her office often refers applicants to state and federal grant programs focused on school safety, where appropriate.

Some larger religious institutions will step in to help local organizations with the grant application process, which can be difficult to navigate for some, said Howard Libit, the executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council. The Associated, the Jewish Federation of Baltimore, provides similar services.

“There are mosques, there are churches, there are other nonprofits that apply, and so every year lots of requests go unfunded,” Libit said. “We’re going to do the best we can to make sure they’re safe, but in some cases, in many cases, it is a strain on the synagogue.”

St. Mary’s Parish and School was able to install more cameras, install bollards around its perimeter and make its windows more secure thanks to a state grant, said Katharina Acosta, the director of development at the Annapolis parish.

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She said receiving these types of grants has helped diminish the financial burden of security costs, but that she wishes there was more assistance to help maintain the large projects after they are complete. She said keeping up with maintaining security cameras and bollards can get expensive.

“That is really difficult for parishes,” Acosta said. “It’s a big expense that we’re getting help with, but then moving forward it’s a challenge to keep that moving.”

Anwar Qadri is the president of the Islamic Society of Western Maryland, a mosque in Hagerstown. While he said his community typically feels supported, the mosque often asks to have local police stand outside the building to keep an eye out during large holiday gatherings.

“It gives our community an extra feeling of security,” he said. “If something happens on a bigger scale somewhere else, it has an effect on the [local] Islamic organizations across the United States.”

Qadri said a grant his organization received a few years ago made it possible for them to install a security camera and a gate near its parking lot to deter unwanted intruders. Having the added level of security gives him some more “peace of mind,” he said.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.