The prime minister announced that the funds would be used to equip Jewish community buildings with security guards, CCTV, and alarm systems in an effort to combat the historically high levels of antisemitism that have increased since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Of the total, £54 million is new funding that will be used to fund security measures until 2028 for the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit that defends Jewish communities in the UK.
This is on top of the £18 million that the charity had already been given until 2025.
A portion of that, or £3 million, was made available in October of last year to provide extra assistance to over 480 Jewish community locations, including as synagogues and schools. This allowed over 250 synagogues and nearly 200 schools to enhance security and hire more guards.
In 2023, 4,103 antisemitic incidents were reported to CST in the UK, a record number for a single calendar year and a 147% increase from 2022.
