Montgomery County in Maryland announced $1.7 million in security grants, geared to help nonprofits and faith-based organizations.

The 2026 fiscal program includes $1.2 million in base funding distributed to 95 organizations, supplemented by an additional $500,000 for staffing support to “current grant recipients experiencing heightened needs amid escalating hostilities in the Middle East.”

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich announced the grants on Monday. “I’m actually not happy to have to be here,” he said. “This is more money that we could be using to do good things that we have to divert to protect people, because there’s too many crazy people running around.”

Citing a March attack on Temple Israel in Michigan, Elrich said the campus was prepared because it was “ready for a worst-case scenario.”

“We want our local institutions here to be ready as well,” he said.

Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC), praised the move. “The county’s swift and vital action, especially the $500,000 in emergency grants, resulted in funding being arranged in just six days after the JCRC raised urgent concerns about increased threats to local communities tied to the situation in the Middle East,” he said.

“This is how local government should work: proactive, responsive and effective,” he said.

Grants were awarded to Jewish synagogues and organizations, Christian churches across multiple denominations, Muslim organizations, Buddhist groups and the Interfaith Families Project of Greater Washington.

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