Attacks on US synagogues: the documented record, 2014–2026

This tracker documents 18 physical attacks on US synagogues and Jewish community targets between 2014 and 2026 — shootings, arsons, vehicle rammings, a hostage-taking and a stabbing — of which 12 struck synagogue buildings or congregations directly. Together they killed 23 people. Every incident in the table links to the Justice Department release, court record or news report that documents it. The count covers physical attacks, not the far larger number of threats, harassment and vandalism incidents: ADL recorded 1,129 antisemitic incidents at Jewish institutions in 2025 alone.

The Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018, in which 11 congregants from three congregations were murdered during Shabbat morning services. It remains the deadliest antisemitic attack of any kind in American history. The gunman was convicted on all 63 federal counts in 2023 and sentenced to death.

The threat environment measurably intensified. 9 of the 18 physical attacks in this tracker occurred after October 7, 2023. ADL recorded a record 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, and FBI data shows 1,938 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents in 2024 — the highest since national collection began in 1991. ADL's 2025 count fell to 6,274, still the third-highest ever recorded, while assaults reached a record and the year saw the first fatal antisemitic attacks in the US since 2019.

10 of the 18 attacks in this tracker fell on Shabbat or coincided with a Jewish holiday — Pittsburgh, Poway and Colleyville all happened during Shabbat services, the Monsey stabbing during a Hanukkah celebration, and the September 2023 bomb-threat wave hit synagogues during Rosh Hashanah. The pattern reflects when attackers expect congregations to be gathered — and it is why security planning concentrates on services, holidays and the hours when a building is occupied but doors are open, as well as the overnight hours when arson strikes an empty building, as in Jackson, Punta Gorda and Bloomfield.

ADL's Audit of Antisemitic Incidents recorded 6,274 incidents in 2025 — about 17 per day — including 1,129 at Jewish institutions such as synagogues, JCCs and Jewish schools. That was a 33% decrease from 2024's record 9,354, but assaults hit a record high and three people were killed. ADL counts both criminal and non-criminal incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault, so its totals are much higher than the FBI's crimes-only figures.

They count different things. The FBI counts only crimes reported by law-enforcement agencies that participate in its hate-crime program; ADL also counts non-criminal harassment and incidents reported directly by victims who never called police. Agency participation gaps matter too — reporting is voluntary, and the FBI's 2021 data in particular is not comparable to other years because a records-system transition dropped participation to about 65% of agencies. For 2024, the FBI recorded 1,938 anti-Jewish incidents while ADL recorded 9,354. Both agree on the direction: anti-Jewish incidents are at or near record levels, and Jews are the target of roughly 70% of religion-motivated hate crimes in FBI data.

The Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), run by FEMA, funded $300 million in FY2026 at up to $200,000 per site (up to three sites per funding stream, capped at $600,000 per state). Nonprofits apply through their State Administrative Agency; every application requires a site-specific vulnerability assessment and an Investment Justification, and state reviewers score houses of worship with a three-times multiplier. Several states run their own programs on top — New York's SCAHC (up to $250,000 per award), California's CSNSGP ($76 million), New Jersey's two-stream program, Maryland's PAHC and others. Demand far exceeds supply: in FY2024, applicants requested about $978 million against $454.5 million available, and roughly one in three applications was funded — which is why a well-documented threat narrative matters.

Contracted security guards: yes, explicitly. The FY2026 notice of funding opportunity states that subrecipients may use 100% of awarded NSGP funds for contracted security personnel, and lists private contracted security guards as an example project type. Remote video monitoring is not named in the NOFO either way; the mechanisms that can cover it are the authorized-equipment list's software-as-a-service item for services supporting camera networks, allowable maintenance-and-sustainment user fees, and the contracted-security-personnel route — so structure the request with your State Administrative Agency's guidance before relying on it. Camera systems themselves are allowable equipment, with two hard exclusions: no facial recognition and no license-plate readers.

Published figures put contract guards at roughly $40 per hour, a full-time armed security director at $90,000–$160,000 a year, and serious physical hardening at $150,000 or more — which is why most congregations combine grant-funded equipment with layered coverage rather than staffing every hour. The real driver is schedule: a synagogue needs coverage for services, Hebrew school, office hours and High Holidays, plus overnight protection for an empty building, and those are very different problems. Our guard cost calculator prices the guard-hours side with government wage data for any state, and remote video monitoring typically covers the overnight and unattended hours at a fraction of a guard post's cost.

Cameras alone record — they help afterward. Several attacks in this record happened at buildings with cameras, and the footage helped convict the attackers, but a conviction is not protection. Live remote monitoring puts a trained operator on the feed: when someone approaches an empty building at 3 a.m., the operator sees it as it starts, speaks to them through on-site speakers, and calls police with a verified crime in progress. The arson cases in this record are the sharpest illustration — those attackers spent minutes on scene, pouring gasoline or spray-painting, at empty buildings where no one was watching. The research supports the distinction: the largest meta-analysis of camera studies (Piza et al. 2019, documented with sources on our guard cost calculator page) found actively monitored cameras produce significant crime reductions while passive record-only systems do not — though it measured no effect on violent crime, which is why monitoring is a layer alongside controlled entry, training and on-site response during services, not a replacement for them. Live operators, voice talk-down and verified dispatch is the service Blinkless provides, and as contracted security it can be structured as a grant-eligible line item.

Start with the free, official resources: the Secure Community Network (SCN) is the Jewish community's official safety organization and provides threat reporting, training and security assessments; CISA's regional Protective Security Advisors conduct free vulnerability assessments of houses of worship, and a written assessment is also the prerequisite for an NSGP application. Then close the gaps the assessment finds, in order: controlled entry during services, professionally monitored cameras so a live operator is watching through the hours the building is empty (a contracted security service — the same category the FY2026 NSGP notice funds at up to 100% of an award), documented procedures and on-site response for when people are inside (the West Bloomfield attack in 2026 was stopped by on-site security response), and a funding plan that uses NSGP and state grants rather than the operating budget. Blinkless answers grant and planning questions on a free call — that is what the phone number at the top of this page is for.