From the AJN:
$60K security grant for Perth
NICOLE BRESKIN
30/6/2006PERTH Hebrew Congregation (PHC), which was damaged by vandals in 2004, has received a $60,000 Federal Government grant to help cover its security costs.
PHC’s Rabbi Dovid Freiich will meet this week with Member for Stirling Michael Keenan to thank him for the grant, which will pay for new secunty systems.
The federal grant follows the $100,000 given by the West Australian State Government in late 2005 and a communal appeal following the racist graffiti attacks, which raised $50,000.
Rabbi Freiich told the AJN the grants will make the shul safer, “especially when there are large crowds around yom tov.”
He said a new security fence made of metal and brick is nearly completed. Previously, the shul was completely open making it vulnerable to attack, he said.
“Before you could take your car and drive right up and attack the shul. Now you can ’t do that.”
PHC was invited to apply for government funds after Rabbi Freilich met with government representatives, including then WA premier Geoff Gallop, and other communal leaders affected by the 2004 attacks, which targeted PHC, Perth ’s Kosher Food Centre and Chinese institutions.
Rabbi Freiich praised the State and Federal Governments for being “responsive” and “generous” to the shul’s security needs.
Daniel Tyrone Klavins and Frank James Lemin, members of the extreme right-wing Australian National Movement, were jailed for their part in the attacks, in which racist slogans such as “Jews out” and “Hitler was right” and swastikas were daubed across the synagogue ’s entrance.
Last weekend, Coogee Synagogue was vandalised just days before a ceremony marking the completion of a $1-million renovation.
