H eadlines
Dogs Continued from Page 1
connecting online over dogs:
a Facebook page, called Mazel
Pups, for Jews, mostly in the
Philadelphia area, who love
their dogs and want to post
about them.

The Villanova resident
created the page on Dec. 30.

One night within its first 10
days, she woke up at 4 a.m. and
opened Facebook. Mazel Pups
already had 613 members.

By the middle of January, it
was up to 980. And by the start
of February, it had grown to
more than 1,200 dog lovers.

They are
not just
Philadelphia-area residents
who know Frisch, either. Mazel
Pups members come from New
York, Baltimore and all over
the United States; they come
from Israel, too; they even
come from London.

Mazel Pups is open to anyone
who loves their dogs and dogs
in general, and a little over a
month in, it has a pretty well-es-
tablished rhythm. A member
posts a picture of his or her dog
with a story above it, and other
members like it and comment
on how cute the dog is.

One Jan. 31 post was made by
a rabbi who lives in Rhode Island.

He was talking about his new
Rabbi Robyn Frisch, creator of the Mazel Pups Facebook group, with
her dogs Bo and Frankie
Photo by Tali Frisch
It felt like there was this environment of joy.

People were commenting with smiles, hearts.”
ROBYN BELSON
labradoodle who came home for
the first time the day before.

“So far she has been
wonderfully playful and she
even let me sleep this morning
until 5:10 AM (far longer than
I expected!),” he wrote.

“Adorable,” wrote one of the
many commenters.

“She is just adorable,” wrote
another. According to Frisch, the
group started out, in its first
few days, with only people she
knew. But it spread because
members started inviting their
friends from outside the rabbi’s
immediate circle. And then
they invited their friends, and
those friends invited their own
friends, and it kept going.

“It felt like there was this
environment of joy,” said Robyn
Belson, a Voorhees, New Jersey,
resident, dog owner and group
member since late January.

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JEWISH EXPONENT
Southampton resident Danielle Hess’ dog Betzee, who has appeared
in the Mazel Pups Facebook group
Courtesy of Danielle Hess
“People were commenting with
smiles, hearts.”
When Belson posted a
picture of her dog, Gracie, a
yellow lab, members flocked to
it and commented things like,
“Oh sweet girl.” Then Belson
did the same for them.

Frisch believes the connec-
tions in the group are strong
because members are both
Jewish and lovers of dogs. But
for 18Doors, the rabbi runs
a fellowship for rabbis who
work with interfaith couples
and parents, and her Facebook
group is open to non-Jews, too.

As the administrator
explains it, members are both
Jewish and Jew-ish, meaning
some have married a Jew but
maintained their own religious
identity. Several people have
posted pictures of their dogs
playing with Chanukah toys in
front of Christmas trees.

“It’s just meant to be fun,”
Frisch said. “And it’s meant to
share common love.”
That love runs deeper during
these isolating pandemic
times, Frisch said. She started
noticing the dog trend at
weddings over the last two
years, as COVID forced people
to stay home more often.

Some members think that
Mazel Pups is a balm for the
general feeling of negativity
in the wider world. They said
they liked that the group was
unifying and apolitical.

“It’s an outlet,” said Danielle
Hess, a Southampton resident
and the owner of a doodle
named Betzee. “It’s just stupid
things dogs do. Or cute things
dogs do. Dogs are such a part
of our life.”
Group members have
started to post about possible
meetups in local dog parks.

Frisch, for her part, might want
to do a Mazel Pups podcast or
Instagram at some point.

“I very much enjoy doing
this,” she said. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Grant $25,000 to invest in cameras and
bulletproof windows.

The Jewish Federation is
providing grant-writing assis-
tance for organizations like
those seeking funds.

“The [Jewish] Federation has
enabled the organizations, the
agencies and the synagogues
that are interested in pursuing
this funding to get some assis-
tance in making that happen,”
Cohen said.

In addition to Pennsylvania’s
NSGP, the federal NSGP, similar
to its Pennsylvania counter-
part but administered by the
Department of Homeland
Security and FEMA, will have
allocations announced later this
month. The application process for
the Pennsylvania and national
grants differ greatly. While the
commonwealth’s application
process is rolling, and funds
are allocated on a first-come,
first-served basis, national
Continued from Page 1
For Jewish organizations
shaken by the Colleyville, Texas,
hostage crisis at Congregation
Beth Israel, the grant could offer
solace, in addition to security
provisions. “As hate crimes have
markedly increased in recent
years, and white supremacist
groups have proliferated, the
need for security upgrades at
our communal institutions
was apparent,” Pennsylvania
Jewish Coalition Chairman
Marc Zucker wrote in a press
release. The grant was created
following the Tree of Life
synagogue complex shooting in
Pittsburgh in 2018 and is avail-
able to all nonprofits, such as
synagogues, mosques, churches
and community centers vulner-
able to hate crimes.

The announcement of the
budget allocations was unrelated
to the Colleyville crisis but
underscores the grant’s urgency,
Zucker said.

“That crisis illustrated how
critical it is to have adequate
funding for institutions to
protect their security,” Zucker
said. “While the decisions are
in the hands of the governor
and the legislature, we’re hopeful
that this [crisis] properly focused
attention on the risks faced by
synagogues, churches and other
institutions.” Because of the ongoing
violence targeted at Jewish insti-
tutions, the demand for grant
money has been “huge,” said
Robin Schatz, Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia director
of government affairs.

In 2021, the NSGP had an
allocation of $5 million; there
were more than $20 million in
requests, Schatz said.

According to PJC Executive
Director Hank Butler, only
30% of the 2020-’21 applicants
received funding, or about 130 of
429 applicants. The year before,
14% of the applicants, 113 out of
807, received funding from the
$5 million in allocations.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM applications are scored by DHS/
FEMA based on need.

For the 2020-’21 fiscal year,
Congress appropriated $180
million for nonprofits, but
Schatz is hopeful that this year’s
allocations will double to $360
million. The commonwealth’s 2023
NSGP is already drafted, with
Jewish Federation leaders having
already requested $5 million. In
the future, Schatz would like the
budget increased to $10 million
and for the grant to be extended
for another five years. Schatz said
the region’s entire congressional
delegation has signed on to a
letter requesting the increased
allocation. “We don’t think we can get
it written in perpetuity,” Schatz
said. “Just because, hopefully,
there will come a day when we
won’t need those funds.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition Chairman Marc Zucker
Courtesy of Marc Zucker
The unmet demand in past
years is frustrating to Schatz and
Butler, both of whom helped to
write the legislation that called
for the grant.

In the past, it’s been difficult
for the grant to have a line in
the governor’s division of the
budget, so finalizing the grant
allocation budget is a scramble.

Schatz speculated that about
70% of the 2019-’20 grant
recipients were Jewish, but
that percentage dropped in the
2020-’21 fiscal year. Because
of the Colleyville crisis, Schatz
suspected the number of Jewish
recipients will increase again
this year.

NSGP grant requests must
demonstrate the need for
funds to bolster their security,
according to Ilene Cohen, a
grant writer and consultant.

“The state funds were created
for any organization that has the
potential to be or has been the
victim of hate crime,” she said.

The umbrella of what can be
considered a hate crime is wide,
Cohen said. Synagogues that
experienced a Zoom bombing,
vandalism or even a child in
the congregation being bullied
at school for being Jewish can be
reasons for institutions to apply
for the grant.

A September FBI report
stated that 60% of U.S. hate
crimes in 2020 targeted Jews,
despite Jews making up only 2%
of the population.

Most often, institutions
request funds for parking lot
lighting, surveillance equip-
ment, cameras, access control
systems and electric doors, and
key fobs.

In 2020, Federation Housing,
Congregation Or Ami in
Lafayette Hill and Ahavas Torah
in Rhawnhurst were among
the 38 Philadelphia-area Jewish
organizations and 113 successful
applicants to receive funding.

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9