What’s a YOU-AH-ZEE and why should you care?

As this will be the last edition of this newsletter before Passover, on behalf of the board and staff of Agudath Israel of America, we wish you and your family a Happy Pesach/ Chag Kasher V’Sameach!

This week’s highlights include:

• President Trump just signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill a few moments ago and Agudath Israel was pleased with several measures included in the omnibus package.

• In New Jersey, Rabbi Avi Schnall continued to meet with local communities and their elected officials.

• With only three more days left to the legislative session (it will officially end on Thursday March 29th), Georgia families are urging the General Assembly to pass HB 217 which would expand the state’s $58 million scholarship tax credit program. The bill is currently stuck in conference committee. The program, for which Agudath Israel helped advocate since it was first introduced in 2008, has generated tens of millions of dollars for parents wishing to attend Jewish day schools.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about my subject line: I was referring to the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI – but pronounced YOU-AH-ZEE). It is important because it refers to a nonprofit security grant, which, Agudath Israel, together with other organizations, lobbied to create and then expand. Since 2005, the program has awarded more than $200 million in grants to high risk institutions, most of them Jewish. The new spending bill more than doubled the funding for the program and expanded it to non-UASI areas, meaning institutions in every city in America are now eligible to apply for the first time.