Image by School Website

Jewish schools in two Florida cities were evacuated after receiving bomb threats.

The Meyer Academy in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was evacuated Tuesday morning after police responded to a threat to the Jewish day school. The threat also forced the evacuation of the Mandel Jewish Community Center, located next door, according to reports.

Students and employees were sent home for the day.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In Maitland, Florida, located near Orlando, pre-school and elementary students at the Jewish Academy of Orlando were evacuated to a nearby public elementary school after a bomb threat was called in to the school at about 10 a.m. The public elementary school also was locked down as a precaution, according to local media. Parents were informed to come and pick up their children.

The caller said he wanted to hurt as many children as possible, Maitland Police Lt. Louis Grindle told Orange County television station WFTV.

The Roth Family Jewish Community Center, the Holocaust Center and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, which all share a campus with the school, also were evacuated and closed for the day, according to the Federation, which issued a statement following the incident.

Normal operations were to resume on Wednesday. Police officials did not find explosives in any of the evacuated buildings in both cities.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount