Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Florida Pledges $1M For Jewish Security. Muslims Ask, ‘Why Not Us, Too?’

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has proposed allocating $1 million in next year’s state budget to cover rising security costs at Jewish schools, drawing both praise and criticism.

“I know many Floridians have been horrified by the threats against our Jewish schools and communities last year,” Scott said in an appearance Monday at the Katz Hillel Day School of Boca Raton. “We have absolutely zero tolerance for these hateful and anti-Semitic acts and our state has taken important action to keep our students and all of our families safe.”

The state already awarded $654,000 to some Jewish institutions earlier this year. That money, and the additions proposed for the next fiscal year, are meant to pay for things like video cameras and bullet-proof glass.

“With increasing hate and anti-Semitic incidents around the country, it’s powerful for us to know that we have your support, Gov. Scott,” said Daniel Adler, a board member at the school.

But the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that such money should not only be earmarked for Jewish institutions.

“We are so happy that an affected community such as the Jewish community is receiving that needed help,” CAIR spokesman Wilfredo Ruiz told the Miami Herald. “However, we question the capacity of our governor to offer protection to all his citizens when he only caters exclusively to the Jewish community.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida added that only awarding grants to one religious group may violate the separation of church and state.

The United States saw a sharp increase last year in both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes, according to the Anti-Defamation League and CAIR, respectively.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.