When Gov. Ron DeSantis put his signature on the state budget, he made Florida the first state in the country to fund, at scale, a data-driven program built specifically to keep Jewish college students safe — and then to grow it.
The Florida Hillel Jewish Student Safety Initiative began last year as a three-campus pilot at the University of Florida, Florida State, and the University of South Florida. It paired security — personnel, surveillance, and hardening — with the harder work of changing campus climate: antisemitism education, stronger ties to university leadership, and faster incident response.
After a single year, Florida’s Jewish students were reporting harassment at roughly half the national rate.
Now the program goes statewide. The roughly $2.3 million investment DeSantis signed extends the model to seven campuses, adding Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Central Florida and the University of Miami, and reaching an estimated 25,000-plus Jewish students across the system.
Credit belongs to a formidable pair of lawmakers: Sen. Alexis Calatayud, a Miami Republican, and Rep. Allison Tant, a Tallahassee Democrat. It also belongs to the Legislature’s budget chairs, Sen. Ed Hooper and Rep. Lawrence McClure, who protected the line in a lean year. And it belongs to a Governor whose record on behalf of Jewish Floridians is, at this point, second to none in America.
“In its first year, this program put trained security and real hardening where there had been gaps, so that when something happened, the response was immediate instead of improvised,” Tant said.
“You can measure the results of trained security, working cameras, and evidence-based programs proven to ease tensions before they harden into something worse. You can also measure a student who stayed in school instead of going home. We are pleased to take these safety measures statewide”
Where other states held hearings and issued statements, Florida built something, measured it, and is now scaling it — exactly how a pilot becomes a national standard. Governors and legislators elsewhere now have a model to copy and no more excuses for failing to copy it.
The people running these programs felt the shift immediately.
“At a time when many Jewish students across the country are facing unprecedented challenges, Florida has demonstrated that it is committed to fostering an environment where every student can proudly and openly embrace their identity,” said Rabbi Jordan Gerson, Executive Director of Central Florida Hillel at UCF.
“Florida continues to set the national standard in supporting Jewish students and campus communities. We are profoundly grateful to everyone whose vision, leadership, and dedication made this historic investment possible, and we look forward to continuing our work together to strengthen Jewish life for generations of students to come.”
At FSU, one of the original three campuses, the work will build off progress started over the past year.
“We are excited to expand capacity from our three pilot campuses to seven, representing the vast majority of Jewish students across the state,” said Brian Pelc, Executive Director of Hillel at FSU. “This will allow us to improve our safety, combat campus antisemitism, and tackle specific issues brought to light in our 2025 Jewish Student Life Survey.”
And at FIU, one of the campuses coming online under the expansion, the work is just beginning.
“For our Jewish students at FIU, this is the state saying plainly that they belong here,” said Jon Warech, Executive Director of Hillel at FIU. “We are bringing a proven approach onto our campus at exactly the moment it is needed, so that no student has to choose between their education and their identity.”
For the researchers who watch Florida’s numbers, the signing lands as something rarer than a budget line: a reason for optimism.
“I’ve spent years measuring how Floridians see their neighbors, and most trendlines are deeply concerning — but the promising data from this pilot program gives reason for hope, too,” said Karen Cyphers, partner at Sachs Media and president of the Tallahassee Jewish Federation.
“With one final budget signature, DeSantis kept faith with his eight-year record, and handed the rest of the country a trackable, scalable standard to live up to.”
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Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.
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