Florida's Campus Antisemitism Fight Has a Treasure Coast Stake, Too

Opinion | TC Sentinel Editorial Board

Here is a number worth sitting with: 47. That is the percentage of Jewish college students on Florida campuses who reported being targeted, excluded, or harassed in the past year, according to data gathered through the Florida Hillel Jewish Student Safety Initiative's first-year pilot. Alarming as that figure is, it actually represents progress — nationally, the comparable number is 83 percent.

Florida's relative success did not happen by accident. The Legislature funded a first-in-the-nation, research-backed program, and campus administrators were pushed to take the problem seriously rather than look away. That record is now at risk, and Treasure Coast residents — whose sons and daughters attend the very universities this program covers — should be paying close attention.

The initiative, sponsored in this session by Sen. Alexis Calatayud and Rep. Allison Tant, would expand the pilot from three campuses to seven, adding FIU, FAU, UCF, and the University of Miami to the existing program at UF, FSU, and USF. The cost is $2.3 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year — a modest ask given what is at stake. The program combines physical safety measures with training, incident-response protocols, and intentional work on campus culture. Researchers say this combination of factors is necessary for lasting change.

The strongest argument against expansion is fiscal: state budgets are tight, and $2.3 million can always be directed elsewhere. We take that concern seriously. But Florida has already made the investment to build something that works. Walking away from it now — or letting it stall through inaction — would waste the progress already purchased.

What makes this moment more urgent, and more complicated, is that the threat to Jewish students no longer comes from a single ideological direction. Antisemitism on Florida campuses in the post-October 7 world arrives from both extremes. Some activists invoke genocidal slogans and call it political expression. On the right, figures including gubernatorial candidate James Fishback and congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini have built online audiences by trafficking in conspiracy-adjacent rhetoric that demographers and civil rights researchers have linked to broader erosions of democratic norms. Florida's political leadership, to its credit, has largely resisted this drift — Attorney General James Uthmeier, CFO Blaise Ingoglia, and Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson among them. The Legislature should follow their lead.

Hate that targets one community rarely stays contained to one community. Treasure Coast parents and students know this. Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties send thousands of students to FAU, UCF, and USF every year. This is not an abstraction. These are our neighbors' kids.

What You Can Do: The Florida Legislature's budget negotiations for the 2026-27 fiscal year are active now. Treasure Coast residents should contact their state representatives and senators directly before the session concludes and ask them, by name, to fund the Florida Hillel Jewish Student Safety Initiative expansion. Martin County residents can reach state Sen. Gayle Harrell's office; St. Lucie County residents should contact Sen. Erin Grall. Call, email, or show up — but do it this week, while the budget is still being written.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.