JFGO set to receive security funding from the state

At an in-person briefing, State Senator Randolph Bracy announced that the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando will receive $150,000 in state funds to secure a new security system for the campus.

The in-person meeting came a week after two groups of neo-Nazis rallied in Orlando. One of the groups, the Goyim Defense League, protested outside the JCC campus about a year ago. This time the group was near the UCF campus and stood on a bridge on I-4.

"Those kinds of demonstrations are despicable and disgusting," Bracy said at the meeting. "... it should be a hate crime."

Keith Dvorchik, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, told the Orlando Sentinel there is a weak signal strength on campus, discovered about 15 year ago, that inhibits law enforcement and rescuers to communicate during an emergency. He said that adding a bi-directional amplifier would allow law enforcement to have two-way communication with walkie-talkies or other devices while on the premises.

"I hate that we have to do this but I need to keep my people safe," Dvorchik told the Sentinel.

"We have full-time security out front," Lauren Nelson, the development director at the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center, told the Sentinel. "It's unfortunate that the kids have to see an armed officer with a bulletproof vest standing out front every day but it's similar to other school's resource officers."