Jewish schools security in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney have ramped up their security in recent years.

While there are no armed guards in government schools, it’s a different story for a string of Jewish and Islamic schools across Victoria and New South Wales.

In Sydney, armed guards have patrolled some independent schools and institutions for decades, with more following suit over the past year.

Emanuel School in Randwick is among several Sydney Jewish colleges known to have had armed guards.

But none of those contacted by news.com.au were willing to comment on the matter.

NSW Jewish Board of deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said “as a matter of policy, we are unable to discuss security issues”.

“Our policies and procedures on such matters are implemented on the advice of the authorities,” Mr Alhadeff said.

Victoria’s largest Jewish school was last year the first in the state to employ armed guards.

It now has guards with guns stationed at Mount Scopus Memorial College’s three Melbourne campuses. The co-ed school, which runs from kindergarten to year 12, accommodates some 1500 students. The principal was unavailable for comment.

The Jewish Community Council Victoria told news.com.au he was “not allowed to talk about security matters”.

The Australian Islamic College also declined to comment.

Jewish schools have armed guards in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.Source:News Corp Australia

A security guard with a hand gun stands watch over Emanuel School in Randwick.Source:News Corp Australia

The Federal Government and the peak body representing Jewish Australians last year said Australian Jewish and Islamic schools were under threat from terror attacks.

It was followed by an announcement that 54 schools at risk of attack or violence stemming from racial or religious intolerance would receive a share of $18 million to improve security.

The big winners were 17 Jewish schools and 15 Islamic schools, who were able to access the funds to hire security guards and install CCTV cameras.

While the schools could spend the money on private security guards and install CCTV cameras there, they were not able to access the federal funds for armed guards, which are reportedly supplied by private firms.

The increased security came after Jewish primary school in Melbourne’s east was evacuated because of a bomb scare in 2014. That occurred just six months after eight men climbed aboard a Jewish school bus in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and threatened to cut the throats of 25 children and just three months after the AFP called on teachers to look out for students they feared susceptible to radicalisation.

Internationally, an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, killed four people in 2012.

Then there was the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, where four hostages were killed in January by a gunman with ties to those responsible for the Charlie Hebdo terror attack.

And in February 2015 a Jewish man was shot dead outside a synagogue in Copenhagen.

megan.palin@news.com.au