US Jewish community centers, schools get 5th round of bomb threats

The Anti-Defamation League and the Secure Community Network are working with law enforcement authorities in response to the bomb threats on Monday against at least 9 Jewish institutions across the US. 

At least nine Jewish community centers (JCCs) and Jewish day schools in the United States received bomb threats on Monday, making it the fifth wave of such threats against Jewish institutions in the US since the beginning of January.

Two of the JCCs are located in Pennsylvania: one in York, and the other in the state capital of Harrisburg. The JCCs in Asheville, North Carolina, and Davie, Florida, were evacuated. The three others are in Indianapolis, Indiana;Tarrytown, New York; and Delaware.

Two Jewish day schools, the upper school of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, and the David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, received bomb threats as well.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish organization that primarily focuses on fighting anti-Semitism, said that there were also unconfirmed bomb threats in Birmingham, Alabama, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Paul Goldenberg, director of the Secure Community Network, an organization that works with the Jewish Federations of North America in providing security for affiliated Jewish communities, said that the affected Jewish institutions continue to function despite the wave of threats.

“Our Jewish schools and our JCCs continue to train for this, continue to execute well-placed measures,” Goldenberg told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The goal of these people is to wear us down, but we are back in our schools and we are back in our JCCs.”

The ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said that his organization was also responding to the bomb threats.

“We at the ADL are engaged with law enforcement, dealing with new bomb threats today targeting Jewish centers and schools,” Greenblatt wrote on Twitter. “It is time for action.”

By: World Israel News Staff