| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front: WoT | |
| JCCs, Jewish schools in US hit by fifth wave of bomb threats | |
| 2017-02-28 | |
| [IsraelTimes] Jewish community centers in Alabama, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Florida evacuated in latest scare; schools in Maryland and Virginia cleared out as well. At least 17 Jewish community centers in the eastern and midwestern US were targeted with bomb threats Monday, the latest in a series of incidents that has raised fears of anti-Semitism in the country. Threats were called in to JCCs in Asheville, North Carolina; Birmingham, Alabama; York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Tarrytown, Plainview and Staten Island, New York; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Davie, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Wilmington, Delaware. Jewish day schools in Rockville, Maryland, and Fairfax, Virginia, both outside Washington, DC; and Davie, Florida, outside Miami, were also evacuated. Parts of the Providence Road campus of the Shalom Park non-profit Jewish organization in Charlotte, North Carolina, were also partly evacuated, The Charlotte Observer reported; the Jewish Federation of South Jersey in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, was also cleared . In total, at least 17 Jewish institutions were targeted. Those inside the buildings were evacuated and law enforcement was called in to investigate the threats. All clears were given in a number of cases. The director of the Birmingham JCC, which has been targeted three times in the past two months, told local media the threats were "very difficult, very challenging, very fearful." Several of the JCCs targeted were near Philadelphia, where a day earlier a Jewish cemetery was found vandalized, with some 100 headstones damaged or knocked over after a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, was targeted the previous week. Paul Goldenberg, director of the Secure Community Network, told JTA shortly after reports of the bomb threats began coming in that his organization was working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to identify the perpetrators and stop the threats.
No actual bombs have been found at any of the dozens of institutions that have received bomb threats in recent weeks. "The goal of these people is to wear us down," Goldenberg said. "But we are back in our schools, we are back in our JCCs." Muslim crowdfunding activists enlist to help 2nd vandalized Jewish cemetery Tarek El-Medissi (and BDS activist Linda Sarsour), whose campaign has raised over $135K for St. Louis graveyard, says he will divert funds to Philadelphia as well. CBS Local in New York version of the story: Threats Also Reported Late Monday On West Coast | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Part of an email my mother received a few days ago from the Buffalo Jewish Federation, following the previous wave of phone calls: The Jewish Community across the United States and in Canada has recently been plagued by bomb threats to 59 Jewish Community Centers since early January. Most recently, Buffalo's Benderson JCC building was the target of such a threat this past week. None of the threats were carried out. No one in any of the buildings was hurt or injured. Following this week's events, The JCC and Federation received an outpouring of messages of solidarity from friends in our community, most notably from Dr. Stan Bratton and the board of the Network of Religious Communities, and from Dr. Khalid Qazi of Muslim Public Affairs Council of WNY. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced new actions to combat hate crimes and anti-Semitism across New York State after meeting with some 50 Jewish community and interfaith leaders at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan Thursday. The measures include a $25 million grant program for additional security training needs, cameras, and other related needs to boost safety and security at religious schools and daycare centers. The state will also expand its toll-free hotline to include text message capability to report incidents of bias and discrimination. It should be noted that the Muslim Public Affairs Council of WNY [western New York] most assuredly includes the various congregations in Lackawanna, which once upon a time provided us with the Lackawanna Six and whose members have demanded and received special prayer times and prayer rooms for the children of their faith in the public schools of the city, among other accommodations. They are learning that certain public postures and behaviours are required here in Dar al Harb... though I do wonder how much of the more than a million dollars Mr. El-Medissi and Ms Sarsour will disburse for the repair of Jewish cemeteries, and what will become of the rest. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-02-28 15:20 |