The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI says that they are investigating bomb threats and vandalism at Jewish community centers across the U.S. On Monday alone, at least 10 community centers received bomb threats, forcing many to evacuate while officials searched the premises, NBC News reported. Separately, more than 170 gravesites at a historic St. Louis-area Jewish cemetery were toppled and damaged in a weekend attack that included sites that hold the remains of Holocaust survivors.
The bomb threats, reports the Daily Beast, were at community centers in Albuquerque; Birmingham, Alabama; Buffalo, New York; Chicago; Cleveland; Houston; Milwaukee; Nashville; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Tampa.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told NBC News that “hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind have no place in a country founded on the premise of individual freedom. The president has made it abundantly clear that these actions are unacceptable.” Though his daughter Ivanka tweeted her support for Jewish centers late Monday, President Trump himself has yet to comment on the reported spike rising in anti-Semitic incidents. Read more at NBC NEWS.
