Numerous shuls, synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout the United States received email bomb threats over the weekend, marking a significant escalation in a months-long series of hoax threats, JTA reports.
The Secure Community Network, responsible for coordinating security for Jewish institutions nationwide, reported yesterday that it had identified 199 threats within the past 24 hours, with nearly 100 occurring in California and 62 in Arizona. Reports from local media indicate that synagogues in at least 17 states, along with Washington, D.C., were affected.
While local investigations found none of the threats to be credible, some caused substantial disruption. For instance, a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, evacuated its Shabbos morning services, and a congregation in western Massachusetts canceled its Sunday religious school.
In Alabama, the state’s sole Jewish lawmaker, Philip Ensler, shared a video on social media capturing the moment the Torah reading at his synagogue was interrupted, leading everyone to be ushered outside. “This is exhausting,” he tweeted. “I pray for the day that we can worship and live in peace.”
Ensler, who also serves as the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Alabama, later revealed that six out of seven Jewish institutions in his area had received the threats.
The surge in threats coincides with a period of heightened anxiety for American Jews amid an increase in reports of antisemitic incidents during the Israel-Hamas conflict. It follows several arrests of individuals charged with sending bomb threats to Jewish and other institutions, including a minor in California last week and a man in Peru in September.
“Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that this nationwide trend will continue in the foreseeable future,” shared the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey in an email to community members on Sunday afternoon, addressing news of at least five threats in the area.
{Matzav.com}
