|
JCCs, Jewish schools in US hit by fifth wave of bomb threats
[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 2017-02-28 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=482269 |