New bomb threats made against Jewish centres across U.S., Canada

[webfact]

New bomb threats made against Jewish centres across U.S., Canada

By Laila Kearney

REUTERS

 

Police vehicles are seen outside the David Posnack Jewish Day School after the second bomb threat in a month was reported in Davie, Florida, U.S. March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Innerarity

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new round of bomb threats against Jewish community centres across the United States and in Canada forced lockdowns and evacuations on Tuesday, and all 100 U.S. senators asked the federal government to help them enhance security.

 

Threats were phoned in or emailed to JCCs in states including New York, Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida overnight and early on Tuesday. Centres in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario also said they were threatened.

 

U.S. federal authorities have been investigating a surge of threats against Jewish organizations, including more than 100 hoax bomb threats in five separate waves in January and February against JCCs in dozens of states.

 

The Trump Administration denounced the newest round of threats "in the strongest terms," White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing.

 

"As long as they do continue, we'll continue to condemn them and look at ways in which we can stop them," Spicer said.

 

Tuesday's incidents appeared unconnected to the majority of previous threats, according to the Secure Community Network, which provides security expertise to Jewish groups.

 

A letter signed by all 100 U.S. senators was sent on Tuesday to top U.S. law enforcement officials asking that they help Jewish groups enhance security.

 

"We are concerned that the number of incidents is accelerating and failure to address and deter these threats will place innocent people at risk and threaten the financial viability of JCCs," the letter said.

 

One arrest was made last week, when a former journalist was charged in St. Louis with using fake email accounts to threaten to bomb Jewish sites while posing as his ex-girlfriend. But he is not believed to be responsible for the majority of threats.

 

Threats came in to Jewish centres and day schools on Tuesday in cities including Chicago, Milwaukee and the greater Rochester area in upstate New York.

 

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organisation, also said it received bomb threats at four of its locations.

 

In addition to violent threats, some Jewish organizations received harassing phone calls. At the East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn, police said, an anonymous caller threatened to spray the centre's synagogue with pig's blood.

 

"We’ve never seen such a period of concentrated threats against the Jewish community," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference. "The last few weeks are more troubling than anything I’ve seen in many, many years."

 

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Timothy McLaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Dan Grebler and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-08

[Petchou]

White trash antisemitic, bigots, ignorants, far right and fascists.   The fascism and bigotry are alive.

[Scott]

A troll post has been removed.  

[Elfin]

It keeps those of the hebrew persuasion on their toes, constantly looking over their shoulders.

 

[losworld]

I have always wondered if someone were really serious about something why would they email what they were planning to do????  Is this another police make work project?

[Jingthing]

This is a political hot potato.

People of good will will hope these threats don't come to fruition and that the likely many culprits are eventually caught. 

The consensus of American Jews is that the spike is because right wing Jew haters feel more encouraged with authoritarian trump (known for his many dog whistles out to white supremacists) as president. 

Nobody is saying trump orders these things, it's just that some sick people feel the political environment has changed and Jews are now in the out/loser group. (Open season.)

A similar thing with gay Americans. Multiple reports of gay people being attacked with people referring to trump being president now, and that's how it is under trump. 

The American Nazi theory which they have published is that Jews are doing the threats themselves as a false flag type thing as an anti-trump thing, which was bizarrely spoken by trump too in a press conference.  An expected thing for Nazis to say, an unprecedented (and shocking) thing for a president to say without evidence. 

All American Jews can do now is demand that the culprits be caught, whatever their motivations, and deal with the new reality under trump with Jews feeling fear going to normal Jewish spaces for the foreseeable future.

Even though I've said what I believe most American Jews think it is the biggest motivation of this large spike in anti-Jewish stuff, I will reserve any final conclusions until more culprits are caught, with the understanding that any discovered motivations are going to be politically hot whatever they turn out to be. 

They caught that one guy whose motivations were bizarre and personal, and really didn't fit into any standard theory but considering he's only responsible for a fraction of the threats, no overall conclusions can be made based on that. 

To complicate this more, yes there have been radical Islamist motivated violence against American Jewish spaces in the past (never as widespread as in Europe), and that threat is always there, but the general perception is that this current wave/spike is related to Jew hatred from more "traditional" factions, white supremacist right wing types in the context of trump being president. 

Edited March 10, 2017 by Jingthing