Bomb threats target Jewish Community Centers, forces evacuation in NJ

The Jewish Community Centers in York and Harrisburg were evacuated on Monday morning. The school also notified students’ parents, though there were no evacuations. Officers dispatched to the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus found “nothing”, according to Don Gotthardt, a Fairfax Police spokesman, although the department’s explosive-ordnance disposal unit was put on alert.

“I think each of us at times in our lives have had that feeling where it feels like something may be against you more than you realize”, he said.

Among those targeted were Jewish community centers in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey and in the New York City area, police said.

In Wilmington, the Siegel JCC was evacuated.

Monday’s event is just one of various threats to Jewish Community Centers that are causing concern in South Florida.

Other threats have been reported as well.

The center reopened before noon, after receiving the go-ahead from law enforcement.

In addition to the bomb threats, Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized and damaged this year, most recently over the weekend in Philadelphia.

A criminal mischief-institutional vandalism investigation will be conducted by the police Northeast Detectives Division, she said. “These acts must end”. Inspired by hate and stupidity, a suspect tried to destabilize a special place in our county by threatening our core values of diversity and tolerance.

“It is imperative that immediate steps be taken to respond to the situation and identify and prosecute the perpetrators, so that we can stop future acts of intimidation”, Hermann said.