There was another wave of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers around the country today. And over the weekend another Jewish cemetery was vandalized. From the Associated Press:
Jewish Community Centers and day schools in at least a dozen states received threats, according to the JCC Association of North America. No bombs were found. Many of the buildings were cleared by early Monday afternoon and had resumed normal operations…
“The Justice Department, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the White House, alongside Congress and local officials, must speak out — and speak out forcefully — against this scourge of anti-Semitism impacting communities across the country,” said David Posner, an official with JCC Association of North America. “Members of our community must see swift and concerted action from federal officials to identify and capture the perpetrator or perpetrators who are trying to instill anxiety and fear in our communities.”
In Philadelphia, police investigated what they called an “abominable crime” after several hundred headstones were toppled during the weekend at Mount Carmel Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery dating to the late 1800s.
Police haven’t yet confirmed this crime was intended to target the Jewish community but, as this CBS report notes, it has only been a week since similar vandalism took place at a Jewish Cemetery in the suburbs of St. Louis.
Last week, Vice President Mike Pence stopped at the Jewish cemetery that was vandalized and spoke forcefully against anti-Semitism. President Trump has also spoken out and his concern was relayed again by White House spokesman Sean Spicer at today’s daily press briefing.
Meanwhile, the hoax bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers, many of which have schools or day care on site, continue to concern parents. Penn Live interviewed one such parent who picked up his child this morning after a bomb threat against a center in Harrisburg, PA. “Kids who are innocent are being targeted from someone, some sick reason,” he says, but children aren’t being told why the evacuations are happening because the adults don’t want them to be worried or to feel targeted.
The FBI is investigating the threats which began in January, but so far no arrests have been made.
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